"Wow."

"It is written that other species have very different life cycles, but I've never talked to anyone who actually experienced it." 

"What, they don't talk to you guys?"

"They're so rare, or they live deep in the wilderness, or in a hell. Most monsters aren't people." 

"Well, if they're not people it isn't that surprising that they would be different, like how seals don't lay eggs and fish never learn to fly."

"Yeah. That's true. But you are a person and you're still pretty different." 

"Yup. There aren't any other kinds of people where I'm from, at least that I've ever heard of."

"There is precedent for intelligent monsters joining the clans, but not much. More in legend."

"People love to say that Grandmother's father was an intelligent jaguar. But she's so old that nobody but her would know the truth." Chimes in Jing Yi. 

"The fact that the Jing do it is not sufficient evidence that it is proper." Replies Du Ye staidly. 

"It's not evidence it's not proper either." 

"Just so. I do believe it would be considered proper, despite how rare it is." 

"I wouldn't expect a jaugar to be able to have descendants with one of you guys!"

"I think it's a cultivator thing? A mortal human and a mortal jaguar couldn't have descendants, certainly." 

"This just... becomes an option at some point in the process? That seems really random."

Du Ye shifts awkwardly. "I'm not sure I want to discuss the details with a four year old girl. Perhaps a member of my clan of a more maternal bent." 

"Suit yourself."

Guo Rong: "I'd tell you, but I don't actually know either." 

Jian Bojing: "It probably has to do with how the more powerful at cultivation something gets, the more humanlike or dragonlike they get." 

"What's a dragon?"

"The supreme form of monster. The intercessor between the mortal realm and the heavens. The form out of all forms in the universe best suited to wielding raw power. ... They're sort of lizardy?" 

"And humans turn into them since you are already as humany as you can be?"

"The imperial clan does. Everyone else stays human - I think we would be becoming more human-y but becoming more like yourself doesn't change anything." 

"Huh. ...I want to keep my wings."

"It's not an accidental process, and you're pretty human-y already." Says Du Ye. 

"If one of the members of an elder council looked like you, I'd imagine they started as a regular bird." Says Jian Yi. 

"Oh, it doesn't have to be a complete humanification?"

"No. I don't think you're alone, here, in wanting to keep your useful natural features." 

"I'd miss my claws too," she's noticed by now that humans have those weird flat things, "but not as much."

"Do you want your wings for flying, or for some other reason?" 

"...I mean, flying is what I do with them but also imagining myself without them just seems really incorrect."