This does not matter to Hozs, he has a decent job, running the horses for his dad’s ferry, and on the logging trails when the rivers are in low flow. What matters to Hozs is the horses, and the deer, and all the other fauna of the Hollow. He talks to them, and though his family does not understand (or even believe) it, they allow that this gift does indeed make Hozs special.
Hozs long ago gave up telling his family about the animal conversations. Even if they had believed him they had no interest in which grass was greener, which moose where rutting, or why the mice were really willing to make a nest near the larder even though Miss Kitty One Eye and his three litter mates lived there (Hozs had never heard of a cliché, but assumed it must the be the cheese with all the holes in it, since that is why they stayed). Though they always said they believed him, Hozs knew his family did not and he stopped trying to explain the things the animals said and never told them when he began carving these ‘animal secrets’ onto sticks, leaves and such.
He certainly never told them about the large rat with the scabby face and a tail twice as thick and half as short as it should have been. He never told them about that it walked out of the forest one day—upright and carrying a stick. But he became friends with the rat, who told him he once lived in cloister and who learned many secrets from his masters as they studied for hours upon hours. The masters thought it was cute that the rat would imitate them, but eventually lost interest in the intelligent creature focusing more and more on their studies. Eventually, the rat said, he had to find his own way and left the obsessive cloister to live among the other animals of the forest.
“You Hozs, are the most interesting animal I have met in this forest and for that I shall share my secrets,” said the rat. Of course without the gift of Hozs’ it sounded like ‘Squeekity squeek, squeek. Squeek squeek squeekity.’ For this reason Hozs calls the rat Miss Squeeker. Through Miss Squeeker, Hozs discovered other gifts. He is strong and fast with the fist and with the staff (Miss Stick). His Ki is healthy and he can project it outward to help others in need.
