[Because when you travel through nature, your bound to run into animals
We'll be jumping around the timeline a little bit, just so you know 💖]

Towards the beginning of their journey together, our two protagonists were walking across a bridge. (Y/n) heard quacking so she looked over and saw a mama duck standing by the river bank. Her babies were in the river and one by one they jumped and joined her. But one of them kept falling back in the water, quacking for help. She felt her heart twist.
"Oww, poor thing."
Monkey stopped and looked at her, then followed her gaze. He expected her to do something, but she just stood there.
"You're not gonna do anything?" he asked.
"I want to but..." she looked down. "My father always told me to not meddle with nature, that it could be cruel sometimes and that's just how it is."
He frowned.
"That's stupid. You won't mess up the whole ecosystem by helping one baby duck."

Without waiting for her to say something, he jumped over the bridge's railing, making (Y/n) gasp, and into the water, going up to his waist. He went up to the little duck, which panicked and tried to leave the water even more.
"Hey lil guy." he spoke softly. "C'mon, let's get you out of here."
He put his hand under it and gently lifted it up so it could get on land.
"There you go. Go join your mom." he smiled at it ran towards her.
The ducks left in a hurry. Monkey jumped out of the water and shook himself like a dog. (Y/n) had to hold her arms up to protect herself from the water.
"We're all part of nature, humans included." he said, looking her in the eyes. "If you don't help each-other out just because it's 'the laws of nature', that's just sad. A bit monstrous even."
Her eyes widen, taken aback by his words. Harsh, but wise. He again didn't wait for a response and kept walking. She looked at the ducks in the distance for a moment and sighed, before following him.

---

This small rabbit has seen better days. It ran away from its home in the forest, chased by hunters and their dog. It found refuge in the middle of a meadow, hiding in the grass. Unfortunately, it left a small trail behind.
"Is that blood?!"
It heard a voice, and footsteps coming closer. It wanted to run away, but its injury has become too painful for it to move.
"Oh my Lord!" (Y/n) covered her mouth when she saw the poor animal's bloody flank, she crouched in front of it. "You poor thing!"
"That's one hell of a bite." Monkey said.

She quickly looked through her bag and took out her water bottle, which was almost empty at that point.
"Monkey," she handed it to him. "could you go to the river and refill it please?"
"I got'cha." he took it and ran away.
It took him a moment to come back, during which (Y/n) took out some bandages and her blanket as well. She washed off the blood and Monkey blew on it, his strong lungs drying off the animal just like that. She then carefully wrapped the bandages around the rabbit, it twitched and squeaked at the contact.
"It hurts I know, I'm sorry." she softly said, her heart twisting.
Once she was done, she carefully picked it up and held it in her arms, caressing the top of its head.
"It won't be much held though, we have to go to an animal doctor. Hopefully there will be one in the next town we go to."

Before Monkey could agree, two men and their dog rushed over.
"Have you seen a rabbit?" one of them asked.
"...This rabbit?" she nodded towards the animal in her arms.
"Yes, finally! We've been hunting it for hours now, thanks." he extended a hand, expecting her to give him the rabbit.
Our two protagonists looked at each-other. Although they didn't mind other people eating meat, it was a bit too late for them now.
"You were hunting it for hours and we had to catch it for you?" Monkey looked back at them. "If anything, it's *our* catch now."
(Y/n)'s face lit up a little, and followed his lead.
"Yeah," she nodded. "we earned that rabbit."
"What?!"
"Come on man, we caught it, we get to eat it." he folded his arms, standing taller. "After all, I'm getting hungry, if I don't eat something now, who know who I'll be eating later." he smiled, showing his pointy teeth.

The two hunters gulped, even their dog went behind them. After a moment of silence, Monkey suddenly made a scary face and they ran away. He cackled and (Y/n) chuckled. Then, the two of them went on their way, with a new companion for a while. They picked up the pace when they saw a farm in the distance. The owner properly tended to the rabbit (which turned out to be a male) and placed him in an enclosure with other rabbits.
"You can have your boy back once he's better, it should take a week or so."
"Oh he's not ours." (Y/n) shook her hand.
"Yeah, just release him when he's better." Monkey added.
"Oh, alright..."
And with that, they said goodbye, and left.

