Sun Mote Copse How can we live in charcoal towns?

The thought of having someone else intrude on her grief made Towhee's eyes raise slowly, their orange depths blistering with pain. "No, I—" she began, though Nellie was already turning away to fetch her kids and probably Eljay, which made her chest tighten even further. "I don't need a medic," she snapped more gruffly than she meant, very much a wounded animal, if only in an emotional sense.

She sagged after that, just willing her son and daughter to appear. If Eljay came too, she would simply tell him to go. She didn't want anyone but Fig and Fen and Towhee absolutely couldn't stomach the idea of the pack's resident Debbie Downer right now. This misery did not want that kind of company.