Chapter 6
Kitsune awoke on a squat hill. It was the spot under which she had passed through the rainbow's arch.
She yawned, and shook her fur, for it was wet with rain dew.
Even the great celestial fox could not answer her question.
But someone must know. There had to be an answer.
Kitsune wondered. The great celestial fox had said Kitsune asked questions like a human. Perhaps that meant a human could answer her question.
The sky was clear blue above, but the western horizon was lined with pink and violet. Sunset was approaching.
Kitsune took off. She ran straight west, past the meadows, past the hills, until she reached the edge of the city.
By then the sliver of the moon was visible in the purple sky. A car zoomed by, but its searching headlights did not see Kitsune. The fox skirted the edge of an asphalt road until the moon reached the proper alignment.
Then, Kitsune clothed herself in the guise of a beautiful young woman, as many foxes often do.
Kitsune walked across the asphalt road towards the heart of the city.
She passed many people walking on the sidewalks, threading her way between the forest of skyscrapers. Some of them looked at her beautiful female form with lust in their eyes.
Kitsune ignored them.
Who should she ask? Who would know?
Kitsune decided to ask a random passerby, a middle-aged man struggling to hold hands with two small children as they crossed a street.
Kitsune
Excuse me.
Passerby
Yes?
Kitsune
Do you know where I might go to ask a question about a fox?
The man's two children were pulling at him and he looked like he was distracted and in a hurry.
Passerby
About a fox?
Kitsune
The question is philosophical in nature.
Passerby
I don't know, young lady. The wildlife museum? The university? I'm in a hurry here. I can't help you.
And he was pulled down the street by his children.
Kitsune asked other passersby where the museum and the university were.
An old woman said the museum was in a far-away city.
But a group of girls said the university was just a few blocks away. And despite their puzzled looks after Kitsune explained her question to them, they told her the name of a professor and the address of a building where she could find an answer.
And so Kitsune, still clothed in her human guise, arrived at the office of Dr. Yokostein, professor of biology.
The door was open a crack, so Kitsune let herself in.
Dr. Yokostein
Hellow! And who might you be?
Dr. Yokostein was a fat, balding man. He was so fat that he barely fit in his desk chair.
Kitsune
My name is Kitsune, and I have a question.
Dr. Yokostein motioned for Kitsune to sit in a chair across from his desk, and she did.
Dr. Yokostein
What is your question, young lady?
Kitsune
Can you explain why a certain fox would be born with an extraordinarily fluffy tail?
Dr. Yokostein
Why, the answer is genes! Listen closely—every fox is made up of DNA, and that DNA is made up of genes. The genes are passed on from the fox's mother and father, and they determine the physical features of the fox.
Kitsune
But this fox's parents did not possess particularly fluffy tails—
Dr. Yokostein
Oh, but it's never so simple. Some genes are recessive. A parent's traits are not always passed down to a child. Some genes work in combination. Perhaps your fox had a great-great-grandmother and a great-great-great-grandfather who had a combination of genes that produced a fluffy tail?
Kitsune pondered the strange things Dr. Yokostein had told her. She had to turn his words over and over several times in her head before she could make the least bit of sense of them.
But after pondering, Kitsune thought that Dr. Yokostein's answer was actually quite similar to the great celestial fox's answer: Kitsune's tail was fluffy because she was born that way.
She wanted more of an explanation.
Kitsune
But professor Yokostein, I still do not understand: why do the genes make the fox's tail so fluffy?
Dr. Yokostein
Why, that's just how foxes have evolved!
Kitsune
Evolved?
Dr. Yokostein
Why yes—natural selection! Random mutation! Surely you know about evolution? When any creature reproduces, it makes copies of itself, but those copies are imperfect! Sometimes little flaws, or mutations, creep into the creature's copies. And occasionally, those mutations actually help the new creature survive in ways that its parent could not. And so nature 'selects' the most helpful mutations, based on how much they help each creature survive—and they are passed on from parent to child over the ages.
Kitsune
But how does that explain why my—why a fox's tail is so fluffy?
Dr. Yokostein
Think, young lady! What are the advantages and disadvatages of having a fluffy tail?
Kitsune
Hm. Disadvantages? For starters, it can get caught on things like branches and grass. It makes you a big target for hunters or for lecherous old bears. Sometimes it gets dirty and it takes a long time to clean, because there's just so much fur...
Dr. Yokostein
And the advantages?
Kitsune
Hmm. You can wrap yourself up in it and it will keep you warm at night. It helps you keep balance when you're tiptoing along tree branches...
Dr. Yokostein
So a fluffy tail is sometimes mildly inconvenient, but at the same time gives one the advantage of warmth and agility. Can you not see how a fluffy-tailed creature would evolve from creatures with regular-sized tails? How nature would select a creature with a fluffy-tailed mutation over a creature with a not-so-fluffy tail? And how such a fluffy-tailed creature would in turn pass on its fluffy-tailed gene to its children, who would then stand a better chance at survival and, in turn, would pass on their fluffy-tailed genes to their children? And so on?
Kitsune
I think I understand.
Dr. Yokostein smiled a toothy, squinty smile. But Kitsune wasn't quite finished with him.
Kitsune
However, that raises even more questions.
Dr. Yokostein
More questions, hm? Like what?
Kitsune
For example, why is the lay of the world such that fluffy-tailed creatures are selected by nature more than others? Why do creatures evolve at all? What causes them to evolve that way? And where did the first creature even come from?
Dr. Yokostein
Bah!
With a big grunt he lumbered to his feet, in the process pushing his big wood desk out towards Kitsune with his stomach.
Dr. Yokostein
Psuedo-philisophical, religious mumbo jumbo! Science doesn't answer those kind of questions!
Kitsune
But—
Dr. Yokostein
Out with you! Get out of my office! I have real work to do, thank you!
And Dr. Yokostein waddled over and ushered Kitsune out his door. It slammed shut.