text: ZOLD LIBRARY - Now I'm curious
  Sat Nov 16, 2013 21:39
  Her smile faltered a bit when Riley said he wanted to graduate early. "Oh! Wow, that's huge." Riley didn't seem like the type to leave before his seventh year. Ika didn't understand why anyone would want to leave early. The real world, as some grownups weirdly referred to it, was kind of scary. Ika didn't think she was ready for it. It was a little worrisome that someone younger than her was.
  "I wanna work with animals," she said, brushing the surprise off. "Magical ones, definitely." That was really the extent of what Ika knew. "So these two are colleges with magizoology programs—this one's a whole four-year bachelor's in Florida, where my family's from. And this one's in Gunnison, a little west of here. They do a lot of fieldwork with creatures in the Rockies.
  "And then these two are paid internships—this one's with a Creature Healer in San Diego, and this one is with the Beast Rehabilitation department in DC—they take creatures who've been hurt and help them heal and get better at being around people so they can go to zoos and new homes or be released."
  Madame Poff bred the colorful cats they'd had last year. (Uranio, the lovely dusk-colored tom Alexandra had helped Ika afford, was napping in her dorm room.) Most of the other creatures came from breeders and suppliers, so Ika had never done rehab work with animals. Occasionally the runespoors got a little bitey or something else went wrong, but all of the creatures where she worked had happy histories. It'd be very different to work with animals who'd been abused or injured.
  "I'm also applying to work for the national parks—there's a magical division that deals with non-Muggle wildlife." She'd done some research about the job. Yellowstone and several other big parks had trails and areas that were off-limits to hikers, allegedly because (as far as Muggle excuses went) they'd done a controlled burn to let the area regenerate. Apparently 'controlled burn' was code for 'dragon territory,' and they also kept hippogriffs and a few other Beast species. "And then this is a degree-internship program with a college and zoo in Chicago. I think I want this one the most, but they're all—it's really hard to decide."
  Ika tried to picture Riley in the military. The more she thought about it, the more it ended with the plot of Stripes or White Christmas. "I'm guessing you're not gonna join the army, so—what about you? What are you thinking about?" Ika peeked across the table at his information packets, reaching out to fan one of the piles so she could read it. "Ooh, Julliard? My brother's friend Chris—she went to RMI, but I guess they graduated before you got here—anyway, she went to Juilliard for dance."