---

Ai Chow was on a shopping spree with her friends. They've done this enough times to know where to go every time, dismissing other shops so as to go directly to the ones they've always gone to before. But after Ai Chow's 'boyfriend' visited town, she's been more curious lately, more adventurous (in a very safe kind of way). So she went slower, she took her time to look around, and when she saw the birds, she stopped. There was a shop with a multitude of colorful birds, each inside a silver cage. Some were flying around, bumping into the bars of their limited space, others were laying down, closed off, like they gave up.
"They're freshly caught." the shop keeper noticed her staring and gave her a polite smile. "Some come from very far away, you won't see any like these around!"
Ai Chow didn't say anything for a moment. Then she smiled, an idea in mind.
"I'll take them."
"Fantastic! Which ones?"
"All of them." she took out her pouch. "Deliver them to my house."

The shop keeper was shocked to say the least, but of course he happily obliged when she gave him the money. The next day, she secretly had all the birds sent to her room, with not much space left for her. She took a moment to look at them all. They were all beautiful, and it would have been nice to have one of them as a pet. Alas... She took one of the cages and went to her window. She opened it, and the bird flew out. She spent the rest of her day releasing them, watching them fly away with a smile.
She couldn't keep it a secret forever however, her parents caught her trowing away all those cages. She nervously chuckled. Thankfully, they didn't scold her too hard for it.

---

Our two protagonists have decided to take a snack break. Monkey brought them a bunch of fruits and they ate and chatted, sitting by a small cliff. (Y/n) was enjoying herself when she noticed something that made her shout in surprise.
"What's wrong?" Monkey blinked twice.
"There's this... weird snake!" she pointed.
He looked over and burst out laughed. From the bottom of a cliff came a long grey trunk.
"That's an elephant trunk (Y/n)!"
"Oh!" she blushed, embarrassed. "I-I've never seen one before, that's why!"
They kept looking. It was feeling the space, as if searching for something.
"It must've smelled the fruits." Monkey said.
He took one from the pile and tossed it over. It took it a moment before it found it and took it before going back at the bottom of the cliff.
"Wow." (Y/n) let out.

She felt a bit disappointed that it was such a short moment. But just then, other trunks appeared, and they could see the heads of the bigger elephants. The two of them laughed.
"Here," he handed her a fruit. "give 'em one."
Her face lit up. She took it and slowly went towards them, on all fours. The closer she got, the better she could see the big animals. She placed the fruit in front of one of them and it took it. Others trunks tried to get it and reached for her. Unsure, she took one of them and shook it like a handshake. Monkey laughed. He walked up to stand beside her and noticed a baby elephant, reaching up with its trunk but obviously too small to reach the cliff. He sighed, smiling and tossed another fruit, aiming at the baby this time. Everyone got to eat today.

---

When (Y/n) was conducting her slum rebranding program to get back at that fourteen-year-old brat, sadly not everyone in the slums was happy about it. A small gang was having a meeting in their HQ, the basement of a small tea house, caged earth turtles everywhere.
"Dammit!" one of the thugs kicked one of the cages in frustration. "If every business gets a makeover, our cover will be blown!"
"Then why don't we just join in on that woman's project?"
"Right," a third one shrugged. "if we refuse, it would only bring suspicion on us."
"And if we agree, we'd run the risk of them discovering the *real* business!" he said, gesturing to the cages.
"Gods, this whole thing is such an inconvenience." their boss shook his head. "Because of that woman, we can't make our deliveries, we're running late, and I'm getting complaints."
"So, what, do we...take care of her?"

The boss thought for a moment. Just as he opened his mouth to answer, a large hand went through the door, then ripped it off its hinges. Red smoke started enveloping the room, as Mama walked in, she had to hunch over to get through the door, before standing tall and proud. Despite her smile, her sharp unblinking stare paralyzed them with fear.
"I knew you were hiding something." she said, red smoke coming out of her mouth. "And now I know exactly why..." she placed her long cigarette on the edge of a small nearby table. "My slums don't need people like you."

(Y/n) was waiting outside the tea house. She was told it was only a front, and after further investigation, they learned that it had something to do with turtle trafficking. She wanted to come too, but Mama was keen on taking care of it herself.
'She is a turtle demon, I think. It must mean a lot to her. Or maybe she takes it as an insult.'
Finally, the tall lady stepped out, tapping a napkin around her mouth before fixing her lipstick, all while chanting a little tune.
"So? How did it go?" she rushed up to her. "Did you... Did you eat-"
"Honey I just had a *brilliant* business plan." she smiled. "Imagine: a turtle tea house, where you can drink tea, relax, and hang out with turtles."
"Uh..."
She leaned a bit to the side to take a look inside the building. She could see turtles of various sizes freely walking around inside. Some were about to step outside, so she went in to keep an eye on them, Mama casually followed her, said she trusted the animals to know what they were doing. The two of them discussed further about this side-plan. Some time later the Turtle Tea House reopened, with brand new staff, and a bunch of turtles.

