Redhawk Caldera We are the dreamers

She saw him long before he reached the borders, a tiny speck that eventually took on details as he wandered closer and closer to the caldera. Towhee watched from her perch on a narrow scarp, ears tilting gradually backward as the stranger showed no signs of stopping, going around or—her favorite option, personally—turning back. He was headed deliberately to the Redhawks' doorstep. Intrigued despite herself and eager as ever to strongly discourage an outsider's proximity to claimed land, the youngster found her feet, shook out her coat and began trotting downhill. Her eyes never strayed from him for long and she saw when he threw back his head and howled. Great, she thought sarcastically.

Surely he hadn't called for her specifically, not that Towhee would ever know. Nevertheless, the Xi made her direct approach, face stony as she regarded the burly stranger. "Who are you and what do you want?" she demanded, her expression shifting from stern to severe but her tone as bland and clunky as ever. She rolled to a stop about two meters from him, head even with her spine and tail raised stiffly even as she scrutinized him with hard, flinty eyes. He cut a strapping figure but the youthful guardian refused to be intimidated.