Heron Lake Plateau Norupo.

Today, Towhee's thoughts drifted over to their neighbors. She wondered how Wildfire was doing and felt a stab of guilt for declining to send X to search for Kiwi. But she reminded herself that neither she nor her hawk was obligated to serve the Firebirds. And Kiwi had attacked her! Anyway, she had seen less and less of the hawk the past few weeks. Towhee didn't require his assistance much these days, so she liked to let him live his life.

She wrapped up a patrol and began to head back toward the den site when she saw a familiar shadow glide overhead. Her lips twitched into a smile as Towhee looked up, orange eyes widening when she saw that X wasn't alone. For a hot second, she thought he'd brought a mate along with him, yet the second hawk was visibly smaller. And when the two of them glided down to land in her path, Towhee's sharp eyes took in the littler hawk's youthful appearance; it was clearly a juvenile.

"Well, who's this?" the mercenary asked, a look of delighted surprise on her face. Her eyes grew wider and wider as the story unfolded a la their rudimentary language: as X explained that this was her son, because X had actually been female this entire time. Somehow, this threw Towhee much, much more than the fact that X had procreated, raised a chick and brought him to the plateau.

"You're a chick?" she blurted, to which the younger bird squawked in affirmation even though the question had been meant for X. Towhee blinked loudly and burst into laughter, which actually turned into paroxysms and resulted in the mercenary crumpling to the ground and rolling around in the dirt, tears rolling from her eyes.

When she recovered some time later, she sat up and wiped the moisture from her cheeks. "I see that X has been teaching you," she said to the young hawk. "We'll call you Z, is that okay?" It made her grin hugely when the half-grown chick bobbed his head. "Cool. This is so cool, X. I'm really glad you brought him here. Is this just a visit or...?"

And X completely stupefied Towhee a second time today by announcing that she had brought Z here in case @Fennec would like a seeing eye bird.

tegan actually didn't know anything about any of his baby siblings or anything about the kids currently residing here at the plateau. it just... wasn't his responsibility, okay? and well maybe he should meet his new baby brothers and sisters but also like... fuck that travel. was it far? okay, no, but still. but, still, he was at least active amongst his pack. mostly. along the borders or whatever. look i don't know.

when he spotted towhee with x and some other bird, tegan decidedly trotted over, pretending their last conversation wasn't so shitty. maybe towhee had forgotten about it. honestly, tegan mostly had. like, fr, get over it. he barked, then remembered that towhee couldn't hear him, so he just rolled through anyway, planting himself right beside his cousin and viewing the birds curiously, head tilted to one side.

As soon as Tegan appeared, Towhee grinned at him and announced, "X IS A FUCKIN' LADY!!!" Because that was the funniest part about this. But she also added excitedly, "And she evidently had a kid on the sly. This is her son, Z." She giggled loudly at referring to X as "she" and "her." "She"—insert another cackle—"brought him here to help with Fen. 'Cause she's blind. Which you'd know if you ever came around," she finished, smacking Tegan entirely too hard on the shoulder, still smiling like a whackjob.

this was a lot of information for tegan to process all at once -- but like, honestly? tegan kind of put the part about this being X's kid together himself so that was good. context clues. he blinked, a bit bewildered, and then nodded. oh, that's whack, was his simple ass response, giving a quick nod to the little bird with the unoriginal name. i'm tegan, he said to the guy. because here at the redhawks we are friend with bird. 

he glanced at x, then, sorry for misgendering you. not so pc of us, huh?

Speaking of blind... yep. Fenn was wandering, and if I know stove (I do) Fig would be following at any moment.

Things were getting hazier, and while at first she hadn't noticed, now she did.  She used to be able to tell Towhee and Phox apart pretty easily, but as Towhee's markings faded away, the distinction became more and more reliant on sound and scent to draw.  Like now.... she was galloping up to Towhee thinking it was Phox until her sensitive ears caught her aunt mom's racaous voice.  Oh, well, still fun!

