Chapter One

If there is one thing that is universally known about otters, it is that they are the most practical and sensible of all creatures. But in addition to practicality and sensibility, otters also count long suffering and generosity among their many virtues. And so it is that otters sometimes decide to live among very unsensible creatures in order to more conveniently lend their sensibility to the world. This is how a whole pod of perfectly sensible otters came to live with two very impractical humans. Our story is how one of them in particular came to find a home with the pod, make new friends, save the lives of the humans, and eventually earn the name The Adventure Otter. But before we talk about him, we must first talk about how the three original otters met the humans and became a pod.

The first otter met the humans when they were in New Orleans. Our Humans had met only a year before and become quite fond of each other, and so as humans who are fond of each other do, they traveled to a strange city together. While they were in New Orleans they spent a day at the aquarium, where they met a sea otter. The sea otter was from California, and had left a large and crowded family pod to explore far away coasts and sample shellfish along the way. Being a practical creature, this otter had packed lightly. The only possession that she carried on her journey was a dried starfish.

You see, sea otters sleep in groups, holding hands so they don't float away. This is a very sensible way to sleep in the ocean, but holding hands is not strictly necessary for sea otters that travel inland. Still, they get so used to sleeping with something in their paws that sojourning sea otters will often take a memento of home with them just so they have something to hold on to. It leads to much better sleep when traveling, and is much more practical than bringing an entire pod with you.

This otter with a starfish quickly became fond of the humans. She had enjoyed her tour of the East Coast, but was tired of traveling, and it was time for a place to settle down. The female human wanted to take her home, so the man made arrangements to bring her.

She enjoyed the new home, and quickly made friends with the snow leopard that lived on the top of the book shelf and the two cats that roamed the woman's house. At night she kept the woman company, and they held hands so they would both sleep better, and neither of them would float away. During the day the sea otter would talk to the cats, lounge on the bed, write letters home to her family, and occupy herself with other such otterly pursuits. It was a peaceful and welcome relief after spending most of her life with a large, boisterous and noisy family pod.

Life went on like this for several years, with the sea otter dispensing sensible advice to the cats, and telling sensible stories to Snow Leopard, and providing sensible comfort to her woman whenever she was sad or frustrated. Eventually, though, she started to miss having the company of other sensible and practical creatures. So she mentioned this to the man and the woman, and they agreed that it was reasonable to want another otter around, because after all otters are very useful creatures.

So one day, when the man and the woman were traveling to Pensacola, as humans who are fond of each other do, they thought about how they found the sea otter in New Orleans, and decided to try and find another sea otter. But no matter how hard they looked, no sojourning sea otters were to be found. But the next day, while visiting the zoo, a river otter approached them to ask for directions. The river otter was making its way north, and so the humans offered it a ride. During the trip back north, the river otter and the sea otter became fast friends, and so the river otter came to live with the sea otter, and any time the river otter felt nostalgic for Pensacola, the sea otter would share her starfish.

Now as the humans spent more and more time together, they also became quite fond of having otters around, and came to rely quite heavily on their sensible and practical company. So one day in Chattanooga, when they were traveling together as humans who are fond of each other do, the man took the woman to the Aquarium. They stopped at one place because there were benches and because there were otters, making it a very sensible place to sit. You see, the man wanted to give the woman a ring, as humans who are extremely, inordinately fond of each other do, and ask her to be a pod with him. He had consulted the river otter and the sea otter for advice, and they had told him that the most sensible place would be somewhere with a bench that they could sit, and a place with otters since that would make the woman happy.

The woman liked the spot very much, and so she accepted the ring, and told the man that she would like to be a pod with him, and cried a lot (which is not very sensible, but is a thing that humans sometimes do when they are very happy or very sad). This drew the attention of the otters, who had been running and playing, but one of them in particular kept watching the humans, since they were being quite silly and entertaining to watch. Eventually the humans talked to the brown river otter, and the otter made friends with them. The otter decided that if the humans were going to be that ridiculous in public, then clearly they were in need of some good sensible otterly advice to help them start their new pod. He determined to go home with them, and was pleased to discover two imminently practical otters already there.

Now, otters have a saying, "three is a pod." This is from an archaic expression about the best number of otters to have for highest efficiency at  being sensible: "one otter is effective, two is redundant, and three is a pod." However it was discovered that two otters are not in fact redundant, as long as they are sufficiently different from each other, so now most otters only remember the part about three being a pod. Since they were now three in number, the otters decided that they were now a pod.

One of the ways that otter practicality shines through, is their clever and sensible approach to names. When there is just one otter, having a name is not very useful. When there are two otters, they get by without names, because each one knows who they are, and each one knows who the other is, and each knows that if they are not talking to themself, then they must be talking to the other. But once there are three otters, suddenly names become important. In the case of the newly formed pod, they held an Ottenmoot, which is a formal gathering of otters where important decisions can be made. It was decided that the newest otter, who met the humans in Chattanooga, should go by the name Small Otter, since it was the smallest of the three. Similarly, it was decided that the river otter from Pensacola should be called Medium Otter, since it was bigger than Small Otter, but not as big as the sea otter. Finally, it was decided that the best name for the sea otter would be Starfish Otter, since she always carried her keepsake starfish with her.

And so, that is the story of how The Pod was formed. Or at least the Otter Pod. The humans had to wait two more years to become a pod because there was a great plague, and so no humans could do anything. But that plague, and the big human event is how the fourth otter came to join the pod.