Her Beasts Volume Four

The Park Part Two

"Can you explain that again? I still don't quite get what a park is nor what purpose it serves exactly."

Hazel looked rather confused while Caspian just waited patiently for Iris to explain things.

"Well, you can think of it as similar to the games we made or the banquet hall. A park is just a specialized place for people to socialize at, but, unlike the banquet hall or combat stadium, it would be filled with equipment that is free for the public to use."

Hazel still wasn't quite sure he understood what exactly a park was or how it differed from the other areas they already had for such things. Caspian just sighed as he asked

"Can you explain what sorts of things you would like to put in the park a bit more? Perhaps that would help us to understand a bit better."

Iris nodded before she explained

"In my world, we had playgrounds for children with things like slides, swingsets, and things for climbing on. It is hard to describe what the joy of sliding is or what it should look like to someone who had never engaged in any related activities. In our cold seasons, some people would make wooden sleds they would carry to the tops of tall hills before sliding down. The exhilaration of how fast you would travel down the hill while being able to sit comfortably on a sled made the activity fun. Similarly, a slide allows you to slide down its surface while in a sitting position, but it is usually a shorter distance and it can be used year-round, instead of requiring snow to create the slippery surface.

A swing lets you sit down and move forwards and backwards or "swing" as it were. Imagine if you tied an object to a tree with some rope and then gently pulled it all the way in one direction, it would swing back and forth. A swing set is a similar concept, but scaled to allow young children and adults who don't weigh much to use it.

Climbing can be dangerous or even difficult for children and some females, but the sorts included on playgrounds would not be very high off the ground so it would be safe to use. When paired with other obstacle course equipment, I imagine it could be a fun way for the cubs to learn how to maneuver themselves in a safe environment as well as allowing females to play and have fun.

Besides this sort of equipment, I think some nice flowers, trees, bushes, and seating areas would be good. During festivals, it would allow everyone to have somewhere to eat their food and, at other times, females could go on picnics with their males. Basically just eating outside where they can enjoy the nice weather without the dangers that might be found in the forests."

Hazel rubbed his hand across his face as he felt frustrated that he still didn't quite understand what the park equipment would even look like. Some of the basic concepts made some sense... sort of. However, Hazel certainly wasn't going to tell Iris she couldn't build and have whatever she wanted. Most of her ideas were good and ended up being quite popular among their citizens, so it couldn't hurt to trust her this time as well.

Caspian, however, was more interested in asking questions than remaining quiet.

"Alright, think I can get some of the farm workers, Basil, and Birk to work on the plants for the park. I'm sure Basil could figure out some pretty non-fruiting varieties of trees and bushes to plant as well as some flowers. You might have to draw up some basic blueprints of where you want everything placed, but I must warn you that I doubt any of the trees will grow to a decent height any time soon.

Could you come up with some concept art or something for how to make the various equipment you want us to make? Knowing what sorts of materials to use, among other things, would go a long way to helping us figure out how to make these things. However, you still might have to be in the workshop to make suggestions as we work as I can't say I've heard of anything like that before. Would you be comfortable with that?"