Weeya yanna!  The sound 'a' was pretty much her favorite and most of her names for others included it.   Feeya and Weeya and Fenna. Add on Phox's da and you had a set.  

She had no clue if Towhee saw her or not, but that didn't matter.  She was comin and she wanted to play.

Seeing as I've become just OH SO predictable, Fig was of course there. He trailed merrily after his sister, feeling excited, but also a little nervous still over being out and about on their own. It still felt like rule breaking, but Fen's blatant disregard for concerns like that was certainly a comfort. The bad influence kind of comfort that would probably get him into some real big trubble one day, but comfort nonetheless.

Fig trotted up to Fen's side, quietly peering up at Towhee and then at the bird that looked like Papa X, but obviously wasn't Papa X because Papa X was right there next to it. He canted his head curiously at them, then tilted his head the other way as his gaze swapped over to Tegan. There was a whole lot of new stuff going on right now, but he was taking it all in stride. It's possible he scooted a little in front of Fen (though she was probably bouncing all over the place like a dummy) to put himself more between her and the new things, but he wasn't like crying or anything.

A rather unattractive snort escaped Towhee when she caught Tegan's comment to X. She supposed the bird either didn't understand or simply didn't care, as she had never bothered correcting her canine brethren. All the same, the mercenary shot her a sheepish smile and shrug before her attention redirected to the two incoming pups.

She motioned for Fig's sake and barked for Fen's as they bumbled in her direction, eager to introduce them to both their uncle and the latter's seeing eye bird. Towhee was still smiling hugely, though as her kids came closer, it slid right off her face. Something had just occurred to her. She felt a pinch in her chest as her orange eyes shifted back to Tegan, the birds momentarily forgotten. It was like the fuses had blown behind her eyes, obliterating the shine there just a moment ago.

"Fig, Fen, c'mere," Towhee said, trying to corral them with her foreleg. "This is your Uncle Tegan." She wasn't consciously using them as a shield, though the pups' stand-in mother tried to hold them in place in front of her. "Teg, this..." Abruptly, her voice failed her and Towhee not only looked like someone had rained on her parade now, she looked downright constipated.

tegan blinked as it seemed the warmth in the room suddenly vanished. it was really fucking weird, mostly because they weren’t in a room. but as the blackthorn turned to look at towhee and the children, he felt something really fucking weird come afoot. wtf.

...is fig and fen, I’m guessing, he filled in for his cousin, looking a little bit confused, what, are they here to learn the word of the day? and before he could get a proper answer from her, tegan tried to lighten whatever weird cloud settled upon them by saying. dick. that’s the word of the day. tell everyone you meet. dick.

She didn't react to Tegan teaching her children swear words, either to encourage or discourage said behavior. Towhee felt the world's most gigantic sigh gathering itself in her chest. Should she just rip off the band-aid, post-haste, so they could get it over with and she could deal with the fallout? Towhee hemmed and hawed mentally, totally unsure how Tegan might react. He was unpredictable with these things. She supposed she should hope for the best but prepare for the worst.

Towhee opened her mouth to tell him about how she was going to leave the plateau—and, by proxy, him—and what came out instead was, "How come you didn't go with them when your mom and dad went to live with the Firebirds?" If she'd known the answer to this, she didn't remember it. Her head tilted to the side. "Were you mad at them? Are you mad at them?"

oh that was weird. tegan didn’t even see or hear if the kids responded. a single ear flicked backwards as he studied the expression on her face. somewhere, deep in his gut, tegan knew where this was going. but god damn he better be wrong. 

with a very guided, steady voice, tegan said with much implication, because i’m loyal to this pack and to the wolves here that are counting on me. false. tegan didn’t follow because he wanted clover to die in a ditch. 

and then with a shrug, tegan said, i couldn’t ever be mad at my mama.

