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She, too, was on the hunt.

Those who had ever met or seen Raccoon in the company of her Bonded Soquili, Anelisse, would undoubtedly have something complimentary to say about the devotion, dedication, and unswerving loyalty shown by the familiar to her Soquili companion. Indeed, there were likely few familiars out there who could be more single-minded in their pursuit of their Soquili's esteem and comfort. Anelisse was the world to Raccoon, and had been ever since she had first met up with the mare when she was still a vain (but woefully under-styled) filly. Raccoon had been pretty young herself at the time, but already developed a fascination bordering on obsession with the hair of other creatures. In Anelisse, she had been presented with an amazing head of two-tone hair, boundless patience for the time it took for one of Raccoon's creations, and a temperament that, while twitchy at times, ultimately complimented Raccoon's zealous optimism.

One of the few surprises that Raccoon bestowed on observers was the fact that she was completely Speechless. Unlike most familiars, which possessed the gift of literate, verbal communication, Raccoon had never had that ability; her communication was still verbal, but it was heavy on chittering, chirping, and other noises in partnership with a wide array of hand gestures and body language. It was, honestly, bewildering to those that didn't know Raccoon; though she didn't speak actual words, she was still very much the chatterbox and didn't tend to automatically make allowances for learning curves.

In short, she was an interesting personality, and personality was, in turn, something that she never worried about running low on. In a way eerily similar to her mistress she was strong in her passions; the only true difference was the nature of those passions, and the fact that Raccoon was remarkably even of temper.

Indeed, she might almost be able to be called completely lacking in temper; very few things riled or upset Raccoon. Anelisse's tempers had never once been directed at her loyal companion; though Anelisse could be childish and peevish, she was also shrewd and understanding when it came to her friend; indeed, Raccoon had been the most constant and adoring presence in her life since she was a small child, something that even the most unreasonable of Soquilis would have issue ignoring. For Anelisse herself, Raccoon was companion, hairdresser, guard-dog, friendly ear, playmate, entertainment. To say that their bond was close was a gross, gross, understatement.

But as with any relationship, sometimes space apart was needed and necessary, and that was what brought Raccoon out and about today. While it was true that she was an exceptional raccoon, she was a raccoon nonetheless, with that breeds inherent weakness for collecting and hoarding objects, especially shiny ones. Ever since she was a kitten, Raccoon had been obsessed with collecting, and it had been some long time since she'd been wearing a leather knapsack/pouch that she'd 'collected' from a Kawani camp for the sole purpose of holding her treasures. Shells, pebbles, feathers, seeds, rocks...all were fair game, provided that they caught her interest. Some were destined to be ornaments for Anelisse; others were just hers to have and pull out occasionally for inspirational purposes.

Today had thus far been a successful day, she mused as she sat perched up in the fork of a tree. Three blue feathers, found on the ground below an empty nest; one grey rock with a shiny pink stripe in in; a handful of acorns which she'd taken from some squirrels because the squirrels were being silly, and one clam shell from the bank of a stream. Not a bad start!

She was perusing these treasures with a measuring eye when a sound suddenly caught her up short. Though she had left Mistress alone for the time being, she had still stayed in what she had always regarded as Anelisse's territory. Old habits died hard, and as long as she had breath in her she would be watching for Mistress's best interests and safety. Never mind that Red Friend was likely lurking out beyond the range of sight, she had had his word that he'd be around but be behaving himself and also helping keep Mistress safe so he didn't count as a threat. Well, for the time being, unless he proved otherwise.

But this was definitely not Red Friend. Red Friend was soft-footed and silent and at one with the trees; he did NOT clomp. And clomping was what was going on, and getting very close.

Raccoon's mission was clear. Promptly she swept her finds into the pouch and twisted it on, then promptly dove out of sight amidst the leaves, nothing but a pale nose peeping down to survey the clomper who was...

In possession of the most extraordinary hair!

