All things considered, I'm probably not much higher up right now than I had been while sitting on the rock, but it certainly feels that way. Without the blowing grasses and reeds flicking about near my feet, it's so easy to imagine that the ground is a world away, that I'm soaring freely through the open skies. Of course that would require ignoring the very soft creature underneath me (so, so soft! I didn't realize that such soft creatures could even exist!), which would be terribly rude.

It's not the swiftest mode of travel, but is far faster than what I'm used to, and I'm certainly not complaining about it. I have nowhere important to be, after all. As I lean my head back, feeling the cool breeze in my fur, I find myself struck by a sudden realization.

"Oh, dear! I've been talking so much about myself, and as a result have hardly even given you the chance to introduce yourself!" I say.

"That's fine." it responds. I wait for further elaboration, for the large and very comfortable creature to respond to my invitation, but it never comes.

"It's not fine at all! You've been so very kind and patient, and I've offered nothing at all in return!"

"Well, I do plan to eat you. That feels like kind of a big something." it says.

"Well, yeah, but you're not doing it yet, so until that happens, all I've been doing is blathering on while giving you little opportunity to share and express yourself! Now it's your turn to talk!" I say with a nod.

"Do I have to?"

"Yes." I say. While normally a less than assertive sort, this is one time that I absolutely cannot take 'no' for an answer. It felt so liberating being able to speak openly with a stranger, and it would be a terrible injustice for my new best friend, who's done so much for me up to and including giving me a ride on their back, to not have the opportunity to do the same!

"Fine, fine." it sighs. "What do you want to know?"

A clever move! One I have, admittedly not prepared for. I had genuinely expected for the creature to be open up itself, maybe just a little at first, and through some skillful prodding on my part (subtly, of course, as I've already dominated far too much of the conversation for my liking), it would open up and express its deepest desires, ambitions and fears. Still, hardly a surprise. A formidable being like this won't leave such obvious openings, but still, I vow to find them! It might just be a little bit harder than I thought.

"Okay, okay..." I hmm, deep in thought. "So, you're a dark lord, right?"

"I guess." it responds in a flat voice, the quick and simple response giving me more time to think.

"Oh, is that an offensive term? I'm afraid that it's the only one I know for your kind."

"Huh... maybe a little?" it replies, the tone a little more expressive, but still rather unconcerned. It seems to be a matter which it had not really considered either.

"I've never really got the whole concept of 'light' and 'dark'. It seems to mean a lot to people, and sure, I know the general definition, but in the end they still just feel like words." I pause. "You know, that's kind of the hardest thing about being... blind was it? That's the word, right? Well, people seem to think the hardest part is being unable to see. Honestly, I can't really speak for that. It doesn't seem that hard to get around, but maybe for most people it's super easy? Anyways, the hard part is just how disconnected you feel. So many words and ideas are based off of the concept of sight, it seems. I don't think it's a deliberate thing, but it's such a strong part of how others perceive the world that it leaks into virtually every concept and definition, and people like us? Well, we just kind of have to nod along, try to figure things out from context clues and the like. It's a constant reminder of just how different you are, though, when you constantly hear people talking about stuff like colors, and how they metaphorically represent stuff like emotions and principles. I mean, do you know what people say to demonstrate that they understand what you're saying? They say 'I see'. Like it's a fundamental ingredient to comprehending things, and worse, I'm not entirely sure that they're wrong! It's like you're living in a whole different world, and are a part of a whole different species, and very much an inferior one."

A soft grunt. "Weren't you just saying that you were sorry for rambling on so much?"

"Oh, right!" I say with a swell of embarrassment, followed by a grin. "I'm sorry, I get carried away sometimes. But then again, if you want me to stop talking, I think you know what to do!"

"Eat you right here, you mean?" it asks with a hopeful tone.

"What? No! I mean, if you insist on it, well, that's your call, but I meant that you could start talking!"

"Couldn't just neither of us talk?" it asks.

I briefly consider the idea before shaking my head and frowning. "I don't see how. Okay, I'll make this easy for you. Where are you going?"

"I'm just walking my usual route." it says. Not exactly the massive exposition dump that I was hoping for, but hey, it's some new information! That's a start!

"Oh? Where's that?"

"Just a simple walk around the neighborhood. Through a few yards, over fields, making sure nobody else has been marking my territory, and if they have and I see them around, I chase them away." it responds, a faint hint of pride in its words. This seems like a good enough topic to seek elaboration on.

"So you fight them? I understand..." I say, immediately regretting that lie. I don't really understand why. I need to correct that matter immediately! "I mean, I don't really get it. It sounds like a big area... you don't live on all of it, do you? Is there anything valuable there? I don't understand why you need to protect it."

"Because it's mine, of course! If I don't lay claim to it, someone else will, and then what happens? Nobody will respect me, and there will be fewer and fewer places that I can safely travel." it says in an annoyed tone.

"Can't you just share it with other dark lords... I mean other... um... of your kind?" I ask. "Sorry, still haven't learned a more appropriate term."

