Sun Mote Copse “A hug is always the right size.” —Winnie the Pooh

-Hey Towhee, lookit- 

He'd begun to gesture in order to get Towhee's attention, to show off how absolutely adorable Meerkat looked with the long, curved feather sticking out from just behind the crown of her head, when his kid sister asked him a question that made him clamp his mouth shut, narrowly avoiding cleaving the tip of his tongue clean off. His ears flicked back and he stiffened, fur prickling as though he'd just licked an electric fence. Babies. He'd  come to realize that he adored children- but this was simply because he'd forgotten, in all the excitement over having younger siblings, how they'd come to exist. And that thought mortified him. 

"Uhmmmm," He grated, and swallowed hard, dumbstruck with shock. "That's-" He began, and worked his mouth, but no sounds came out. "Prolly a question for your Ma, for another day- hey-you-wanna-pluck-some-feathers?" He forced the words out, rushing to find something else as a distraction and reached blindly for the pheasant, nearly tripping over it in the process. He picked it up and made to simply toss it to Meerkat's feet, but due to his present flustration, ended up accidently flinging it- with surprising force- directly at his sister's face.