Northstar Vale a manager at a comic book store

more and more teeth show through her smile. she twists bends down to clear out a tangle in her back leg, her face obscured partly by fur; while doing so, slips a smooth stone into her mouth. she tongues it back in a cheek. 
then she gestures at a similar stone in front of her, in true astynome fashion. in one fluid motion, she hides the stone under her paw, hums a short tune, grinning all the while. she moves forwards, aiming to put her face right behind kalika's ear to her right, as if retrieving something from the plush neck fur. a sleight of hand.

if she was allowed to get so close, like a zookeeper and his tiger, astynome would draw back, lift her lips, revealing the stone in her mouth. her incredulous expression would read, simply, how did that get there?