EPTA little girl with black hair and skin the color of black cherry bark stood on a hill overlooking a wide, flat-bottomed canyon. She listened intently, combing the air with her ears, separating the sounds like strands of tangled hair.
Up above the canyon, she heard more animals then she ever saw and for each that she heard, she named and so after a period of time it was that she knew more named animals than people.
A loud sound, she sifted the air with her ears until she could make out the shrill squeaking of Loompo the squirrel and the wet throaty snarls of Qouloo the raccoon.
Qouloo, each morning came home grumpy after foraging and took it out on poor Loompo.
The little girl pictured the animals she had never seen, living side by side around the fire, like humans, and wondered if they could get along. She snickered at the silliness of it and in light bouncy steps headed toward home.
