“Welcome!!”
Pop—!
A burst of flower petals greeted Gio.
“We cleaned the burrow so our honored guest may stay in comfort.”
“Were you perhaps tired from the journey? We have prepared children to fan you.”
“If there is anything you desire, please tell us at any time!”
Rami, chieftain of the foxes, watched her people greet the “guest” while transformed into humans, then stole a glance at Gio’s reaction. As before, she rubbed her hands together and smiled with her narrow face.
“We had already been decorating our burrow so you could look around comfortably. You may examine as much as you wish. We would never dare serve you a meal, but we can gladly offer this small degree of service.”
“Oh, I see.”
Gio looked around.
“The atmosphere is very different from the wolves’ home.”
“Hehe. The wolves have no interest whatsoever in decorating their nests. More importantly, they are strong in both body and mind, so they have no trouble living after merely digging a single cavern. We foxes, however, are exceedingly delicate.”
Rami deliberately adopted a sad expression.
“Without soft beds, our bodies break down. If our home isn’t bright, we easily grow depressed. So we decorate our burrow as much as possible.”
“How interesting. Then what are the crows’ homes like?”
“Perhaps because they have the smallest bodies of the races, their homes are also small. They use all manner of branches and leaves gathered from nature, as well as mud and their own feathers, to build round nests shaped like eggs.”
One might call them the most cost-effective homes.
“Of course, they also collapse and break easily. For that reason, the crows treat every tree in the forest as their home and move frequently.”
“Then it would be fair to regard the entire forest as their home?”
“They…