Motif had heard about the red panda by now, it was hard not to - WInter had told her in passing, and with some hint of scorn in her strange, clacking tones. Mostly to warn her that the tree-mouse was a scoundrel. Instead of deterring her, Motif was most curious, and in the mess of clean up after the fire, would find her way to the tree Winter had indicated, and stop by its base, looking up into its leafy foliage.

“Hello, Mr Kirby?” she asked, keeping to her politest tones. She had a request to make of the red bear-like creature. It was a very formal, very important question, and she would approach it with caution and trepidation. She would hate to scare him off, and lose her chance. A chance she had been waiting for.

None of the ravens had accepted her, and like Noir she had felt a pinch of jealousy when Poem had been chosen. Chosen as a companion, chosen as an heir. Her jealousy wasn’t as deep as Noir, she had her love to balance it. Still, it made her strive for this, and she shifted her feet as she waited cautiously for the tree-man to come down.

The small, youthful voice that trickled up through the leaves almost wasn't enough to pull Armando out of his midday nap. "Mister Kirby?" the voice said. Sleepily Armando wondered who Kirby was...and then he cracked an eye open and blinked blearily into the sunlight. He was Mister Kirby. That meant it was time to rise and shine.

He peeked sleepily over the hefty branch he was laying on so he could see whoever was on the ground below. It was a girl pup. And not just any girl pup. This one looked an awful lot like Shaye. Armando's gaze sharpened. How interesting. He wondered what she might be there for. Curiosity, maybe? Perhaps he was being summoned by the alpha? Only one way to find out.

Armando stretched and yawned like a cat before shaking out his fluffy coat and padding to the trunk of the tree. Before climbing down he leaned over the edge and pipped, "Hello there!" After that he clamored down the trunk clumsily - his tail which he would normally use to hug the tree, was still bandaged and out of commission - and stopped on a much lower limb. "What can I do for you, dearie?"

Motif bit back a giggle as the little fluffy creature stretched. It was just.. So cute! With its long fluffy tail and bright eyes, and soft fur that Motif wanted to dig her muzzle into. She hadn’t known what a red panda was, but now she did, and she knew he was perfect

But she had to be serious, so she bit back her amusement and looked to the tree-climber as he climbed down to a lower branch of the tree. Ghee whizz, she wished she could do that. Even Canni could climb a tree, so why couldn’t she?

“Mr Kirby, i’m Motif Destruction, and, uhm. My mother told me how you could stay in the pack lands for a couple days, and well..” she shuffled, trying to prase this right. “I- I was wondering if you wanted to be my companion.” that came out in a quick rush and she blushed, and tried to explain herself. “Companions get rights in Abaven, it’ll protect you, and mean you could stay for longer. I’ll look after you, and - and it’ll be fun” she explained, as through that was the most important point of all.

She wanted....wait, what did she want, exactly? 'Companion' sounded like an awfully nice way of saying fuzzy little pocket pet. Of course he'd seen his fair share of those running around. Never thought he'd find himself in the position of being asked to be one.

...never thought he'd be in a position where he would be considering it either, but the pluses far outweighed the negatives. This had to be Shaye's kid. Shaye had something he wanted. Abaven itself was full of goodies he wanted. He needed a reason to stay longer than a few days. Basically he had lots of reasons to say yes and only his pride in favor of saying no. And he'd sold his pride for goodies before so this wouldn't exactly be a first.

The girl was clearly taking this very seriously so Armando tried to do the same. Before answering he climbed down to a lower limb and then jumped to the ground below. Once there he stood up on his hind legs so he was eye level with the girl. "Motif," he said humbly. "I would love to. Abaven is a very nice place and everyone has been so kind to me, I'd love to stay here too. And I bet we'll have loads of fun. I know the best games."

She looked up into the tree at the fuzzy orange creature, hopful eyes watching him. She had said her piece, and she only had to hope that it was enough. She held her breath, waited, and.. He said yes!