---

Our two protagonists were walking along a river, when (Y/n) noticed something strange. It was commun for random things to float down the river, like wood and such, but this particular thing was small and white. It was when it bumped the bank and rolled a bit that her blood ran cold. It was a puppy, and it wasn't moving. She let out a big gasp and ran. Monkey was confused but he ran as well, and when he saw the dog, he picked up the pace. The current was strong so it took them a moment to go past the animal. After that, he took her hand to allow her to lean over as much as possible. He quickly pulled her back once she caught it in her hand. She got on her knees and held the puppy upside down, rubbing its belly.
"Please let it not be too late." she whispered.

Some water came out of its mouth. She held it upright again and pressing her ear on it to check its heartbeat. Monkey stared at her with a grave expression. Her eyes widen and she became paler. This couldn't be good. She laid it down on his back and started pressing on its chest, sometimes giving it mouth to mouth.
"Come on. Come on."
This went on for a while.
"How long do you have to do this?" Monkey asked.
"I don't know." she said, her eyebrows furrowed.

He pursued his lips. How long could this go on for before it would be clear that they were too late. Will he have to pull her away? It would break her heart, and his in the process. After that, the puppy coughed. They looked at each-other with big eyes.
"Come on puppy." she kept going.
It coughed again.
"Breathe buddy, breathe!" Monkey cheered, leaning closer.
It coughed once again, but it still wasn't breathing properly. (Y/n) kept the process going before the puppy twitched and started breathing normally. She kept pressing its chest until it opened its eyes and lifted its head, rolling over to be on its stomach. She let out a cry of joy and leaned back with a big smile, a tear in the corner of her eyes, as Monkey cheered, shaking her shoulders.

"Oh you sweet thing!" she picked up the puppy, it looked a bit out of it. "Get your bearings, it's okay."
"Gigi!!!"
They looked over to see a couple, their child and their dogs (two parents and their puppies) running over. The puppy barked and its family barked back.
"Right here!" Monkey pointed as (Y/n) lifted the animal.
"She's okay!" she added.
She placed it on the ground. The puppy stumbled a little bit, but went to its family. The child picked it up and held it close to her.

"She fell into the water, we ran after her but..." the dad explained, panting. "We can't thank you enough, we might have been too late if it wasn't for you."
"Here," the mom took out a pouch and opened it. "let us reward you."
"Oh no, no no no." (Y/n) waved her hands. "That won't be necessary, we're just happy the puppy is alive and well."
"Really?" Monkey whispered to her. "We don't have a lot of money right now. Are you sure?"
"Yes." she responded immediately.
He sighed, smiling. After a lot of 'thank you's, and playing with the dogs a little bit, the two groups went their separate ways.

---

(Before chap. 21) When Macaque listens, he is focused. And when it came to listening to (Y/n), it was like the physical world didn't exist. He'd just be sitting there, either closing his eyes or staring into space. Right now, sitting alone in the forest, he was so focused, he didn't notice the cat, silently inspecting and sniffing him for an hour, until it tried to climb onto his lap. He flinched.
"What the-?!" he looked down and picked it up by the back of its neck before tossing it away. "Get outta here."
It landed on its feet and stared at him for a moment. Macaque huffed and went back to listening, his arms folded. The cat slowly walked back to him and went on his lap again. He glared at it and picked it up again.
"What do you want?" he asked, as if it could respond.
Truth was, Macaque has never seen a cat before, in fact, he has never seen much. Well, he has, he just never really looked before. The cat just looked at him, slowly blinking. Macaque groans and was about to say some more, when his ears flicked. (Y/n) was moving further. He placed the animal on the ground and stood up, giving it one last glance before walking away.

Because he kept listening to (Y/n) to know where she was going, it took him a while to notice that the cat was following him. When the cat meowed, he finally did, he clicked his tongue.
"If you had a brain, you'd know better than to do this."
No response. He rolled his eyes and turned around.
"Boo!!!" he suddenly looked back at it, turned into a tall shadow beast.
The cat jumped with a hiss and ran up a tree. He turned back to normal and snickered, satisfied, before walking away.

