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Bear was a curious foal.

He didn't understand his level of curiosity in comparison to another individual's, mostly because he didn't see himself as the same as other creatures. He compared others to others, and himself to no one and nothing. He was Bear. Everything else was everything else. He was still young, and still learning how to categorize things, but that much he knew. In his mind were all the images and scents and sounds he had thus far collected in his new life, and a unique scent was what he chased after now.

It was different...what was it? He asked these questions not with words, but through pages in his mental encyclopedia. His mind compiled creatures together, things he thought it smelled like, but the end result was always unknown--a blank page, like a question mark.

Driven by this curiosity (and perhaps a need to hunt, if the two were even different at all), the Bearwalker foal pawed quickly through a stretch of clay and rocks. The area was full of cliffs and embankments, none of which Bear payed any interest in, but scents clung to the damp earth and aided his search. The closer he got, the stronger the smell became, and the more saliva pooled in his mouth.

The winding earth took him higher and higher, paws clumsily raking through wet clumps of clay until he felt he was close enough to the smell to slow down and take his time. The sun was bright against his pelt while he moved quietly through shrubs and the skeletons of trees, eyes wide and searching. Finally, he had his source. Sticking close to the sparse foliage, Bear's eyes stuck fast on their target and drank it in full, observing every angle, shape, color, shadow...

In silence he watched, studying it in a motionless frenzy.