During the beta reading phase, one of my wonderful readers queried this line:

“The python was being a python, just like she was being Masu.”

‘Shouldn’t it be ‘a’ Masu?’ he asked.

No. This phrasing was deliberate. And here’s why: I was giving them equal dignity with humans. 

It’s a subtle thing, but we tend to objectify the world around us and other creatures. I wanted to do something different in this book. I wanted to have the animals be the mentors. 

But still stay animals. 

The Masu are not just a human-like intelligence inside an animal’s body. They are not anthropomorphised either. 

They are creatures. And they stay creatures. And it’s from this grounded creature perspective that they can teach the humans how to be human.

We’ve lost touch with our world. I’m no different. But every now and again I get a glimpse into the staggering loveliness of the natural world, and how it just IS. How each thing just does its part and never thinks to be anything but itself. Content.

Contentment is a big theme in Son of Osivirius, and it’s communicated primarily through the great Masu.