It still hadn't thanked that strange creature for saving it.
The little monkey's tail swayed gently from side to side behind it.
Yes.
A strange creature.
Before today, the little monkey had never seen anything that looked like this.
It looked as though parts of many animals it knew had been stitched together.
Many, it said... though it seemed it had only recognized two...
It recognized fish scales... and bear paws...
The rest looked vaguely familiar, but blurry, to its eyes.
After all, there weren't that many animals in the forest where it had lived all its life.
Still, it had explored almost the entire mountain.
But there might still be "fish that slipped through the net."
There were dangerous places it had never actually ventured into.
It had only watched them from a long way off.
Could this strange-looking stranger who'd saved it have come from one of those dangerous places?
The little monkey's eyes suddenly lit up.
Partly because it had come up with a guess.
And partly because of what that guess suggested.
Of course, it wanted to thank its rescuer.
But it was also curious about where the creature had come from.
It had been curious about those dangerous places for a long time.
But instinctive fear and a desire to stay alive had kept it from going near them.
Out of sight, out of mind.
That way, it wouldn't keep thinking about them.
And now, it might have met someone who had come from one of those places.
This was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
How could it not try to get the creature to tell it something?
But for a long time afterward, it couldn't find the strange-looking creature.
Sometimes that was just how things went: the more you longed for something,