After a while, he reached the end of the forest. (Y/n) just walked in a nearby town, but he stayed here, keeping a certain distance. He pressed his back against a tree, his arms folded, and kept listening to her. After a moment, he jumped and stepped back when something touched his ankle. He looked down to see the same cat from before. He scoffed.
"Seriously, don't you have somewhere to be?!"
The cat just meowed. They stared at each-other in silence. Then, something clicked in his mind, and he leaned closer.
"Am I... Am I the somewhere to be?" he pointed at himself. "Just like she's my somewhere to be?"
The cat meowed again. His eyes widen, thinking that meant yes. He crouched down and, hesitantly, he raised a hand towards it, palm facing up. It approached and sniffed it before brushing its head on the tip of his fingers. Macaque gasped softly, his ears fluttering a little bit. He felt that they were similar, only wanting to be with the person who caught their heart. And the fact that he was that person to someone, it blew his mind a little bit, he wasn't sure what to do. Slowly, he reached for the small animal, to pick it up. But then:

"Gigi~!" a woman from the town called out. "Where are you baby?!"
The cat meowed and ran away. Macaque watched as it climbed one of the houses and went inside through a window.
"There you are~! Were you playing in the forest again?" a meow. "Oh my, you must must be very hungry if you're meowing. Come on."
Macaque was frozen for a moment, letting this whole thing sink in. He clenched his shaky fists and deeply inhaled through his teeth. If Wukong wasn't nearby, he'd scream at the sky. On that day, he was reminded of a very important lesson: never trust anybody!

---

This two-headed calf was born today, and he has just learned how to walk. The farmers have spent all day deliberating what to do with him. Selling him to a circus would be their best option, but there weren't any around. No one will want to buy this calf, and once he grows up, he'll only be a waste of space. Putting him down was also on the table. At the end of the day, no clear conclusion was reached, but it was very likely that they'd go for that last one the next morning.
The two-headed calf was blissfully unaware of it all however, so was his mother. He didn't understand why he was getting so many stares, nor did he even notice. But everyone passing by noticed him. The farmers decided to put him inside the barn before he could make more potential customers flee.

And then, two persons walked over and started talking to the farmer. The two-headed calf nibbled on some grass because he saw other cows do it, and looked around for his mother. Where was she? After a while, the tallest of the two persons picked him up and carried him away from the farm. The two-headed calf began to moo. Where was his mother?

Once they were far enough to be out of sight, Monkey gently put the calf down. (Y/n) sat beside him.
"I'll be quick." Monkey said before leaving in a flash.
The calf mooed again, louder than before, (Y/n) softly shushed him, petting his heads and trying to reassure his.
"I'm sorry," she whispered. "we didn't have enough money. I don't like it either, but I see no other choice."

A while passed, it was getting dark, the two-headed calf was getting hungry. The person with him kept petting his heads but he didn't care. Where was his mother? Finally, the other person came back, holding his mother on their shoulders. She mooed, he mooed back. The two persons shushed them as they led them to a wild field a bit farther away, with other wild cows. After removing his mother's collar, they let them go, and watched them for a moment before leaving.
The two-headed calf was happy. It was a perfect summer night: the moon rising over the field, the wind in the grass. And as he stared into the night sky for the first time, there were twice as many stars as usual.

(Based on "The Two-Headed Calf" by Laura Gilpin)

---

This happened when our two protagonists took a break on the side of the road after (Y/n) chased Monkey down for taking her notebook. As she was catching her breath, her eyes closed, Monkey just admired the view. At some point, he watched some bees passing by, pollinating the flowers around them. One of them wavered and eventually fell on the ground. He scooped it up into the palm of his hand and looked closely at it. It was still alive, but it was slowly moving and didn't seem to be able to fly.
"(Y/n)." he nudged her. "You snatched some sweets from Ai Chow's party, right?"
"Uuuurh~."
With a slow, heavy arm, she took her bag and handed it to him.
"Thank you~." he smiled, taking it.
He took out one of the sugar-coated fruits, along with her bottle of water. He placed the bee on the back of his hand and scraped some of the sugar off, which then fell on the palm of his hand. Then he pour a bit of water in it.

"There you go buddy." he picked up the bee again and brought it closer to the sweet water.
The small insect took a while to start drinking, but it then seemed to have regained some energy from it.
"Man, you must've just overworked yourself huh?"
He glanced at (Y/n). For some time, the bee just drank and drank. Until finally, it started to move across his hand much faster. It ended up on the tip of his finger. Monkey smiled.
"Now go." he gently blew, making it fly away. "Enjoy flying for me will you?"
"Who are you talking to?!" (Y/n) finally asked.
"Don't worry about it." he patted her face without really looking.
"Ah! Stop!" she slapped his hand away.
He giggled.

