[ chickens are smelly, chicken bedding is smelly. Beetles and snails and jellyfish back home weren't like this at all. These larger animals are much more unsavory, and they can't keep the slight frown off their face as they watch him work (and as odors inevitably waft over.) They were going to tell him there's no point in lying - they saw his skin melting and how he struggled under their weight, and as someone else who can hardly feel pain, they're certain it still wasn't pleasant - but then he's talking about the birds again, and they blink. ]

Are you stupid? Of course not. They don't know any better, so it's up to me to be responsible around them. [ a beat. ] You resemble them in that way.

[ is this friendship ]