Shinies might be the love of most raccoons, but when it came to Raccoon herself, love of shiny was secondary to love of hair. She only had to lay eyes on the beautiful, wavy, thick peach mane and tail of the mare before she knew that she had to acquire them, and with that single-minded goal she was on the move, carefully dropping down from the tree as soon as the mare had passed and slowly and sneakily moved up close behind her...

Even if Ziggy was a stealth master, she would be hard-pressed to out-sneak any raccoon, much less this one. Being a member of a sneaky species and having a strong sense of mischief and self-preservation, Raccoon was highly skilled at the ways of the ninja...barring one very unfortunate habit.

She was fascinated by the hair of the yellow mare, truth be told. It was long and strong looking, with no discernible split ends or flyaways; on top of that, it was a very unique color, sort of a cross between orange and peach with just a touch of cream to it and enough shine to make it interesting. Automatically, her thoughts had gone to her Mistress, mentally holding up a lock of the yellow mare's mane against Anelisse's glossy white coat and consequently swooning. It would be PERFECT, moreso if combined with a lock of the brighter redder hair of Red Friend, which Raccoon had in abundance. She was sure that Mistress would approve.

For a time, she had merely shadowed the mare, staying close enough to watch the movement of the mare's tail for flaws in strength or sheen but far enough back to avoid detection as the mare went about a very odd and circuitous trek and hunt for...well, whatever she was hunting for, she wasn't finding it; Raccoon was very amused to watch the mare poking around for things that she couldn't find. If it was food she was after, this was a silly place to look; if it was shinies...well, it was STILL a silly place to look, because Raccoon had already been through!

But Raccoon had reason to be pleased; after fruitless ground searching, the mare had reared up and begun to go about a slow way of acorn removal: manually, rather than taking them from squirrels. After a moment of observing the strange manner of collection, though, Raccoon was all business: there a tail in reach!

Grinning, she reached out and got to work. Having learned from past experience that grabbing big handfuls was a bad idea, she was soon swiftly pulling out hairs from the mare's tail, one strand at a time.

Raccoon's collection methods might have gotten smarter, but she had yet to master an equally important lesson: not getting too greedy. She was so caught up in the desire to possess as much of the deliciously peachy hair as possible that she had gotten careless and stayed at it for longer than was prudent, leading to the inevitable detection. It wasn't the first time she'd been in this situation, it wouldn't be the last, and she had no one but herself to blame. Fortunately, this mare was a lot less angry and aggressive than some of the other Soquili she'd been caught by; she was just asking a question.

Past experience had taught Raccoon that just running off was a bad idea, so she didn't. The time she had failed to successfully make an arboreal exit had resulted in her leading the irate theft victim right back to Mistress, and while Raccoon felt that that experience had ultimately ended for the best, she had nevertheless determined that cutting and running was a bad idea. Consequently, upon being detected she had merely skipped aside out of immediate kicking range but then stopped, grinning and still holding the purloined hair.

Trading. She knew what that was and didn't care for it, if she could avoid it. It meant giving up one of her things to get another, and usually the second thing, while awesome, was not awesome enough to risk sacrificing the original item. A conundrum.

Still, she was not yet in such a position that she would have to worry about such things, and merely grinned and shook her head at the mare. An apology was owed, so she bobbed slightly and burst into a rapid-fire burst of chittering, backing up her apology with nuzzling and patting the stolen hair to show her appreciation of the awesomeness of the hair.

Spirits be praised, the mare was smart! It was so very annoying for Raccoon when she was being all clear and ineligible, but the person that she was talking to merely stared at her blankly and either asked her what she was talking about, asked her to talk, or came to an entirely faulty conclusion. As if her method of communication was any less rational and reasonable than that of many of these silly Soquilis...

But that was moot, as Peachy was sensible and not only understood her, but got straight to the point. Directness was appreciated; she could deal with directness, and as she'd gotten caught, she was more than willing to make amends (as long as they didn't involve parting with any of her already collected treasures. Those were just off-limits!).