"It is shared, but it's also mine." It hmms, giving the matter some thought. A pleasant change, seeing as how so many of the creatures answers have been quite blunt and brief. "How do I put this... oh, I know. You, for instance, are my food, right?"

"Of course!" I say with a big smile. The novelty of being desired by someone for, well, anything hasn't yet worn off, nor do I imagine that it will for quite some time.

"And yet, you're not being eaten right now. Still, even if you're not being literally treated as food right now, the agreement remains. Territory is similar. Even though it belongs to me, others can travel it so long as they show the proper respect. Just like you, at any moment, can become literal eaten and digested food, I, at any time, can properly enforce my ownership of this place and drive away any unwelcome creatures."

"Okay... okay..." I furrow my brow, trying to put the pieces together. "I think I sort of get it. I'm still a little lost on the core premise, though. Why do you need this territory? What do you do with it? Maybe I'm missing something, but it doesn't seem to have much real use."

"Well, I walk through it. Look around, observe what's happening around me, sometimes find extra snacks like yourself, and then I go home." it replies, speaking as though this were the most obvious fact in the world.

"Oh, so you enjoy walking huh?" I ask. I can relate to that. I enjoy walking as well. The falling part isn't quite as fun, and is, sadly, a rather integral component to most transportation in my case, but the walking part is still nice!"

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It stops in its tracks, tensing up a little. At first I worry that I've somehow caused offense (a constant worry, as it happens quite frequently!), but soon I realize that it simply finds itself in a state of deep thought. "I... I don't know. I guess I never really thought about it. I suppose I don't dislike it. I must enjoy it, I guess."

"Now we're getting somewhere! I feel like I'm finally learning everything important about you!" I beam. That might be a slight exaggeration, but hey, baby steps. "So, what do you like about it? The feel of the air, taking in all the melodies around you, letting the sounds inspire you to further express yourself?"

"No, I'm pretty sure that doesn't apply to anything else in the world except for you. I don't really have any reasons that I like it. I just do."

"There must be something specific that you enjoy about it. Otherwise, you wouldn't do it!" I say.

Another heavy, pleasantly melodic sigh. "That's so typical of you creatures. Always with the 'whys' and the 'reasons'." it says. I can sense the shaking of its large head even through my seat on its back. "You think that it makes you somehow enlightened and clever, but really it's just a sign of how backwards you are."

I furrow my brow, considering the words, but they seem a little bit beyond me. All the better! My friend has finally started talking, and an opportunity for them to elaborate is a precious gift! "Why is that?" I ask, not only to encourage more of those pleasant sounding words, but also out of genuine interest.

"Because in the end they're largely just justifications." It says, "Okay, okay, once in a while it's useful to consider the options in advance when faced with a tough decision and go with the best one, but that's a rare occasion. What usually happens is that creatures just do whatever they feel like at the time. They all do, but the ones that pride themselves on their intelligence, usually undeservedly so? Well, they can't be content with that. They need to use some backwards logic, after the fact. The answers to their 'whys' are simply an effort to boost their own egos, to come up with reasons, any reasons why that simple instinctive desire to act was the 'correct' one, and why others who desire different things are incorrect."

It lets out an annoyed growl. "But in the end? It's the exact same thing, only with a whole bunch of extra time wasted purely to pat yourself on the back. I swear, that's what 90% of intelligence is: A desperate effort to convince ourselves that we aren't stupid, and in the process we jump through ridiculous hoops to do so. Meanwhile, the stupid creatures? They feed themselves, they rest when tired and they entertain themselves, just like everyone else does, without needing to dwell on it and try to explain why all those things are so significant, and why doing such things makes them so much better than everyone else."

"Wow..." I say, downright shocked. I smile wide. "That was quite the rant! I knew you had it in you! Hmm, I'm not sure that I agree though. I mean, yeah, it's true, we do want to feel like we made the right decisions, and after the fact maybe it doesn't matter all that much why things happened, but it's more than just ego. Asking questions like that helps us to learn more about ourselves and the world! Even if we're just acting on our desires, well, sometimes it can be hard to figure out just what our desires are unless we really think about them and narrow them down."

"Really?" the thick furred creature looks back over its shoulder. "Is that actually a problem that your kind has?"

"Well... yeah! Sometimes your stomach is full, and your body is well rested and you're safe and you're uncomfortable, but, well... you're still not happy. Sometimes you need a little something more, something that your base instincts don't quite recognize." I say. It's a sensation that I'm very much familiar with, after all.

"Sounds like another issue of the sort of stupid intelligence I was talking about earlier." it says with a nod. "You're over thinking things. Looking for an excuse to be miserable since you're too arrogant to accept the simplicity of the world. Even when your bodies are relaxing, your heads keep working, looking for things wrong, looking for things to fix, looking for ways to feel useful, for ways to feel better than others, for ways to feel deserving of existence. All of that is because you get yourself caught up in such a tangled mess of 'whys', that you forget the actual questions."

"Really? Huh." I say, giving the matter some thought. "How do I fix that?"

