New World

Chapter Nineteen

Savi's suite didn't end up being as fanciful as she'd imagined. Her imagination had made her expect gold-threaded paintings, intricate carvings on the walls and beautifully carved statues. What she didn't expect was that someone had evidently bought her a stuffed toy, since there was a tiny red panda lying on her bed. Savi only knew it because Sophie had educated her on a lot of animals in the Forbidden Cities, or rather, just given her an animal encyclopedia so young Savi would stop bothering her.

She was about to scoop it up and throw it to a corner of the room, renouncing the fact that she was a child, before the red panda jumped to its paws and scurried around her bed. "You're kidding," Savi said. "Someone got me a real, live panda."

The red panda only scratched her blanket in reply.

Savi sighed, grabbing the red panda only for it to dash away, making panda sounds. She had no idea what that meant. "Look, I'm not an animal person, maybe I" But as her fingers brushed its tail, she realized it was the softest thing she had ever felt. "Okay, maybe a little bit of snuggle time. Just today," she conceded. It was getting dark, so she got into bed, called to the shades to close, and reached out her hands to the little red panda.

It scurried over to her and tackled her, its little furry tail brushing against her chest. "Okay, you got me. I'm a big softie," Savi admitted as she scratched its ears. "And you're... male? Female?"

Another panda sound.

"Okay, hit my right hand with your tail if you're male, and left if you're female." Savi raised her hands out to it, not daring to believe that it would work.

The red panda smacked her left hand hard with its tail. Savi winced and jerked her hand away. "Yep! Definitely female. We'll call you... Scarlet?"

If a red panda could facepalm, it was definitely doing that now.

"Red?"

Same reaction.

"Zinnia?"

The red panda let out a squeak of indignation.

"How about... Rose?"

It tilted its head, as if considering.

"Oh, I've got it. You want to be Rosie, don't you?"

Now she was getting lots of disapproval.

"So.... Rose."

Her new fluffy pet was starting to look really mad. "What do you – hey, that's a sand box there, let's go try writing!"

She threw the red panda into the sandbox and it glared up at her before beginning to scratch something into the sand. The red panda's writing was lopsided and squiggly, but eventually she translated it to what might've been Keira.

"No way am I calling a red panda Keira."

The red panda let out a sigh of frustration and started over. It still looked a little like Keira, but maybe she hadn't been writing that in the first place. "Does that say... Keris?" Now the red panda was bouncing happily up and down.

"You want me to call a red panda Keris?"

The red panda – Keris, she supposed – squeaked happily and nodded.

"Fine. Keris it is." Keris gave a very reddish-brown smile, waving her fluffy tail. "Just know, like, you're not going to stay with me permanently, okay? Who sent you?"