---

Our two protagonists have just left the bath house (from chapter 4) and were walking through the forest. They were walking side by side when suddenly:
"Watch out!"
She gasped in surprise when Monkey suddenly pulled her back.
"What?! What is it?!" she looked at him.
"You almost stepped on it." he said as he picked up something.
A small egg. It must've fallen from a nest, thankfully, it fell on top of a patch of thick moss, so it was still intact.

"Oh." she looked up, her eyes squinting. "...I don't see any birds anywhere."
"Well we gotta find its nest, before it hatches."
"Hatches? How do you know there's a baby in there? You didn't do the trick."
"What are you saying?" he raised an eyebrow and sent her a weird look. "It's an egg, that's where birds come from."
"...You do know not every egg has a baby in it, right?"
"...What?"
There was a moment of silence.
"What do you think we eat when we eat eggs?!" she asked.
"I thought you guys ate the baby before its body formed completely!"
"Goodness no! Are you serious?!" she huffed. "Here, I'll show you."

She gently took the egg from him.
"The farmer in my village taught me this trick. You hold it up like this..." she held it up towards the sun and stood closer to him so that he could look. "And if you see something inside, that's a baby, so we don't eat those."
Indeed they could see that there was something inside, and it was almost as big as the egg itself.
"Huh." she said. "It's grown quite a lot, it'll probably hatch soon."
"Yeah, like I said, we have to find its nest before it-"
Crack. (Y/n) brought the egg closer to their faces, and saw a small crack on the shell, and she could feel the egg moving slightly under her fingers. They both looked at each-other with big eyes. Their nose were almost touching, but in this situation, their proximity were the last thing on their mind. They panicked.

"We gotta find it quick!" Monkey exclaimed. "Before the bird comes out and think we're its moms!"
"Right! Right!"
And so, the two of them went around and climbed trees to look for a bird nest as the egg started to slowly hatch. It was a very intense ten minutes.
"Found it!" Monkey exclaimed.
(Y/n) rushed over to the tree he climbed, she was about to hand him the egg, but he instead picked her up with his tail before holding her by the waist so that she could reach the nest. She did wonder why he didn't just take it from her, but she didn't want to waste anymore time. She quickly but gently placed the egg in the middle, with the other eggs that were hatching. The two of them let out a big sigh of relief, before smiling at each-other.

"...Say," she said. "why are you-?"
She was cut off by loud chirping.
"Ah! There she is!" Monkey lowered his head and pulled her closer to him, facing her away from him.
Before (Y/n) could even express her confusion. A bird, probably the mother, flew over to her and tried to peak her head.
"Ah! Aouch! You jerk! You knew this would happen!" she glared back at Monkey while shielding herself.
He cackled loudly.

---

Because neither of them had the best reputation, Pigsy and Chyou would take their strolls away from the town and instead around the meadows and fields. He felt bad about never being able to take her on a proper date. Even if he changed his appearance, people would know it was him since she was with him, plus they've learned to spot him at this point. But Chyou never minded that, she was just happy that they could spend time together without people throwing stones at them. They saw a farm in the distance, with a bunch of pigs in a large enclosure. Pigsy always felt a bit weird looking at them, knowing that human ate pigs. But then he remembered that he himself, and other animal demons, ate a fair amount of humans as well, so he figured it was all fair game. Chyou seemed to be staring at them. To impress her, he told this fun fact he had.

Pigs can't look up.
Well the truth is, they can, just not that much. The anatomy of their neck doesn't allow that.
This bit of knowledge sharing didn't have its intended effect. He panicked when she started to cry her eyes out.
"H-hey! What's wrong?! Are you okay?! Is it happening?!?!?!" he held her pregnant belly.
"No!" she smacked him away. "It's just...so sad!" she sniffed some drooling snot back in her nose.
He sighed, relieved. You would think it was her pregnancy that made her emotional, but Pigsy knew it wasn't. He knew her. She always cared so much for the most unexpected things, and so little about what was considered important by so many.

"They...can't look up?!" she rubbed her eyes, but still cried. "That means they can't see the sky! Noooo!"
"It's okay! They don't care!"
"They would if they knew what they were missing!" she started running towards the enclosure. "I'm gonna pick them all up and turn them towards the sky!"
"All of them?! That's impossible! Chyou no!" he went after her.
He tried to hold her back, but she was persistent. Eventually the farmers heard them and started to chase them down, yelling. Pigsy picked her up bridal style and ran away, back to their home, as Chyou shouted to the pigs that she'll be back for them.

