Perusina, Perusino, and Franz in Alto Mayo

The cloud forest made sounds that couldn't be seen.

It creaked above them. It dripped beside them. Somewhere, a bird called out so shrilly, as if it had startled itself. And under Perusino's right shoe, there was a sudden: Squish.

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

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

They were in 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 fabric 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 with dignity. 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?"

"Maybe," Tomás whispered. "Or maybe something no one has described here yet."

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

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

Then the small creature moved. Not forward. Up.

It climbed along the edge of the leaf with tiny fingers, 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 precisely 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, "the animal owes me an explanation."

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

Tomás blinked. "Such small 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 mini-stream. Franz sniffed. "Smells like wet leaf. And ... pepper?"

"Pepper?" Perusino asked.

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

They followed the trail deeper into the forest. The mist grew thicker. 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 one. Then a small transparent box, half-hidden under leaves. Empty.

Perusino swallowed. "For the animal?"

Tomás said nothing. But his face said enough.

Franz ducked. "Someone's there."

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

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

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

"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 load of water splashed from a bromeliad funnel right next to the man.

Splash.

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

"Hey!" he called.

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

It didn't make 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 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 mist. 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 stared at a stone next to the water.

There it sat.

The small dark creature.

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 we give it a name?"

"Not yet, properly," Tomás said. "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."

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 mist closed in silently.

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 like panic."

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

And somewhere in the cloud forest sat an animal that might have just met the world.