She jumped straight up, bouncing on her back legs in sheer joy, releasing the tension she had coiled in on herself as she politely asked him. “Yes, yes, yes! You wont regret it Mr Kirby” she said with excitement. “Ohh, i’ll look after you, and we’ll have all the most fun.” she said, breathlessly. “I.. I.. I need to nickname you now, right? How about, how about, fluffykins?” she paused, flicking her tail behind her and her paws both scraped against the earth in front of her as she thought. “Or Little Tree.. no.. Mittens?”

Armando very nearly fell over backwards as Motif jumped for joy. Though she was just a pup she was still very large compared to the pint-sized panda. One wrong move and she'd come down on top of him like a ton of bricks. Her mother may have been a healer, but Armando doubted she was a miracle worker.

“Ohh, I'll look after you, and we’ll have all the most fun,” she gushed, and Armando, trying to keep up with her, clasped his forepaws together and quickly chirped, "Yes, yes, the most fun!" Motif was still speaking but he was only half listening until the moniker 'fluffykins' snapped him to attention. He froze with his paws still clasped together, his guileless expression faltering briefly. Whoa, whoa, whoa now. Oh god no. Oh this was bad.

Thankfully years of practice enabled him to hide the horror he felt. Fluffykins. Mittens. He couldn't think of worse nicknames.

Now wait. Once he got past the initial dignity shattering shock and forced himself to be practical he had to admit this probably worked in his favor as well. Armando was willing to bet that most companions were ignored by most wolves. And silly, cute little companions with silly, cute little names probably barely registered as living things. If he adopted a goofy name and buddied up to the girl the other wolves would probably consider him an accessory more than anything else. He could get away with all kinds of shit then and no one would bat an eye.

Ugh, fine. It was settled. Armando lit up like a Christmas tree for Motif's benefit. "Oh that sounds wonderful! But nicknames are earned, right? So how about you wait a bit and see which one you think fits me best?" Maybe if he played his cards right he could pull her away from those disgraceful names and towards something a little less humiliating.

The Fluffy Parade She had a companion. he wasn’t a bird like was usual in Abaven, but he looked soft and squishy, and he could climb trees, and his paws looked almost as dexterous as a monkey. She was well pleased with herself for thinking of it, and for convincing him to become her companion. She let herself fall to the ground on her belly and inched closer to the red panda, until her nose touched his belly fur, from where he stood, front paws clasped together. It was very cool how he could stand on two paw’s or four, with much greater balance then a wolf could ever achieve if they tried the same. She sniffed him over, he still smelled like smoke, and the herbs her mother had smoothed onto his burns. Her little companion lit up, so bright and pleased at her suggestion, and her tongue lolled free from her lips and her tail wagged happily behind her. Impulsively, she planted a wet kiss across his forehead. “If you hop on my back, we can head to my den and i’ll tell mumma your my companion now” she suggested “and we can plan your nickname there” through she had a feeling she was going to stick to fluffykins, she felt like it fit the fluffy little creature too well. "Speech"

If he was allowed to have a moment of honesty Armando would have had to admit that having a large predator, albeit a friendly one, snuff around his belly was enough to cause his butt to pucker. It was just a lot of teeth around a very sensitive area - any sensible creature could see why it gave him the heebie jeebies.

"Oh good god she's strong," he thought to himself as Motif's sloppy kiss very nearly pushed him over backwards and left him with a slimy cowlick. He was being manhandled by the red panda equivalent of a toddler and it was honestly kind of humbling. Not unlike Atlas slinging him off his rack when he wanted to make a point.

Casually he reached up and smoothed out the cowlick. There was no fixing it, really. Her slobber would clump his fur together and leave it messy looking no matter how much he tried to lay it flat. Oh well...perhaps it too could play into the "I'm a child's silly pet" shtick.

Seemingly ecstatically Armando hopped up onto Motif's back. "Okay, let's go!" he chirped as he eyed her shoulders. She may have been big but she was no moose; none of her was wide enough for him to just park his rump and trust that he wouldn't roll off. How the heck was he supposed to hang on?