Redhawk Caldera it felt like springtime on this february morning

Towhee may not have heard Raven's summoning call, yet she was nothing if not extremely observant. She noticed right away when her fellow pups began milling toward the cave's mouth. Exchanging a quick glance with Phox, the little Sigma trotted at Liffey's heels, emerging in the February sunlight. She squinted, then looked perplexedly between Raven, Titmouse and the retreating Liffey. Who was she supposed to follow?

Hopping over the bone Titmouse had abandoned just outside the doorway, she made her way over to join her brother and sister. She looked into their faces, trying to read their lips and expressions, and saw Titmouse's lips purse tellingly. In the next blink, his front teeth pressed into his lower lip. She mimicked him soundlessly, little mouth forming the word she had loosely begun associating with their elder sister. The adults used a similar word, although there was something more intricate about the way their mouths moved in comparison to the pups' clumsier pronunciations.

Tail swinging, Towhee turned her attention away from their faces momentarily to peer around at her sunlit surroundings. She couldn't hear the birds calling from a nearby tree, the wind soughing restlessly across the caldera or the constant dripping in the background as the sun melted the snow. But she could see the birds take wing, smell the scents on the blustering breeze and taste the cool, fresh water where the snow had turned into a puddle. The deaf child grinned and squealed, happily overcome by the sensory overload.