'Apologize.'

'I'm sorry Mrs. Aris.'

'For?'

'For naming Twigs without your permission.'

'Good.'

Michi let Bo hop onto the ground and lick his wounds-minor burns from his Spell [Spark]-and turned to Aris. The Greater Falcon still looked furious as she checked over her daughter, who was whining about how unfair she was being.

'I'm sorry, Aris. I'll try and keep him from naming the boys, too.'

The falcon harrumphed. 'It wouldn't have happened if you'd gotten around to doing your job already!'

'I was busy!'

'You were-Brutus! Don't let the boys fall!'

The male Greater Falcon was entertaining himself by watching his mate chew out the Fox. At her cry, his head snapped up to see the boys tumbling out of the tree. He lunged off of his branch and snapped his claws down at them. He missed by a hair and the boys went down.

Luckily, there happened to be something small and soft waiting to catch them. Bo.

'Wow!' the little hare called. 'You, um, Greenie and Chase! That was so cool!'

'MICHI!!!!!!'

'You have three lima beans. I have ten. How much more do I have?'

'...Two.'

'No. Try again.'

'...Three.'

'No. Try again.'

'...Four.'

'Bo, come on. This is your punishment for naming the boys!'

'It wasn't my fault! I don't wanna do this!'

'Stop acting like a child!' Lima Bean snapped. Then she considered and said: 'Stop whining.'

'No! I don't wanna do the math! I don't wanna do the math! I don't wanna do the math-'

'If you stop, I'll convince the fox to let you have a very short break.'

Bo eyed the tiny mouse. 'How short?'

'Five minutes.'

'I don't-'

'Fine! Ten minutes!'

Bo shut up and looked at her expectantly. Lima Bean gulped. 'I-I'm not gonna do it now. We still have to do this problem-'

'You said that if I stopped you would convince Michi to give me a ten. Minute. Break.'

Lima Bean sighed. She'd been living with the fox and Bo for a week now and Michi had given her the task of teaching Bo math, which he hated even more than reading. As she said before, this was the punishment he got for giving the boy chicks Names. Aris had wanted to thrash him, but Michi assured her that this was the better punishment.

And it was. Bo would rather die than raise his [Math: Basic] proficiency.

He was smart for a baby hare, especially because he's a little over three weeks old. But he didn't want to use his smarts for learning. He wanted to go out and have fun. Especially because Greenie, Chase, and Twig often snuck down and told him what was happening out in the real world.

Chase, the oldest of the three, assured the hare he wasn't missing anything special, but Greenie―the middle chick―often overplayed the stuff they did outside. He claimed they saw huge monsters and speedy little things that kinda looked like Michi, but were red and orange. Twig just said she wanted to play with him, but the burrow was too claustrophobic.

Naturally, Bo was extremely upset he couldn't play with his new acquaintances, but Michi refused to relieve him of his sentence, no matter how much begging and kowtowing the baby hare did.

'I'll do it,' Lima Bean sighed, 'after you finish the problem.'

Bo closed his eyes, thinking, before saying: 'Seven!'

'Good. I'll...go talk to the fox.'

Bo grinned at her and despite how utterly adorable he looked, it didn't cheer her up in the slightest. No matter how long she stayed in the burrow or how much she taught Bo, the fox despised her ever since she had rejected his Name.

She didn't care. Why would a Leaper Mouse have such a stupid name like Dory?

But now, she had to convince the fox to do something. It was going to be tough, but she had the trait [Determination]. She could do this.

Steeling herself, she had Bo lead her to the entrance of the foxhole and walked out.