So at Ziggy's acceptance of her apology, she merely beamed and nodded her head, deftly and quickly twisting the purloined hair into first a twist, then coiling it into a loop and tucking it into her pouch before giving Ziggy and expectant look and gesturing with one paw for her to proceed. After all, she couldn't know whether this thing was doable without knowing what it was, right?

Well, that was anticlimactic. At first, Raccoon could only stare blankly at the mare that would ask for a favor and then request something so simple; after all, climbing trees was the most basic of the basic! And leaves? Heck, leaves posed no challenge at all; indeed, they were so ordinary that they no longer even registered with the dynamic treasure hunter unless one that was extraordinary came her way. Leaves were interesting in that they held potential; as Ziggy had rightfully pointed out, they could contain feathers; also acorns, or hair caught by the wind; occasionally the stashes of other creatures, ripe for the raiding...

At any rate, if the mare wanted to waste a favor on something so simple, who was she to argue? As it was, she merely gave the mare a big, beaming grin, nodded, rubbed her paws together expectantly...then frowned. Wait, what? Wings? At that comment, she cocked her head to the side in a puzzled manner, eying the mare's obviously wingless shoulders before making a querying chirrup and flapping her arms out to the sides in a clear mimicry of wings. That done, she crossed her arms and waited: no way she was letting THAT go without an explanation, as it sounded interesting!

Well, Ziggy didn't have to worry about any long, complicated questions from Raccoon, at any rate. Even if she were capable of speech, Raccoon's interest was piqued, but mild; unless it had to do with hair or collecting treasures, there was only so much interest available for her to have in anything. She was definitely intrigued, but she wasn't the type to want to see schematics or any sort of prototype, unless she could see some sort of benefit to herself. Wings were a curiosity, but that was it. After all, Mistress herself couldn't fly!

So she listened patiently to the explanation, then nodded brightly and gave an affirmative chirrup. So the pretty colored mare was going to be making wings; that was an intriguing thought, though she herself didn't think it was all that practical or necessary for a Raccoon. Why fly when climbing was so much easier? But for creatures that couldn't climb, it made sense to want the access to high up things.

As if to prove that point, she promptly took hold of the tree trunk and scampered up the tree, disappearing into the leaves with barely a rustle. She would fulfill her debt with style; if the pretty mare wanted to collect leaves, then leaves she would get!

In her time as a scrounger, Raccoon had come to learn a thing or two about the best places to find certain things. Leaves had long since ceased to be an object of interest (unless it was a particularly colorful or interestingly shaped leaf, of course), but for a time she had made a game of collecting everything she could get her paws on, such as one leaf from each tree in the region. And while completing that vast undertaking, she had established that the middle sections of any given tree were the best places to obtain good quality leaves. Too low and you ran into a lot of abused leaves, eaten by creatures, battered by horns and the like; too high, and they tended to be too big for pleasant conveyance and too stiff to be a good meal. So Raccoon had first found herself a nice vein of leaves in the middle of the tree and started to pick before it occurred to her: for wings, wouldn't big and stiff leaves be better?

So up she had gone to the highest tip top of the tree, perching herself comfortably on a sturdy branch and stripping away leaves with a practiced hand. The leaves were carefully piled on a convenient fork, and when she felt she was good to go she gave a contented chirrup...then frowned. How to get the leaves down without having them disburse in the wind or get caught in the tree? She mused for a few moments, then brightened up. Why, she'd use the leaves themselves!

After hunting about she found several leaves that suited her purpose: Large, sturdy, and slightly flexible. Settling back down on a branch, she pierced the edges of the leaves with her claws, then used some twists of hair from her Bag of Things to 'sew' together the leaves along the holes she'd punched. The result was a simple but effective container, into which she heaped her other leaves. Hugging it close, she bounded back down through the trees, chirruping her victory to the mare.