I'm telling you, it's the truth! He laughed, spinning in time with her as she made a grab for his tail. Head tilting, he staggered a little, and pounced forward in a lopsided bow. Around them, seals bellowed and waddled out of the way.

Ko-Ga, back me up!, he barked, as the crow swept down to see what all the fuss was about. Ko-Ga cawed back, though the tone left his response open to interpretation.

It's got a big ambling gait, like a loping horse, just — maybe a little more drunk. If we find somewhere it doesn't snow, where thorn-trees and tall brown grass grows, I could prove it to you. He'd seen animals already that had no right to tread snow in American taiga, birds singing songs he'd never heard. Who was to say there weren't giraffes out here somewhere, too, just waiting to be found?

A dramatic pause, Of course, then we'd have to worry about ostriches. And elephants. And rhinoceros...es. (What was plural for rhinoceros?)

The latter he'd only seen drawings of, led to believe that sailing them across the Atlantic was downright impossible given their persistent insistence on breaking holes in things like wooden boats, which were then prone to sinking.