Some Things Just Can't Be Understood

"Oh. Okay then. Wanna try and find our way out again?" Pheobie asked cheerfully. "Maybe we can see the pandas before the giraffes"

"Sure. See you later, pup," he said to the young griffin, soon realizing that he probably never would unless his lost travels brought him back to this spot again.

He took Kimi's hand and went back into the bamboo maze, in search of pandas again.

Pheobie followed diligently with a big grin. "Maple? How'd you get so smart?" She asked

"Travel. Lots of travel," Maple answered. "Lots of research beforehand too. You don't want to arrive at a new world only to be unable to breathe the air or get eaten by a slime lifeform you knew nothing about. It's not good to go new places oblivious."

After a few minutes of apparently walking around in circles, they finally straightened out their course and arrived at the coveted pandas. These pandas were not black and white, but purple and sunset orange. The two cubs wrestled each other while the mother watched serenely.

"Aww! So cute!" Pheobie declared, rushing forward to the fence to gaze at them in wonder. "Are they always this color???" She squealed happily.

"No, not usually. This is the first time I've seen this shade of them," admitted Maple. "Usually they're black and white."

"No they're not," said some little girl who had overheard. "Who's ever heard of a black and white panda? That's silly."

"It's not silly where I come from," replied Maple, slightly annoyed. "And I come from far, far away."

"Do you think maybe I can get a figure of a panda from the shop? Like the platypus we found in the storage?" Pheobie asked. "They're so cute!"

"I'm sure there are plenty of panda teddy bears and figurines and other such things. Pandas are popular," replied Maple, watching as one baby bear wandered off for a bamboo snack.

"Ohhhhh~ Maybe I should get a teddy bear! I've never had a teddy bear before~" Pheobie giggled. "What do you think?"

"Well, why not? Teddy bears aren't hard to find," said Maple, though he couldn't help but wonder why she had never had a teddy bear before. Why didn't her parents get her one? "Well, to the souvenirs then!"

Then Maple realized he had no idea where the souvenir store was from here.

"Why don't we see more animals first?" Pheobie suggested. "I can wait"

"Well that works too. Then we can get all sorts of stuffed animals later," Maple agreed, picking a random direction to go in. "This way, to...whatever!"

"Whatever" ended up being a area full of crocodiles. The large reptiles basked in the sun with their mouths open. Maple suspected Pheobie wouldn't be so fond of these creatures.

Pheobie regarded these creatures with interest. "What're those?" she asked. "They look neat"

"Crocodiles," Maple answered. "They've been around since the dinosaurs. They eat lots of other creatures. Including people, I should mention."

As if in demonstration, a zookeeper appeared and threw in some meat into the pool. All the crocodiles suddenly swarmed into the water and began tearing and twisting apart the meat. The water was writhing with bubbles and splashes.

"...And that is why you don't want to be in the water with a hungry crocodile."

"Duly noted." Pheobie replied. "They're a little scary, but still cool."

The crocodiles made quick work of their meal, and soon were just lounging around in the water.

"Now I believe there are creatures called alligators that are very similar," Maple went on. "I think one has a shorter and wider snout or something. I don't know, could never tell them apart myself."

Pheobie gave a small giggle. "What's next?" She asked

"Well let's see..." Maple replied, walking until they reached the next animal. "Aha! Foxes!"

There were several of the reddish mammals in the enclosure, most of them sleeping but some darting about restlessly.

"We have those back home too. Only they're bright yellow" Pheobie stated.

"Really? That's interesting," replied Maple, as one very hyper fox pup ran around in circles inside the enclosure. "Being bright yellow would make it hard to sneak around, which is what most foxes I've known usually do. Then again, I've known foxes with multiple tails too, and they seem to do just fine."

"These are cute too. But the foxes on my world are really mean. Are other foxes nice?" Pheobie asked

"Well, most foxes I know aren't nice to chickens," replied Maple. "But people they just dart away from. Why, do your foxes attack people?"

"All the time." Pheobie replied. "But they don't usually do much damage."

"So they're like those yippy dogs then," Maple commented. "They think they're all tough but they can't really do much, though their bite still stings. The foxes I know mostly steal things from people, not attack them."

"Yeah. Like the little dogs." Pheobie nodded. "Those things are annoying."