"You can't. Intelligence and stupidity are both curses with their own properties. Really, normalcy is well. Everything is a curse, and a blessing I guess. You can't fix something that isn't broken, nor can you fix something that's broken with similar broken tools. Everything works on its own terms, some just take a straight path from A to B, and others a more convoluted one, convincing itself that it's the somehow superior one, no matter how much more time and energy it takes to get there."

"So... does that mean that things never get better... never get easier?" I ask.

"I wouldn't know." is the simple, flat reply followed by a lasting silence. I can't really deny the creature's reasoning, as even though I didn't entirely understand it, I can relate to the basic idea. Even now, my mind is tied in knots over what even I can tell is basically nothing. Even if I manage to somehow solve this strange, complex puzzle, I know that there won't be some grand reward at the end. I'll just be back where I started, so in the end, confusing myself over such concepts is ultimately pointless. If only I knew how to stop.

I lay back a little, nestling the back of my head against the thick fur behind me. If my new friend minds this, it offers no indication. The sounds of the mechanical vehicles are much louder here. I have little sense of exactly what they are, but even I can tell they are massive, powerful and very much unnatural, from the way that their engines echo from such a great distance, to the strange, burning acidic sensation in the air which follows them. I strum across the strings of my instrument some more, practicing how certain hand motions, pressing down on some while twanging along others generates vastly differing sounds. I try to take in the world around me for full inspiration, to imitate the countless noises about me, not necessarily in a literal sense but in spirit, yet every effort ends in a complete failure. I feel a growing loneliness in my frustration, and try to turn my mind to virtually anything else. That's when a troublesome thought comes to me.

"Huh," I say, speaking up for the first time in what seems like forever, but has likely only been a couple of minutes at most. "I'm not so sure that I like the name 'food'."

"You're just realizing that now?"

"It's just a little too generalized, you know? Sure, it's fine now, but what happens if you come across something else you want to eat. Will you call it food 2? And then that leads to asking if that means the number two or, you know, 'food also'?" I say.

"I don't talk to my food, much less name it." the creature replies.

"You did with me, though."

"That was different."

I can't help grin, my earlier frustrations entirely forgotten. It's nice to feel like a special case, an exception to the rule. Sure, that isn't automatically a good thing, but it never hurts to assume that it is. That doesn't entirely fix the problem, though. "Well, even if it is a rare thing, anything that happens once can happen twice, right? What if you run into another mouse?"

"I don't meet many mice. Unlike you, they aren't so stupid to sit right out in the open."

"Huh, so that means I'm special, right?" I grin. "Still, though, if some other unlikely situation arises where you need to name something else that you plan to eat later, what will you call it?"

"Quieter food." It replies.

"How do you know they'll be quieter than me?" I ask, tilting my head.

"I don't see how they could possibly not be." it says. I'm not quite convinced, though. "Okay, fine: Better food."

"Hmm, on one hand, yeah, it's nice that they'll get the ego boost, but it still feels like just a modified version of my name. They'll still be identified as a sort of extension of myself, purely because I happened to come along first, and they'd feel pretty bad about that." I shake my head. "No, no, this won't do at all. Making others feel bad through no fault of your own is a terrible thing, and I can't possibly put this burden on them! The guilt would be overwhelming!"

"There is no other person or thing, though! You're getting worked up over a hypothetical!" it growls.

"I'm not upset or anything... but I hypothetically will be if this hypothetical comes to pass, then that hypothetical me will be upset, and we need to make sure that that doesn't happen! I need you to promise that if we stumble upon another food source who you feel the need to name that you'll give it a proper and unique name!" I say, flooded with a sense of renewed determination.

"Really? You know, promises are important things. Are you really sure that you want to waste one on that? Because I can tell you right now, there's no way I'm taking on another passenger. Even one is too many. The last thing in the world I want is to become the center of a team of roaming misfits getting into wacky adventurers. I'd sooner throw myself into the path of a car." it says with a genuine sense of worry in its voice. Not about the car, clearly, but it can apparently envision the idea of a large crowd of varied creatures gathered around it, all with their own tropes and personalities. I would be lying if I said that I couldn't imagine the same thing, but I really don't see what the problem is. It sounds downright delightful to me!

"I know, but this is important to me." I nod.

"Ugh, fine. If I somehow stumble onto some other talking creature that I plan to eat, yet for some reason don't plan to eat right away, I'll come up with some new title for it. As for what it is, well, we'll cross that bridge when we come to it."

My ears perk up. "Ooh, are we going to cross a bridge?" I ask. I don't think that I've ever crossed one before, but then again, it's hard to tell.

"No." it grumbles before pausing. "Well, yes actually, but that's a real bridge. I'm talking about a metaphorical... ugh, never mind, just forget it."

"Wow, a bridge, huh? That sounds exciting!" I say with a wide smile before remembering. "Huh, can you wait until after we cross it to eat me?"

Another brief pause. "We'll see."

I giggle. "I know that means 'yes'!"

My friend simply sighs as he continues to walk. All the while I lean back, deeply inhaling the crisp even if not entirely clean air. I wonder if the bridge will feel any different from the road? If I'll be able to sense the difference? Or maybe, in the end, wherever you go, it's ultimately all the same. I suppose that only time will tell.