All spoilers for Hollow Kingdom (2019) are unmarked. You Have Been Warned.
Feral Creatures is a 2021 novel by Kira Jane Buxton and the sequel to Hollow Kingdom.
Years after most of humanity succumbed to a Zombie Apocalypse, S.T. the crow is having a fairly peaceful life in Alaska raising the last known healthy human. Sure, it's frustrating that young Dee has little interest in her species' culture, but S.T. tries the best that he can.
Once again, trouble is brewing in S.T.'s hometown of Seattle. The crow must return home, with adopted daughter in tow, and get to the bottom of it.
Feral Creatures contains examples of:
- Least Rhymable Word: A spotted ratfish has the misfortune of overhearing S.T. compose a poem that rhymes on the second and fourth lines. The crow gets stuck after he ends a line with "sovereign", resulting in the last stanza Rhyming with Itself.What the great fuck rhymes with sovereign?
- Legacy Character: Onida, The One Searched For, turns out to be a status that isn't limited to a single individual. While the Onida S.T. searched for in the first book was an octopus in the Seattle Aquarium, here Onida is a walrus in Alaska.
- Painting the Medium: When S.T. mentions having once slept upside down, the next line of text is likewise inverted:ยกǝɯ uo ƃuᴉɥʇou ʇoƃ ʇ,uᴉɐ sʇɐq ʇᴉnɹℲ (Fruit bats ain't got nothing on me!)
- Rhyming with Itself: S.T. composes a poem about moustaches where the second and fourth lines of each stanza rhyme. The final verse ends up rhyming "sovereign" with itself because S.T.'s unable to think of a rhyme, and the last line is just S.T. wondering what rhymes with "sovereign".
- Time Skip: The bulk of the novel takes place over a decade after Hollow Kingdom. While the exact amount of time isn't given, it's long enough that baby Dee is deemed by S.T. to be a teenager and the minor recurring feline character of Genghis Cat is mentioned to have become noticeably elderly.
