Cosmo would be the first to admit that most koalas aren’t very ambitious. And before he came to Jamaa, he seemed to be a fairly typical koala: he spent most of his time in trees, eating leaves. But even then, despite his outward appearance, there was something different about Cosmo. You see, Cosmo understands plants. Now you might be thinking, “That’s no big deal. Lots of people understand plants. My mom understands plants.” But Cosmo doesn’t just understand how to make plants grow. He understands what they’re saying — to each other, to animals, and sometimes even to themselves (a lot of plants talk to themselves, because they assume nobody is listening). As soon as most plants in Jamaa realize Cosmo can communicate with them, they become willing to do some pretty amazing things to help him. They tell him how to mix various natural substances together to create potions with hundreds of uses. They can carry him quickly through the trees, hide him, and even create traps for Phantoms that are undetectable until it’s too late. Cosmo and Peck are the youngest of the Alphas, and sometimes the others don’t really get their jokes or appreciate their pranks. But there’s one thing Cosmo never jokes about. He has a deep and reverent respect for the power of the natural world; perhaps because he is able to communicate with so much of it.