Towhee blinked several times in quick succession as she processed both bits of information. She made a sudden if partial recovery and quipped, "There're people who count on you? Who?" She meant it in jest but she really did wonder who he meant. She liked to think she was included... but who else?

tegan, understanding the entire comment as a joke, rolled his eyes. ha, ha, fake-laughed the blackthorn with a wave of his tail... still unsure where the fuck this conversation was going or where it wasn’t coming from. he blinked.

He laughed her off like it was a joke, which it was and it wasn't. "I'm serious," Towhee said, glancing down at her kids to make sure they weren't getting into anything and abruptly remembering the birds.

"Fen! Fig! Check it out! X had a pup too. His name is Z. He's going to help Fen," the mercenary shared, drumming up her earlier enthusiasm.

As if to exemplify her words, X's smaller lookalike beat his wings in the air, made a squeaky cawing noise and then made an attempt to land on Fen's teeny tiny shoulder (whether or not he succeeded, we'll leave up to Starr).

She was ignored, but that was fine.  Fenn's dim vision tracked both adults as they talked, and her ears tilted to catch as much of what they said as she could.  Thankfully they used words and not the gestures she couldn't follow.  Dick, she said quietly, trying out the word.  She liked it, even if it didn't end in 'a'.

She was consumed by her new word, though, and didn't see well enough to notice the birds.  So when a shadow came over, and something tried to land on her back, Fenn freaked.  She let out a sharp scream and rolled sideways, away from the monster that had just attacked her.  What was it, with sharp claws and odd feeling fur!?  Whatever it was, she tried to snap at it, but definitely missed.

Fig tore his eyes away from the birds only to peer at Tegan when he addressed them. He tilted his head interestedly at the instructions he was given, then parted his lips to proudly state "Dick!" at the very moment his sister murmured the same. His tail wagged happily then for he knew he did a good boy job, and he would've waited for the praise he knew he'd be showered with shortly had Towhee not distracted him.

Fig looked sharply up as Not-Papa-X took flight and swooped down towards he and his sister. His eyes bulged out of his skull at the sight as startled panic gripped him. All of his fur stood up on end all the way down to his bum as Z came down, and even as Fen rolled away with a screech, the boy charged forward and attempted to headbutt the bird away from her with a wild cry of "BAD!"

I'm gonna guess he missed and crashed into Fen because these kids are totally useless.

'i'm serious,' she said in a stiffer, sterner tone, earning a scowl from tegan. what the fuck? fuck. tegan knew what the fuck this was. she couldn't be more obvious -- and contrary to popular belief, tegan was not stupid... and he certainly wasn't naive. and then there was a bunch of shit going on around him with the god damn birds and all that. she was stalling. 

as the kids yelled at each other and lunged and missed the god damn bird, tegan took his own shot. as it dodged the pups, it backed towards him, and he grabbed the damn thing between his teeth and threw it to the side with a swing of his head. there was a crunch, or something, but you can decide if the damn thing was dead or not, he didn't turn to look. 

you're fucking leaving, aren't you? he spat, the fur on his shoulders raised, you're leaving and you don't even have the fucking balls to tell me straight up. and now i'm anticipating tegan getting attacked by X. or maybe towhee. idk. but he's said his piece.

To her credit as a mother, Towhee only found it hilarious for one second before she attempted to intervene, preferably before anyone got hurt. But before she could calm down Fig and Fen, Tegan was there. He yanked the young bird off her daughter's shoulder, totally unnecessarily roughly. "He—" she began to shout at him, only she was too late. There was a shriek and a crunch that Towhee didn't hear, then Tegan flung the bird, which landed in a crumpled, feathered heap nearby, dead as a door nail.

Towhee gaped at Z's small corpse, deaf to Tegan's accusations. By the time she turned to look at him, her eyes went from shocked to sad to blazing with fury. "You fucking asshole!" she raged even as she moved closer to him, teeth snapping, "What the fuck did you do that for?! He wasn't trying to hurt her! How could you, you fuck—" She was cut off as X flung herself at Tegan's head.

