>Ponder what may be causing this; Letty's hound aside, are animals here or in our general experience this civilized, for lack of a better term?
>Hyozan is a bit of an exception, he's unusually intelligent for a dog. However, the animals you've been around have all seem to have been at least peaceful around you. Most of them seemed to like you, be they dogs, cats, birds, or even your schoolmate Yamame's pet tarantula she brought into school one day. All of those were domesticated, however, so it makes some sense that they'd be at least a little civilized.
>In fact, you've actually worked with animals, as well. The second photo shoot you did with Aya was a calender for an animal shelter here in town, and for the spreads you did, you were photographed with a dog, a hawk, and a cat, but not just any cat: Rin, in her cat form. Aya has no compunctions with working with 'amateurs'. Quite the opposite, she's encouraged you, in the past, to invite your friends along on a job.
>Thinking about that hawk, though, draws your mind to something else going on around you. Or rather, a lack of something else. There are no birds to be seen, nor can any be heard. All the creatures you seen and heard since you touched that tree back there have had legs, no wings. Well, unless you count ants and beetles some of those have wings, but nothing bigger than an insect. You wonder why this would be as well. The effect is almost akin to an old 'knighting ceremony' you read about in history class last year: how a supplicant would approach the throne of his or her lord, and the knights or mages of the realm would stand alongside their path, acknowledging that person and honoring them. But if that's the case here, then who's the lord you approach, that has such influence over the beasts of the forest? And why does it only seem to be those that cannot fly?
>Regardless, about the only encounter with an animal you've had that you would call bad was some years back, when you were 14, during one of Myoren's trips to the hospital. One of the other visitors at the hospital brought his big germen sheppard with him, and left the dog in his truck with the window ajar. When you walked by the truck, however, the dog squeezed its way out of the truck and pounced upon you. Your father, who had been walking next to you at the time, reacted amazingly quickly, and tackled the dog and got him off you, grappling with him until more help arrived, and the dog was restrained. The experience is not one of your fondest memories, but you took from it the lesson that dogs are much like humans: Not every one of them is going to be kind to strangers, but not everyone of them is going to be mean, either. Nor did it sour you on dogs in general, or german sheppards specifically.
>Might as well be polite. Offer the animals a small bow as we pass; at least until it gives us a headache; and follow that skunk!
>It never hurts to be polite, after all, and you acknowledge and bow to the animals you pass on your way to... wherever the skunk is taking you. As you do so, you notice something else, as well. There's only one of each type of animal. You've only seen the one spider, the one ant, the one squirrel, and so on and so on. You have seen two different kinds of snake- no, make that three, there's one with a rattle on his tail. And next to it stands a little lynx. Standing across from them on the other side of this trail, such as it is, is a little ferret. And a few feet beyond them is... a lion? But they don't even live in Yamato. Yet, sure enough, there stands a male lion, his tawny fur standing out against the backdrop of the forest. The skunk is as unperturbed by its presence as it was by the snakes, and does not slow.
