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"I'm not sure. Do you hum?" she asks the cheeper.

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The cheeper cheeps twice.

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"I guess not. Maybe it's not a hummingbird."

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"It's a cheepingbird," says Tanalin.

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"Hello little cheepingbird," coos Kiawen, and she sets it on her shoulder opposite the piano bear and continues into the cave.

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The cheepingbird rubs its face against the side of her neck.

Another winged creature appears soon after; this one looks something like a very round, very fluffy, very pink bat, and it lands on top of Tanalin's head and flops its wings out to either side.
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"Eee!" giggles Kiawen. "It's a pink bat thing. Probably they come in other colors, most of the things here do. Do you make a sound, bat-thing?"

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The bat-thing chitters.

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"There is a fluffy bat-thing on my head," Tanalin observes.

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"Yes. With its wings flopped over your ears, chittering. What should we call it?"

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"I don't know! It is hard to see its characteristics, because it is on my head!" she giggles.

And she reaches up carefully to pick up the bat-thing off her head and hold it in front of her. It snuggles into her hands.

"Aww, look," she says delightedly, "it's got four little paws and a little fluffy tail. It's like a... rabbit... bat. A rabbat? No, that sounds weird. A bunnydragon?"
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"I like rabbat!"

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"I don't think I do."

She pets the fluffy pink thing anyway. It goes wheep.
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"It doesn't really have bunny ears, anyway," agrees Kiawen.

Eventually they have located, named, and - they think - exhausted the species population of the Gentle Cave, put all their creatures back, and gone home.
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Kanim goes to tell Bella about the cave. "In addition to being extremely cute, it's got this anti-injury field that I figured out after a bit of looking; I don't know how robust it is, but even if a piano bear decided to bite you you wouldn't get bit."

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"Interesting. I wonder if that's duplicable - did you find a source?"

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"We were wandering all up and down the crystal maze and we didn't find anything that said 'Look at me! I'm a mystical artifact!'," says Tanalin. "But maybe Kanim saw something. Did you?"

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"Nothing screamed it. The cave is very self-contained - none of the animals or plants in it have ventured out - could be related, or not, I'll make another trip a while later and see if I can pin it down with more data points at different times of day."

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"Can I go with you?" says Tanalin. "I want to see the fluffbats again."

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"Sure, all three of you can come when I go back."

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"Thank you," trills Carinna.

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"Yay! Fluffbats," beams Tanalin.

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"And we can figure out why they don't leave, and talk to Cricket, and bring home animals, right?"

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"I suppose so. I don't think Cricket would hurt your pets if you acquired them, although he might find it irresistible to scare them."

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"They don't seem to scare very easily," says Tanalin. "I guess living in the Gentle Cave will do that."

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