Well, at least one young female in the forest didn't mind either the shadows or being hysterical. Didn't mind the trees, bushes, dirt or bugs. Oh, not hysterical as in fear, but hysterical as in laughter. Giggles. You know, all that little girl stuff. Even though she wasn't a little girl, herself. At least, not a human little girl. A little thing, instead. Ferret in size. Covered in fur, with silverish scales on her limbs and a tuft of fur on the end of a long, slender tail. Fur of golden tan and earthtoned browns, eyes pale blue yet tinted with lavender. Very white, sharp teeth. Large, expressive ears. Four nostrils on the end of her snout and a crystaline scale on her forehead. Indeed, young and female, even though not human. And, really, having the time of her life!
Her parents?
Well, she'd run off on her own to play, her parents some distance behind her, but not at all unaware of where she'd gotten to. Yep, they'd catch up in time, if only...
... well, she heard this voice in the distance, while she'd been staring down this particularly large and pugnacious beetle. Yes, a game of "Who Blinks First"... but the sound of that distant voice in her sensative little ears had spoiled her concentration. She'd blinked. Shoot! Lost the game! But, an instant later, she giggled away her disappointment, while curiousity drew her attention in the direction of the voice... or was that voices, now? Oh, well! Nothing ventured.........
Little legs skittered through the leaf-litter. Little claws gripped tree-bark at the end of a flying leap. And... POOF!... up the tree she flew! From branch to branch, her delight expressed in high-pitched squeals and bounce of tree-limbs... well, not the big limbs, but the branches, her light weight being equally ferret in nature, if not perhaps a tiny bit more, given her physical nature. Given her species. But still, those slender branches were fun to bounce from. Even funner to fling from tree to tree from the ends of those branches, like a squirrel on crack.........
Whoopsies...!
This particularly gnarled and twisted tree had other ideas. Other ideas that didn't involve drugged "squirrels" or drunk "ferrets"... no, this tree made itself particularly difficult, by snapping off the end of a branch juuust as she grabbed it! Not nice.........
Bad tree...!
So, with a flail of little limbs, and a cackle of delight, she fell from overhead, fortunate in that she'd also just reached the source of the voices.........
THUMP...!
Leaf-litter crackled as she hit, then just as suddenly scattered in a squealing flail of little limbs, her little ferret-sized self quickly up on her haunches, bits of debris in her fur. Shake of little body, a look all about herself, followed by little clawed fingers grooming away the mess, till she sat there neat as the proverbial pin. Wide little eyes on the two humans...
... little handpaws suddenly clapped to her nose...
... "Hello'sers... you's a'boths needs batherings...!"