The Heartwood Dance fruits.

Towhee decided to stand still and keep watch while Jr searched. Her eyes swept the woods in regular intervals, though nothing moved out there besides her daughter, as far as she could tell.

While she waited for the pup to find something to eat, it gave her tired mind some time to wander. Of course it went straight to Maxim. Out here in a dark, strange woodland, it was too easy to picture her mate being torn apart by a mountain lion or maybe… maybe it had been a bear. Either way, there would be no trace, unless someone happened to find a pile of dung somewhere with tufts of her husband’s fur.

Funny in some other context, perhaps, Towhee’s stomach turned and she heaved on the dark grass between her forepaws. There was so little to bring up, mostly just bile and saliva. Her stomach convulsed a few times before settling. Out of pure instinct—she couldn’t have her smelly vomit drawing attention to her family’s presence here—Towhee quickly dug in the loam and buried the evidence of her sickness.

Moments later, Jr returned to report her findings. She would not have overheard her mother’s heaving and didn’t seem to notice any lingering odors. With a sigh of relief, the mother trailed after her youngster. She wasn’t hungry, though Towhee knew she should put some food in her stomach. And eat something that would get rid of this sour taste in her mouth.

The younger Towhee had discovered a berry patch. Towhee leaned down to sniff warily, trying to discern whether they were safe to eat. @Fennec had detailed some of this stuff with her once upon a time, so she felt fairly confident that they could eat this particular type without getting sick. But just in case, she decided to play guinea pig.

-Berries like this can be poisonous, making us very sick. I’m going to eat one, then we’ll wait a few minutes. If it doesn’t make me ill, we can eat more of them. Got it?- Towhee asked, glad that they would be rolling some survival skills into this little camping trip.