Whether or not the pack's longstanding honorary member did any damage, she winged away with a cry of betrayal, outrage and sorrow that Towhee didn't hear but definitely felt in her heart.

tegan didn't duck but he must've been just enough out of the way that the hawk only got his ear. it ripped the damn thing in half, leaving a nice, clean, bloody line right down the center. and FUCK that hurt. his head was yanked forwards, though, but he looked up immediately after doing a stutter step forwards. his only reaction was a loud snarl, and he watched out of the corner of his eye as X disappeared into the sunset.

it would be really awkward if he was wrong about this whole thing... but something was suspicious and he stood by his actions.

i said FUCK YOU! he snarled again, teeth bared, i said you're LEAVING, aren't you? and then he flicked his head back, tone sneering as he added, like the fucking redhawk you are! a disloyal lowlife! these were mostly unprecedented accusations. i mean, he did a good job putting two and two together... but towhee hadn't even admitted to anything yet. beyond all that, if he was right, tegan didn't consider at this moment that towhee might even ask him to come with. or lead with her. or. literally anything. he was just furious.

If the young hawk hadn't been dead at their feet, this might have gone down a lot differently. Towhee would've probably been stunned by his ability to sniff her out, then understood Tegan's anger and tried to placate him. But now she was implacably angry, fucking furious, for not just killing X's offspring but quite likely causing the hawk never to return, after everything she'd done for Towhee et al. Not to mention the fact that X had raised Z specifically—for weeks, probably—to make Fen's life easier.

She could remember feeling betrayed before, though this was one of the worst cases Towhee had ever experienced. "YOU MURDERED X'S BABY!" she screamed, seething. "WHY? WHY, YOU FUCKING PUNK ASS BITCH?" she demanded, thrusting her face in his so that spittle flew from her mouth and quite likely sprayed him. "HE WAS HERE TO HELP FEN! WHY? WHY? WHY? BECAUSE OF SOMETHING YOU THOUGHT YOU KNEW?"

Never mind that he was right. It didn't justify anything in her mind. Towhee so badly wanted to shove his face in the dirt and stomp the hell out of him. Instead, she forcefully tore away from him, abruptly remembering the children. "Get the fuck away from us," the Beta warned Tegan while her back was to him.

TELL ME YOU'RE FUCKING LEAVING, roared tegan right back at her. word after word she still avoided what was so painfully obvious to tegan by now. nevermind what the fuck he just did. murdering a stupid ass bird -- if you could even call it murder, god, they were wolves for christs sake -- was hardly on the list of crimes. TELL ME YOU'RE GONNA ABANDON ME LIKE EVERYONE ELSE FUCKING HAS. ope. he almost choked himself up. on the inside tegan was actually beginning to start sobbing, but he was so angry that he could thankfully keep that shit under wraps. instead, tegan continued a steady stream of snarls, fur bristling.

A lot of things happened very quickly then, and every one of those things left Fig more and more terrified. Before the boy even made to untangle himself from his sister, there was a flash of movement overhead and a flurry of sounds and feathers and suddenly, the Not-Papa-X landed nearby with a lifeless plop. Fig stared at the body in surprise for a moment, instinctively wanting to go and give it a few sniffs before suddenly, the screaming began.

Fig gaped at Tegan and Towhee with wide, fearful eyes. He’d never heard his Aunt Mom yell like this before, had never heard her so upset and so angry. Tears welled in his eyes as he began to tremble violently against his sister. He squirmed to move her so that he was between her and the shouting adults even as he began to sob helplessly. It felt like there was something he ought to do, some way to make it stop and make everyone be happy again so he wouldn’t have to feel so scared for himself and his sister. But he didn’t know what or how, so he just cried, tried to bury himself against Fen for comfort, and wished that his daddy was there to fix everything.

