OPEN moral of the story is

[iida ryosuke]

Ryosuke had a small habit of wandering off on its own, it seemed. When Ichiro was being too fussy, and Xanti was busy with doctor stuff, and Vale didn't want to play, and Dead Eye was being boring and staring at walls, and Knox was more interested in its chickens than it was in him, Ryosuke was forced to entertain itself somehow. And how, then, did a spidercat entertain oneself?

By exploring. Obviously.

Finding a pink ball of fluff had not been on its agenda, but it had happened anyway! What had at first drawn the hybrid's attention had been the splashing of the Hawit River. Ryosuke liked to play by the river sometimes; not usually when it was alone, but perhaps it was feeling a little daring today, who knew?

It was by sheer coincidence, then, that Ryosuke arrived just in time to watch a rather large fish leap out of the water and splash the pink fluffball. It watched, curious, as the pink fluffball fell back, squealing. Its ears twitched. So the fluffball was another animal, not a real fluffball! How charmingly deceptive! Ryosuke had thought it was a rather odd ball of yarn!

He pranced forward, suddenly very excited, its tail waving high in the air. To be quite frank, Ryosuke did not think the fluffball was sentient, and so bore no mind towards its emotional state. Cruel then, perhaps, as it loomed above the fluffball, mandibles clicking excitedly as he sniffed and tried to bop it.

"What is this?" Ryosuke muttered, narrowing its four eyes as it stared down at the pink thing, curious and excited. "Ryosuke has never seen an animal like this before. A pet, perhaps?"