Some time later, she gave birth.

It was the middle of the night, Pigsy was still crying as he approached the farm, holding his son in his arms, who has stopped crying long before he did. He froze when he realized where he was. He couldn't stand staying at home anymore so he stepped out after wrapping the baby in a blanket. Everyone was asleep, and he could see some pigs sleeping in the enclosure outside. He sniffed, and climbed the gate to get inside. He sat there in the mud, moving the baby so that he could hold it with one arm, and picked up a small pig with his other. He tilted them both so that they could look up, waking them both. The pig grunted and his son's gaze wandered, looking at the sea of stars. After a moment, Pigsy put the pig down and went to pick up another one. He didn't stop until every pig in this farm has experienced the sight of this beautiful night sky

"Look Wuneng," he smiled, teared still flowing down his face. "your mom's up there somewhere."
Wuneng lifted his tiny arms upwards, reaching aimlessly until he booped his father's snoot. Pigsy chuckled and held him close, wanting to never let go.

---

There were no dogs in (Y/n)'s village. So when she was eight and Wu-Peng came with a dog he found in the forest, she and the other kids were ecstatic! Some wanted to play with it immediately, the kill-joys wanted to ask their respective caretakers if they could keep it first, because it might belong to someone already. After much deliberation on who should keep it in the first place - a debate worthy of a bunch of children - they've finally decided to bring it back to the monastery. It took four of them to pick up the dog since it was pretty big, and once they reached the top of the stairs, they had to place it down to take a break. (Y/n) kept hugged it, rubbing her cheek on the top of its head.
"Dad look!" she called out when she saw him, her arms still around the animal's neck. "A dog!"
"Oh my lord!!!" the monks with him exclaimed when they saw little (Y/n) hugging a bear cub that was almost as big as her.

"(Y/n)." her father slowly stepped closer, he sounded calm, but his eyes were wide open. "Let go of the dog. Kids, step away from it."
"Why?" she asked as the kids did as they were told.
The bear grunted and she gave him a kiss on the head.
"Imma name him Monkey." she smiled.
"(Y/n), you can't keep it."
"Why~?!" she tugged on it and it began to struggle.

Not wanting the situation to get out of hand, her father crouched down in front of her to meet her at eye level.
"This is a wild animal (Y/n), you can't take it away from it's natural habitat." he spoke in a softer tone. "I told you, we don't interfere with nature. And this is a baby, its mom must be looking for it right now."
"But he's my friend. I love him."
"If you really love him, you'd let him go home, where he should be."
She frowned sadly and looked down.
"Let go of the dog (Y/n)." he paused, not liking what he was about to say. "We can look for his mom together if you want."

She sniffed and slowly let go of the cub after giving him one last kiss on the forehead. Her father took her hand as another monk put it in a bubble and picked it up with some help of others. Together, they went down the stairs to set up a search team, but as soon as they reached the village, there was some commotion about an adult bear wandering around. People did their best not to panic and quickly moved out of its sight whenever it was near.
"Monkey's mom!" (Y/n) exclaimed, pointing at it.
The bear looked at her and noticed the cub. It roared.
"Shoot." her father whispered before letting go of her hand. "Stay here (Y/n)."
He took the bubble and carefully approached the bear. He gently put it down and gestured one of the monks to make it disappear. It did, and the cub ran towards its mom. They sniffed each-other before leaving to the forest.
"Goodbye Monkey~." (Y/n) sadly waved her hand.
Every adult let out a sigh of relief while all the children were bummed out.

"Dogs are very big." she spoke again.
"There sure are." her father said, taking her hand and together they walked back to the monastery.
"Dad, I want a dog."
"I'm not your dad." he quickly corrected before replying. "If you find a dog, you can keep it."
"I *did* find one!"
"A smaller one."
She groaned, pouting.

She and the others learned the truth years later, when she was eighteen. They couldn't help but laugh.
"We should've known," Wu-Peng jokingly said. "it was a very ugly dog!"
The first time she saw an actual dog was during her journey with Monkey (the actual monkey), and she was delighted.

[Aight, I'm off to my two weeks of finals, wish me luck! 👌 And good luck to those who also have their exams going on! 💖 Summer is upon us people, hang in there!]