When she saw that Fig was crying and clutching Fen (who might be crying too, beneath her brother's flung foreleg), Towhee immediately went to them. "I'm sorry," she said, stopping a few feet from them so as to avoid scaring them worse. "I'm sorry for yelling. I'm sorry about what happened to Z." They probably didn't understand that loss, though Tegan had robbed her daughter of so much potential that Towhee felt truly aggrieved. "I'm so sorry..."

Her shushing seemed to have no effect, so Towhee eventually clued in and looked over her shoulder to see Tegan bristling at her. "Get. Away. From. Us," she repeated in a quiet hiss, not wanting to raise her voice again and upset the kids any more. Towhee took a threatening step toward him. She wanted to lunge at him, really beat his ass. But she didn't want to step away from Fig and Fen, nor make matters worse with them.

Moving over to look down at the poor, dead Z, Towhee continued to ignore Tegan for a beat. She shook her head over the broken body, then finally did look up. "Yeah, Tegan," she said, voice shivering with the things he'd taken from her family, "yeah... we're leaving." Prior to this, it would've torn her apart if they'd parted on bad terms (a likely scenario too) but after what he'd done, Towhee couldn't feel any remorse. Maybe later, the sadness would get her. For now, she looked at him with hatred in her eyes, which he more than likely matched.

god, she ignored him. tegan bristled more and more as he was just ignored. she focused on crying babies, like they fucking mattered. honestly, part of tegan wanted to take them and fling them out of the way too. less to deal with. but that would've been too far -- and as terrible as he apparently was, tegan was not screech. tegan was not screech. 

she looked up at him, ignoring what he was saying and only telling him to get away from them. so tegan took another step forwards, eyes ablaze. and then she answered, staring at him with anger and hatred. god, like she had the fucking right. where are you gonna go, towhee? he sneered, a smile pressed upon his features as if it belonged there -- but it didn't, tegan felt anything but happy. are you going with phox? and these two? what about raven? and her kids? are you just going to leave them here to fucking ROT? he accused with a lash of his tail, the smile wiped off his expression as fast as it had come, you're no better than any of them!! 

and then tegan lunged, mouth gaping and fully prepared to clamp down on any part of towhee he could get his mouth on, if any.

Towhee didn't intend to answer to Tegan or engage with him any further. But she could see that he wouldn't leave them alone. She was a master mercenary and she saw a fight when it was coming. She could barely believe that he was pushing it so far, in front of young pups. This was not the Tegan she knew and once loved.

"Fig, Fen," she said, moving closer to them again, "I need you to run over there and call for your dad." She pointed at a spot of brush about a hundred feet away, then quickly whirled back to face Tegan. "Go," she commanded, just hoping they'd listen for once so she didn't have to fear another lost innocent today.

"Tegan," the Beta warned, "don't." But he attacked her anyway. And Towhee didn't move to defend herself, save to present a shoulder to his teeth, which sank into her muscle. "Tegan, stop." It took every fiber in her body not to retaliate but Towhee didn't understand who he was or what he was doing. "Why are you doing this?" she wanted to know, wondering if she'd even get an answer or just another bite for her trouble.

haha wait -- actually -- did everyone just see that? his attacked landed! fuckers! nevermind towhee definitely let it happen. i just want it to be written somewhere in the books and recognized that tegan did in fact land a hit on towhee. anyway. 

through the fur and flesh of her shoulder, tegan growled, FUCK YOU. (not that she heard it) but at least he recognized his stupidity, or at least recognized that he would probably die... not so much that he was being stupid, and released his grip on her, shoving her away from him -- though truth be told, towhee's stature had a good leg up on him, so tegan really just pushed himself away from her. 

he looked at her, ears flattened to his skull and green eyes wild with anger. because no one ever fucking ASKS me, he snarls, body low and gathered as he stood away from her, looking feral. nobody ASKS. nobody CONSIDERS. they just DO. everyone just fucking LEAVES and not a single wolf seems to care how it affects others. 

i expected it from everyone except you, towhee, he added as a final claim, a little quieter than before, but still certainly angry.