The new arrival bobs slightly in place and emits a soft, curious trill.

The parrot mimics the trill and says, "Are you friend? Have food? Play game?" Then he flies past Petal to another perch, banking around to get a good look at her. When he gets to the new perch he pecks at a rattle, which makes a cascade of little clicking noises.

"Friend?" she mimics hesitantly; then she flies up to the rattle and pokes it. It makes the sounds. What an interesting object! She pokes it again.

"Friend!" Plasma baps the rattle again and then leans over and tries to preen Petal's fur with his beak.

Petal's fur is very soft. She makes a quiet noise not unlike a giggle and tips her head to gently bonk an antler against Plasma's beak.

Then she looks around at the room again. Those dried plants are interesting. She floats over to one for a closer look.

There are leaves and flowers and seed-pods and a dandelion puff preserved in resin and a sunflower head with the petals removed and some of the outermost seeds carefully painted to illustrate the Fibonacci number of spirals.

She noses gently at a flower and, by unclear means, extracts a soft fresh petal from it without disturbing any of the dried petals that are actually attached. Then she carries the petal across the room to the spot under the table where her eggshell lies in pieces, sets it down next to the scattered fragments, and curls up in the biggest piece of eggshell to nap. Left undisturbed, she will sleep for about twenty minutes.

After about fifteen of those minutes, Ari comes into the apartment, starts making a cup of tea, and smiles as Plasma flies over to the nearest perch. "Hello," she says. "How was your day today?"

"A new friend!"

"Oh?"

"Yes really."

"And where is this new friend?" asks Ari, still thinking the friend is a sunbeam or a dust bunny.

Instead, Plasma lands on the back of one of the breakfast nook chairs and extends a foot downward. "Friend is here!"

Ari goes to look under the table and says, "Oh! Oh my."

A small sleepy eye blinks at her. "Ohmy?" says a small sleepy voice, as different from a human's as a parrot's but in a very different way.

Ari goes gracefully to one knee and peers at Petal. "Hello! Can you understand me?"

Soft sleepy trill. "Hello can?"

"Endless stars, you're cute." She points at herself and says "Ari", then points at Petal and makes a questioning headtilt.

Petal attempts to mirror the gesture, is foiled by the shortness of her limbs, and instead hops out of her eggshell and onto the petal on the floor.

"Where did you get that?" asks Ari, still in the same tone of voice she talks to Plasma in.

She yawns a teeny tiny yawn, trots out from under the table, and gently bonks an antler against Ari's knee.

Ari takes her handcomp out of her shirt pocket and snaps several photographs, then sets it to reverse-camera and shows Petal her own realtime image.

Tiny green eyes widen in astonishment. A tiny brown limb points excitedly at the not-exactly-mirror. Emphatic curious trilling.

Ari hits the video button and gets a recording of the last little bit of trilling. "That's you!" Then she tries holding up fingers and counting: "One, two, three, four, five." Then she holds up three fingers again.

"One two three?" she echoes hesitantly, hopping in place once per count. Her tiny hooves meet the floor in unison with neat little taps.

"Yes, three! Good!" Big smile no wait her teeth are the size of the dear little critter's head big smile without teeth. Five fingers?

"One two three..." she trails off uncertainly but finishes counting five hops without the words.

She goes over all five numbers again in her most encouraging teacherly voice and then tries four fingers.

"One two three four!" she counts, more confidently this time, still with the hops.

"Yes!" She opens her handcomp's drawing app and draws groups of one, two, three, four, and five dots, with the corresponding symbols next to them, then holds it out for Petal to examine and potentially draw on further.

The creature leans in to peer at the screen. She tries to mimic Ari's motion to draw on it, but her tiny hoof doesn't register. So instead she points.

One dot: "One!"

Two dots: "One two!"

Three dots: "One two three!"

Four dots: "One two three four!"

Five dots: "One two three four..." trail off, un-narrated fifth hop.