Cricket Creek Bog Nobody likes the records that I play.

Her lips pursed, a couple scathing thoughts drifting through her head. Towhee discarded them out of hand, though her eyes narrowed again as she tried once more to place his vaguely familiar features.

We’ve met before, she said even more slowly than usual, but I can’t remember when or where. Although your name makes me think ‘northerner.’ Are you one of Kukutux’s people?

Were those even one and the same? Towhee wasn’t sure. Maybe she was conflating them. Either way, she blinked and waited, one paw rolling idly over the muskrat carcass at her feet.