"Ezeki!" Uri calls, excitedly.
"Yes, Uri--why do you have a pippit?!"
"'Cuz, 'cuz look, Ezeki, look!"
Uri places the pippit on the ground, then places a berry in aer open palm.
Ezeki watches, dumbfounded, as the pippit leaps onto Uri's hand, devours the berry, then crawls onto aer shoulder.
"Can I keep it?"
"No, release it back into the wild."
Uri pouts.
"But great job at training a pippit," Ezeki adds, awkwardly. "You're so clever!"
Uri brightens like the sun.
Pippits are highly intelligent, mischievous rodents, beloved and beloathed by many. They are native to Aravu, where they live primarily in the woods surrounding settlements. Most of the meat in a Fas' diet comes from the pippit, while most Yashelin regard eating a pippit with the same contempt we have for eating a rat or a dog, no matter how many people claim it tastes good. Its furs, however, are popular for lining coats, and its leather for accessories.
It has many potential predators, and people tend to be their main threat because of their tendency to become pests in homes and warehouses. It is a well known secret that Heyir and Kabshi, the keepers of the food stores of Aravu, cooks a tasty pippit stew out of those that are clever enough to gorge themselves on the highly protected food and aren't clever enough to escape detection. One popular game amongst Yashelin children is the game of
Hey and Pippit, where one child is the trapper and one or multiple children are the pippits.
"Ida?" Heyir whispers despondently.
"Yes, Heyir?" the Ida replies, harried voice cutting through Heyir's shock.
"Why did you create pippits?"
"They're important to the ecosystem," the Ida claims. "Why do you ask?"
Heyir gestures at what little remains of their ransacked winter food stores.
"Oh." The Ida pauses, momentarily, then adds with extreme hesitation, "Perhaps try hunting them?"
Comments