Where else?

Parting like a sea the group steps aside all pointing towards the open doors to the world outside. Standing at the top you can see Dawn staring off into the distance. The first thing you notice is she is wearing a sundress. You can see the wind pushing her dress and hair around. The scene made you really wish cameras were a thing here.

"Why are you staring at her you big goof? Go show her the world" Yvette blurts out smiling at you. You smile back for a moment, and then start walking to Dawn.

"And don't think you aren't going to tell me exactly what you just experienced" Nadine calls out behind you as you walk away.

You really don't know what to say you realize as you make your way up the ramp. You come to a stop standing next to Dawn who is still standing on the foundation of the facility. She turns and looks at you, and you can tell she's been crying. You open your mouth, still unsure of what to say, but before you can figure it out she quickly presses herself against you and wraps her arms around you. You gently wrap your arms around her as she leans her head against your chest to stare off at the horizon. You can see Bruce casually grazing not too far away, and towards the forest Copper and Lysandra appear to be making their way back in the distance. You can tell Lysandra is dragging something rather large.

Dawn pulls back from you still holding your hand. She turns and takes her first step onto the dirt. You watch her bare toes wiggle around for a moment as she enjoys the moment. Seeming convinced the situation is real she lets your hand go and starts running around. She twists and twirls around dancing with herself. You watch the scene unfold in front of you, and the rest of your group makes their way to stand next to you. Nadine grabs your hand and leans her head against you. It isn't long before Copper comes sprinting up to Dawn who stops to look at him. He lets out several barks and warbles, and bobs his head up and down. You aren't sure exactly what he's getting at until he bends his knees to offer his back to Dawn. Dawn looks hesitant to accept the offer.

"You can ask Jane, but riding Copper is probably one of the more fun things you can do in this world. Just my opinion of course, but you should give it a try" you tell her gently. Dawn seems to get a little more confidence by the time she is on his back her smile is ear to ear.

You can tell he isn't going as fast as he can, and is running as smoothly as he can, but Dawn sits up spreading her arms out in the air to feel the air rush past her. You are pretty sure you can hear her laughing through most of the ride. By the time Copper returns with Dawn, Lysandra is almost home and you see her dragging a large herbivore Dino. Some kind of proto-trike you think. She happily plops the carcass in front of you, and presses her nose to your chest. You can feel and hear the deep rumble of something like a purr as you rub her head as best you can.

"Thanks for the gift Lysandra" you tell her. Looking at the corpse it might be better to store it for dino food you think to yourself. She didn't appear to be gentle, and it is missing a leg which you assume was eaten. When Copper arrives Lysandra looks at Dawn, and starts quickly alternating steps in place followed by a loud roar. As Dawn hops off of Copper, Lysandra cranes her neck over to Dawn to give her a lick like a peck on the cheek. Dawn giggles and scratches under Lysandra's chin, which Lysandra seems to enjoy immensely you note.

"So how does the world look now" you ask Dawn.

"Big...beautiful...scary" she replies "I'm still not sure exactly if this is really happening" she adds hugging herself.

"Well I'm sure it will take some getting used to, but it happened. Not exactly how I planned it, but here we are" you say with a wary chuckle.

"And um...thank you. Not only for this" Dawn says gesturing at the outside world "but for letting me say goodbye to my father. I know it wasn't really him, but his last gift to me was to give me all of his knowledge. So I feel like I know my father now. All the time and effort he spent creating me...we spent more time together then I realized, and I know what he was like...as a person. I just wanted to...well...thank you" she adds before hugging you again.

"How did you do it" Dawn asks quietly after a moment. "I couldn't see you, but I could feel you. Your love. I was just suddenly there, and I could see my father" she whispers.

"In truth I don't know. The whole situation was confusing, and I maybe got a bit too emotional during the process, but I felt your love surround me, and I just guided it to the image of you his spell had created. It just...felt like what I should do" you reply.

"Well however it happened just...thank you. I wasn't expecting to ever have that kind of closure, and...well...it's something I didn't know I really needed" she says looking up at you. She suddenly smirks. "I have a lot more knowledge of the Sanctuary too. Things even I didn't know about" she adds.

"Oh yah? Like what" you ask.

"A girl has to have some mysteries remember" she says still smirking that you'd walked into her verbal trap. You chuckle knowing that was what she was going to say, and give her a kiss on her forehead.

"Well, we'd better get this dino cut up and stored and be on our way to the party" you eventually tell the group.

"Tut tut, allow me" Dawn says with a twinkle in her eye. A minute later a large humanoid robot is walking up the ramp towards you. It is easily twenty feet tall and reminds you of a certain yellow robot from the Transformers movies you liked in the old world. It easily hoists the dead dino up over its shoulder and descends back down into the facility.

"Uh...so that happened" you say a little stunned.

"There are some rooms I didn't have access to. With my father merging his knowledge into mine I have that access now. There are six of them. They were primarily used for construction of this facility. They will be pretty useful when we start building homes for freed slaves I should think" Dawn says watching the robot walk away.

"Yah I could see those being super helpful. I'd have to see them in action, but I'm betting what would take weeks for a simple home would be shaved down to just a few days. Maybe faster" you muse. "Uh well, let's go get cleaned up, gather up our gifts, and get to forest to see if we can make an ally" you say trying to get your focus off of the giant construction robot.

"Question" Yvette says to get your attention "should we take some weapons with us" she asks.

"As gifts" you ask to clarify.

"Well, that might not be a bad idea, but I was more thinking about possibly needing to protect ourselves, or would that maybe send the wrong message" she clarifies.

"Well I was planning on gearing up fully. We can step out of the suits of armor when we get there, and there is always the possibility of running into something in the forest we'd need to defend ourselves against" you reply "I don't think they will mind, and more likely would consider it to be fairly stupid to make the journey unarmed. Worst case we just tell them the truth. That we didn't want to be defenseless in the forest, and that it isn't meant to be an offense, but we don't know each other that well yet so we wanted to be able to defend ourselves for any situation" you say. You can see the group relax a little more signaling this was apparently something on all of their minds.

"Let's get to it then" Annabel says with a single clap of her hands. With that the group descends back into the facility to get ready.