"What do you want to do today?" Dual questioned over breakfast. She wasn't quite sure this was all supposed to be 'breakfast food', but Remo had put a lot of work into it, like always, and that was good enough for her. Also, it was delicious.

"We should go to another beach!" Dorothy interjected before Remo could say anything. "Or to a carnival or..."

"I asked Remo."

"Um, how about somewhere with lots of animals?" Remo replied.

"Like the aquarium?" Dorothy questioned. "That was fun. I can't believe how big some of the fish were."

"I liked watching the jellyfish."

"We got to pet all the things in that one pool," Remo added with a wide smile. "That was neat."

"Let's find lots of things to pet, then," Dorothy declared.

Dual nodded. It sounded like a very good idea.

Which is how they ended up at a county fair, surrounded by people, animals, food, and a rollicking carnival. It was summer, Dual supposed. They all had shorts and short-sleeved shirts on. Dorothy had been given a hat. She and Remo both had their hair up.

"Let's look at everything!" Remo reached for Dual's hand and Dual nodded and let herself be pulled onward.

Dual was sure she'd seen animal competitions before, but not like this. There were pens decorated with all colors of ribbons, even though all the animals looked about the same to her. What made one better than the other, she wondered? Colors? Size?

They wandered through a barn of pigs, not stopping to pet any aside from one at the end that had its head up over the top rail of its pen. Remo hesitated while looking at it, until a boy chuckled and quickly said "It's okay. He's friendly."

Carefully, Remo reached to stroke the pig's head and then quickly pulled her hand back, laughing. "He's kind of prickly! I thought he'd be soft!"

"What, really?" Dorothy reached to pet the pig next. "Oh! You next, Dual!"

Dual was sure she knew what to expect, based on Dorothy and Remo's expressions, but she was wrong. The pig did seem to like the attention and made what sounded like a happy little noise, so she stroked his head a couple of times. Oddly bristly, but not entirely un-soft. They'd touched all sorts of things, soft and slippery and squishy and odd, at the aquarium, so this seemed about right.

"He's very nice," Dual told the boy, in case they'd offended him. But instead, the boy just looked amused. "Thank you."

"Come back if you want to pet him again," the boy said with a warm smile. By then, Remo was already petting him again anyway. Dual glanced to see if the pig had any ribbons hanging on his pen, but the only one she saw was one that simply said 'Participant'.

That didn't make a lot of sense, but she didn't think she should ask about it, either. Clearly, this was the best pig of the bunch.

"Dual? Come on, let's go--"

Dual blinked and then let Dorothy pull her along. She gave one last nod to both pig and boy.

And wondered if she'd ever quite understand.