Neshomesh swings back and forth on the hanging tyre, giggling softly to herself. Her dark hair has been pulled up into two bunches that it isn't quite long enough to carry off; her blue sundress can accurately be described as 'well-loved'. To a casual glance, she looks like a child of perhaps six years; closer inspection notes the largeness of her eyes, the slightly vulpine tinge to her nose.

The mini-Boarder drops to the dewy grass, landingly lightly. She snatches up a ball and bounces it off the tree-trunk, her grin widening as she catches it on the rebound. Then off she skips, tossing the ball from hand to hand as she makes her way down to the riverbank.

The river is clean and cool. Neshomesh finds her favourite spot and settles down on the warm rock, smiling in the sunlight. She plucks a flattish pebble from the sand, weighs it in her tiny hand, then skims it out across the water. The ripples it leaves behind catch the light, like a shoal of silvery fish.

Neshomesh lies back on the rock and closes her eyes. There is nothing to disturb the contented mini, here in her own world: nothing but the babbling of the river, and the distant sound of birdsong.

"Yub? Yub-yub?"

Neshomesh sits up, rubbing her eyes as if sleepy. "Eee?"

"Yub!"

Something wobbles at the top of the bank, then loses its balance and tumbles down through the grass. It bounces as it reaches the beach, flips through the air, then comes down with a poof of sand. It looks like nothing more than a ball of fluff, marbled in light and dark brown.

"Eee!" Neshomesh launches from her rock with a laugh and skips across the sand. She stops just short of the new arrival and peers at it. "Eee?"

The ball of fur doesn't react. Neshomesh's brow furrows. Then she bends down to grab a stick from the sand beside her. Leaning forward, she pokes the new arrival lightly. "Eee?"

The fluffy visitor stirs. A head pokes out: little black nose, large round eyes, and two fuzzy ears. "Yub?"

Neshomesh giggles and waves at the furry creature. "Eee!"

The creature stands up, revealing itself to be of a height with Neshomesh. If you took a teddy bear, packed it with extra stuffing, then let its fur grow out as long as it could, you would be able to achieve much the same effect. It wears a hand-knitted black scarf around its neck, to which is pinned a small label reading 'Huniesoron'.

"Eee!" Neshomesh drops her stick, beaming at the other mini. She spreads her arms wide. "Eee?"

Huniesoron looks at her and smiles timidly. Conscientiously, he brushes the sand out of his fur, then opens his own arms. "Yub-yub?"

"Eeeeee!" Neshomesh throws herself forward, wrapping her arms tightly around the Ewok-like mini. She snuggles close, feeling the softness off his fur against her cheek. "Eee?"

"Yub." Huniesoron enfolds her in his arms, cuddling her close under the warm sun. "Yub-yub."

"Eee..."