Quoted By:
Kingdom names were considered, then canned. Phylum after Phylum was conceptualized and binned within a matter of minutes. You hammered away at names after names after names and hardly took a moment to consider just <span class="mu-i">how</span> in-depth you'd have to go for this.
Even just measuring your sheep was a chore. She (you'd checked) didn't seem to share your appreciation for your fancy new tape measure, nor understand why you kept gently poking her jaw until she bleated at you to stop. All the while, you kept looking away from her to do <span class="mu-i">something</span> with that strange orange claw of yours...
<span class="mu-i">Sex: Female.</span>
<span class="mu-i">Height: Approx. 2' 01".</span>
<span class="mu-i">Length: Approx. 3' 02".</span>
<span class="mu-i">Weight...</span> you stopped and looked to your companion, slowly moving to her side and observing what you could of her stomach area to her spine. <span class="mu-i">...approximated at 70 pounds.</span>
Underlined, next to it: <span class="mu-r">Weigh on scale ASAP.</span>
And those were just the basics. The process had somehow managed to make you admire Linnaeus even more than you already had.
You went on to describe <span class="mu-i">everything</span> you could about your tolerant friend. How she felled the birds, how she commanded electricity to do so, how she followed you so loyally and only barely protested when you took measurements and notes on every little noise she made. You found yourself writing an entire paragraph on how she spoke alone, going off onto tangents about her possible understanding of human speech, how the electricity affected her inflection...
It was only when you looked up from your notepad to see the sun a full quarter of the sky away from where it had been last that you understood how long you'd spent writing about a single creature.
One with no name, no less...
Your eyes fixated upon the sheep's. Her pure-black peepers returned the favor.
You knew of a classification. You had an entire rough <span class="mu-i">tree</span> planned out, in your head, for how you could classify these strange beasts. And yet, through all this, you'd neglected an equally-important name for much too long.
What nickname would best fit your sheepy friend?
>Write-in
