Sun Mote Copse don't act like you're not impressed

Since her arrival several weeks ago, Stingray had given @Towhee a bit of a wide berth. Oh, he would never admit it out loud; he excused himself by making himself plenty busy in the territories surrounding the Copse. No one could argue that. He just didn't really know how to act around his grandma. Despite living in Moonspear together for a short time, he felt he hardly knew her, and he certainly had not made any effort to learn her weird sign language.

Ray could not avoid her forever and escape suspicion, though, especially from his ma, so today he carried a couple mice toward the Taigh. That was where Towhee seemed to spend most of her time. It wasn't that he hated his grandma or anything silly like that. He figured she would be displeased that he couldn't bend his paws the way she might want him to, and he was not looking forward to it. This anxiety came purely from his imagination. He only knew her to be a very hard-working boomer and therefore imagined her as a stern old woman who would bark at him for slouching and comment on his weight and his usefulness and whether he had a girlfriend yet. Frankly, he was terrified of the version of Towhee he had built up in his own head.

By the time Stingray arrived, a cold morning rain was falling over the Copse and his fur veritably sparkled with droplets. He paused to shake off the better part of the water before ducking inside, filling the Taigh with the musty smell of wet wolf and somewhat freshly killed mouse. Stingray blinked a few times, letting his vision adjust, and scanned the den for Towhee, muttering to whoever might be there that he was looking for his grandmother while trying to swallow the feeling of his heart in his throat.

She felt a little stronger every day. Towhee was up to three patrols, although she kept the midday one pretty short. She knew she could resume traveling in another few weeks, though she wondered if she might just summer in the copse instead. Hopefully it would go better than her attempt to winter in Moontide, though only time would tell.

A rain shower forced her to cut her circuit even shorter than usual. She didn’t ordinarily mind it that much, though Towhee wasn’t taking any chances with her health. She almost went to Meerkat’s Bourie but decided she would rather have company, so she loped to The Taigh instead. There, she found the bairns by themselves, which was not unusual at this point.

She dried off as quickly as possible, then told Otter and Skipjack a story about Redhawk Caldera. Either it was very boring or the rainfall made them sleepy, because they both conked out within five minutes. Towhee affectionately rolled her eyes, pondering the merit of napping alongside them. But she wasn’t very tired.

Instead, she began rifling through some stockpiles at the far back wall of the cottage. Towhee didn’t realize another wolf had walked inside until the wet air blustered the odors of dead mice and wet dog her way. She turned her head, then the rest of her body.

Ray, hey. I was literally just rummaging for a snack, she quipped, eyeballing the rodents swinging from his mouth. You snooze, you lose, Towhee added in the dozing puppies’ direction.