Perusina, Perusino, and Franz in Alto Mayo

The cloud forest made sounds that could not be seen.

It cracked above them. It dripped beside them. Somewhere, a bird chirped so shrilly it sounded as if it had startled itself. And under Perusino's right shoe, there was a sudden "splish-splosh."

"I think," said Perusino, "the forest has adopted my foot."

Perusina turned around. Perusino's shoe was stuck in the mud up to his ankle. Franz stood next to him, looking very busy, although he was only sniffing a tuft of moss.

They were exploring Alto Mayo, in a cloud forest that looked as if someone had hung clouds between the trees. Orchids grew on branches. Roots crawled over the ground. Small streams disappeared under ferns and reappeared elsewhere.

A young biologist named Tomás walked ahead of them. A notebook, magnifying glass, and small cloth bags dangled from his backpack.

"Today we're just looking," Tomás said. "Don't touch anything, don't take anything, don't scare anything."

Franz nodded gravely. At that moment, he sneezed so loudly that three tiny frogs jumped off a leaf.

Tomás stopped. "Wait."

The biologist knelt in front of a large, shiny leaf. On it sat two drops, an ant, and something that looked like a piece of living shadow.

It was small. Very small. Dark brown, almost black, with tiny light spots on its sides. It had round eyes, thin fingers, and sat so still as if hoping to be invisible.

Perusino leaned forward. "Is that a baby frog?"

"Perhaps," whispered Tomás. "Or perhaps something that no one has described here yet."

Franz pricked up his ears. "What does 'described' mean?"

"That it gets a scientific name," said Perusina. "That people know: this animal exists."

Then the small animal moved. Not forward. Upwards.

It climbed with tiny fingers along the edge of the leaf, jumped onto a mossy stem, and disappeared into a hole between roots.

Tomás reached for his notebook. "We need to find it again. But carefully. No hunting."

Of course, he said that exactly at the moment Perusino tried to pull his shoe out of the mud, lost his balance, and rolled backward into a fern.

The fern wobbled. A branch wobbled. A whole shower of cold cloud water fell on Franz.

Franz looked as if the forest had personally offended him. "I think," he said, "that animal owes me an explanation."

Perusina knelt beside the mossy stem. "There are tracks here."

Tomás blinked. "Such tiny ones?"

"Not footprints. Water drops." She pointed to a series of tiny drops. "It didn't just jump. It moved along damp spots."

The trail led under a root, over a stone, along a tiny stream. Franz sniffed. "Smells like wet leaf. And like... pepper?"

"Pepper?" asked Perusino.

"I'm a fox. I provide smells, not explanations."

They followed the trail deeper into the forest. The fog grew denser. Orchids hung like small colorful lanterns between the branches. A hummingbird shot past. Somewhere, wood cracked.

Then Perusina saw something red.

A piece of plastic ribbon, tied to a branch.

Tomás grew serious. "That's not ours."

A few steps further, they found another. Then a small transparent box, half hidden under leaves. Empty.

Perusino swallowed. "For the animal?"

Tomás said nothing. But his face said enough.

Franz crouched. "Someone's there."

A figure moved between the trees. A man with a bag and a flashlight. He was searching the ground, slowly, just like them.

Perusina pulled Perusino behind a tree. "He's looking for our animal."

"It's not our animal," whispered Perusino.

"Then it's the animal that doesn't have a name yet."

The man bent down by a stream. Exactly where the trail of drops ended.

Tomás raised a warning hand. "Don't run to him."

But Franz was already off.

Not directly to the man. Franz ran to the side, jumped onto an old branch, and bit into a liana hanging from it. The liana slipped. The branch sprang up. A deluge of cold cloud water splashed right next to the man from a bromeliad funnel.

Splosh.

The man jumped back. His bag fell over. Small plastic containers rolled out.

"Hey!" he shouted.

Perusino jumped out of his hiding place. "Official cloud forest incident!"

It made no sense, but it was loud.

Tomás whistled. A second whistle answered from the forest. Rangers.

The man reached for his bag, but Perusina was already standing in front of him. "You've laid markers."

"I just wanted to look," he said.

Franz growled.

Perusino pointed to the containers. "With a lot of boxes for looking."

Then two rangers came through the fog. Tomás quickly explained what they had found: plastic ribbon, box, containers, the trail by the stream.

The man was taken away.

But Perusina wasn't listening. She was staring at a stone next to the water.

There it sat.

The small dark animal.

It had flattened itself, right next to a drop, and looked like a shadow with eyes.

Tomás audibly inhaled. Very slowly, he raised his camera.

Click.

The animal blinked.

Click.

Franz sat down. "It still smells like pepper."

Tomás smiled. "Then we'll write that down."

Perusino whispered, "Can one give it a name?"

"Not properly yet," said Tomás. "First, you have to observe it, compare it, describe it. You have to be sure."

Perusina nodded. "So it doesn't have a name today yet."

The small animal suddenly jumped from the stone onto a leaf. Then onto a root. Then it was gone. This time, no one ran after it.

The fog quietly closed in.

Perusino finally pulled his shoe out of the mud. He looked inside. "My foot has been released again."

Franz sniffed the imprint. "New species: Perusino mudfoot. Rare. Loud. Smells of panic."

Perusina laughed. Tomás wrote in his notebook: small dark amphibian, light spots, damp trail, smell of pepper, Alto Mayo.

And somewhere in the cloud forest, an animal sat that might have just made its debut to the world.