The Five Senses
“The five senses” is a subject explored by a handful of Renaissance painters, among them Jan Brueghel the Elder, Peter Paul Rubens, and Michaelina Wautier. For my own version of the five senses, each sense is represented by an intelligent species in the world of Fantasy Ecology.
Taste
The sparrow uses flight to escape the fox. The hedgehog, prickles. The rabbit, speed. But gnomes have a trait that is just as efficient: intelligence. It was intelligence that allowed Fennelsprout Wildsprocket to lead the fox that was chasing him back to the trap he had set earlier that morning. It was intelligence that allowed him to build it in the first place. And now, it is intelligence that allows him to enjoy his lunch instead of being lunch.
