Another Way

Chapter 16: Justice

The surprised stare the vixen gave her pupil might have been puny in comparison to the couple of borderline mind shattering realizations from earlier, but even then it was more shock than Sundance ever showed on a regular basis. She needed a moment or two to sort her thoughts out, eventually answering with her own question-

"^...I'm less surprised about you just not knowing about evolution and more so about that being the case despite your language having that word. If you wouldn't mind answering- what does your kind of 'evolution' mean, Sue?^"

Sue was less annoyed at her question being deftly put on the rhetorical backburner and more so flustered about her tattered and woefully lacking knowledge of biology suddenly being brought up into the spotlight. She hoped against all hope that she at least understood the basics of this particular area, and that all those hard earned B-'s and C+'s would be sufficient here-

"So, um... when you have populations of a certain species, and it reproduces with variations, then like- their environment will prefer some variations over others, so when... think of a group of birds that feed on nuts, and they migrate somewhere with different nuts, that are harder to break. Then the ones with by chance bigger beaks will be able t-to break the new nuts easier, and will be more likely to pass their genes on, a-and eventually the populations will be almost entirely bigger beaks."

This might have been the most vague bastardization of Darwin's finches known to man or beast, but it better prove sufficient with it being the only concrete enough piece of information that Sue felt able to recall. Fortunately, that seemed like it was indeed the case, Sundance continuing to guide them towards the baths as she chewed on that concept, scritching her snout as she nodded at nothing in particular a couple times.

"^Hmm... and then if, say, their environment were to change in such a way that the access to pyrokinesis would prove advantageous, that population would then eventually gain the Fire typing?^"

If not for them taking up a hefty part of a rather narrow path on their way to the baths, Sue would've heavily considered stopping on the spot and asking the firefox to explain all that again but slowly. Instead, she only hoped that Sundance's brains resulted in her figuring out the general idea even if the specific example chosen was completely incomprehensible.

"I... think so?"

"^I see. Now that I think about it, I've heard of a similarly sounding idea before, though only in the form of a hearsay of a tale of a long lived dragon noticing a marked change in the appearance of many smaller critters in the valley they inhabited over their lifetime. Curious to hear that there's some merit to that- what's the limit of a... population change like that? Also- here we are.^"

As Sue considered Sundance's question, their destination finally came to sight, much of it taking the once human aback with how luxurious it looked. A handful of hot tubs stood on a large elevated platform, only one of them currently in use. Judging by the vapor emanating from even the two unoccupied ones though, they were all soothingly warm.

The sight transfixed Sue enough to make her overlook the pretty large practical obstacle of her ever getting in or out of one in her current state, nonexistent athletic skill and being forced to use a crutch not helping any. The cast on her leg was an even larger issue, but similarly ignored, the still-weary once-human taking a couple steps towards the nearest one-

And finding herself gently, yet firmly, held back by Sundance's mental grip, the orange sheen that surrounded her body blissfully warm. It made for a perfectly acceptable substitute for a hot tub's embrace- at least for the approximate four seconds that it lasted.

"Not there~. Don't have time to soak like that, and even if we did, you'd have to clean yourself the normal way first anyway."

The brief blip of despair that underlined Sue's thought process at the realization of there not actually being any hot baths in her immediate future didn't last too long thankfully. Especially so once her attention was guided over to the much more modest sight beside the platform that the hot tubs rested on.