“Eh? So I shouldn’t have… out loud…” Marie pondered for a moment, with her head down, then decided to follow the tall guy. “You mean this thing is hidden? Like a secret?”

She was about to notify him of the girl from before suddenly taking her clothes off in the middle of the zoo, and ask whether that was a normal thing or not too, but Marie almost shrieked when a black raven flew past her. When she removed her hands from over her face, she found it sitting neatly on the big guy’s shoulder. [I]Oh! Her green streak is pretty[/I] was her first thought, followed by [I]Wait… can I understand her?[/I] Somehow Marie felt that she could read meaning into the Raven’s voice on an instinctual level, even though that normally didn’t happen with animals. Not even other birds.

“Heh… I think I can be trustworthy! I think. I’ve never tried before. And I’m not trouble at all! I promise!” [I]Although they did call me that too, didn’t they…[/I] “I’m Marie, you see. Now you can trust me, because I’ve given you my name, and we aren’t strangers anymore.”