Epigraph

• "...In the end, you do what the voice tells you. It says forget, you forget. It says begin again, you begin again." — Louise Glück

(2) The City

• "Singing was for the birds. And the sea animals that would on occasion appear near the coast from the far deep. But once I heard two horses sing beautifully together, side by side on the ridge of a distant hill as we walked by on our way to a town. Only the dogs could hear them. It was better than any human I had ever heard. Better than the sea animals and the birds."
• "(I forgot to say that I once heard a trainer at the base say that dogs couldn't really make out all the colors humans could see. What a silly thing to believe.)"
• "In Semeru's mouth was a piece of rope he had found in the debris, and he asked if I wanted to play. I grabbed the other end and pulled as he pulled, and we played tug in the street until I felt it in my shoulder and let go."
  • God, this made me smile.
• "Tonight, here, every day except today felt like a long time ago."

Once upon a time, on a hilltop, there was a tree. A big, old, tall tree. And one night a bird flew by, and the tree said to the bird, Hurry! Come be with me and my shadow, I think the war is about to begin. So the bird flew back to the tree and waited on a branch in the tree's shadow for the war… But the war didn't come. A fox did, however, appearing on the slope, and the bird said to the fox, Come be with us, I think the war is about the begin! So the fox sat against the trunk of the tree in the tree's shadow and waited for the war… But the war didn't come. The moon did, however, its light flooding the city and the distant hills as it approached the tree. And the tree said, Don't worry, bird and fox, you're safe here with me and my shadow. The moon can't reach you if you're with me… And together, both the bird and the fox said, Tree, why should we be afraid of the moon? Look at how beautiful it is. Look at how grand and bright and peaceful it is. It's never done anything to us but shown us the way. So then leave, said the shadow of the tree, speaking for the first time and shrinking as the moonlight quickly began to surround them all. But they didn't leave, Hong said. Neither the bird nor the fox.

(3) The Mountains

• "My darling, she said. There's no home to go back to."
• "To be there, I growled. To see and to smell the place where I was born and used to live. To fall asleep and wake up where I was born and used to live. To remember there was a place before all this where I used to live. To remember there was a place where there were days that passed into other days peacefully, peacefully, without terror, and where other animals I knew and cared about used to live."
• "You think all of this won't happen again? Of course it will. It always does. We'll rebuild. And then someone—maybe someone from far away, maybe someone who helped rebuild all this—will take a step to burn it down again…"

The Sea

• "They came for you, she says. They came and they died. And you don't know how to feel about that. Or you're feeling many things right now. All these things that humans love to write poems about. Have you ever listened to a poem? That's how humans really sing, isn't it? But these feelings you're feeling, Etna, are also feelings from not just what happened now, but from the years. These miserable years."
• "We need friends, Etna, the bird says. We need a pack. Even if we lose our pack, I say."