Chimper #5328
The smell of honey cakes burning was the first thing Minazuki noticed. The second was the baker, a small chimp so covered in flour they looked like a friendly ghost, wailing over the blackened lumps. Minazuki, a wanderer with the regal bearing of a lost monarch, offered a single, deadpan critique: “Your oven is too hot on the left.” This simple observation saved the next batch, and earned Minazuki an unwanted companion through The Heart of the Forest. The baker, whose name was Pip, misinterpreted Minazuki’s brutally honest advice as kindness. When Minazuki silently dispatched a territorial beast with a stare so withering the creature fled in shame, Pip declared them “the sweetest protector in the woods.” The name, tragically, stuck. Now they travel as an unlikely pair, Pip’s cheerful chatter filling the silence left by Minazuki’s judging eyes.