Aqurei

"Ah, that story," the blue-furred Tundra nodded in an almost sage-like manner.
Nudging aside the dented old iron helmet he'd been showing off, Aqurei crossed his paws neatly and began.

"I was near the western side of the Sea of a Thousand Currents, making my way along the shore and occasionally picking up the odd shell or two, when I saw a set of four-legged footprints. Fairly large, and inexplicably covered in mud. There was more sand than dirt in the nearby area, and for the life of me, I could not figure out how in the world there could possibly have been mud on the sand."
"Obviously curious, I picked up the shell I'd been eyeing and followed the tracks. They meandered around in a sort of romping pattern, making it seem like whatever had made them was just an aimless wanderer with no clear goal. None of the explanations I could think of made any sense. If the whatever-it-was had gotten its paws muddy and then flown, the mud would have dried by the time it got there, and there wasn't enough wet dirt around to cover the paws of something that large, if you get what I mean."
He paused, shaking his mane a little. "Well, it took a while, following the prints. But eventually I reached a small, abandoned hut next to the sea, rather washed-out looking, literally and figuratively. The pawprints lead into the hut, so I followed them in after a quick stop to make sure nobody was around. Abandoned or not, I didn't want to get a bad reputation by doing this."
"As I wandered in, I could hear a faint shuffling near what had once been a kitchen, but was now a pub for crabs and the like. Obviously, I had no idea what I was going to see, so I crept as best I could with my bright blue fur to see what was inside."
"And, believe it or not, I saw a small Hainu, shuffling around in the remains of the kitchen and snapping up the few crabs that it could fit into its mouth. Its wings didn't look quite big enough to fly with yet, so it was a small wonder how it had gotten all the way into the water domain, but nevertheless, it was here... but its paws weren't dirty in the least bit, and were far too small to have made the prints I'd seen outside."
"As I once more started wondering what had made the prints, it looked up. It didn't attack, it just sat there, crab in its mouth, and looked at me. At first I wasn't sure what it wanted, but then I heard another noise. A dull thumping, similar to a dragon's wingbeats, coming from outside the shack."
"A few seconds later, before I could make myself scarce or get out of the place, a much larger Hainu entered, its paws making a quiet slapping sound as they hit the weathered floorboards. It looked at me, then decided I wasn't worth the effort and made its way over to the smaller Hainu. The two made noises at each other, then the smaller got up and followed its guardian out of the shack, giving me one last look before nudging a seashell on the ground and galloping out."
Aqurei smiled and held up the shell necklace. "Turns out that Hainu was the larger one's pup, no surprise there, but it had gotten too wet to be out in the wind, else it would get cold, so its mother had left it there. She'd gone off to get food for it, but when she heard wingbeats I'm guessing she flew back as fast as she could."
"The funny part was, after I left, I saw a long shape leaving the shack. Whatever it was- it looked like some kind of large snake -had likely been planning to eat the poor pup, and a dragon my size scared it off."
"A few months later, I went to the Bamboo Falls, just to see what I could find, and before I had even reached the waterfall, I heard a bark and felt something large and fluffy cannon into my side. It was the little Hainu, nearly fully grown, and his mother, paws once again dirty from digging or playing in the mud."
"So, I stayed for a while, saying hello and playing a few rounds of tug-of-war with both, but when I tried to leave, the smaller one wouldn't let me go without it!"
Giving a laugh, the Tundra shook his head, causing his mane to swish through the air. "Well, the mother seemed fine with it, and the pup was more than ready to fledge from the area, so I came back with an unexpected familiar who soon showed that he shared his mother's love of playing in the dirt."

"So that's how the story goes. The story of the beast with the four muddy paws"