Redhawk Caldera Paul is dead.

She drew in a deep, slow breath, squinting at the horizon. Was Fennec out there somewhere? An ear bent to the side and Towhee dropped her gaze, biting off a sigh as she continued moving along the borderline. She tried to turn her thoughts toward happier things, like Meerkat's recent visit...

She hadn't found any trace of Kaertok yet but she was officially an adult, with a shiny new rank to show for it. Towhee couldn't decide which was more surprising: the fact that Meerkat was the glen's Delta now or that she had a boyfriend of sorts. Both developments made her heart pang with bittersweet pride, plus a note of protectiveness. Meerkat might be grown now, yet Towhee wanted to meet this Atlas and make certain he would treat her daughter right.

With a huff, she lifted her head, feeling a bit better as she imagined playfully heckling him. He was one of Hydra's sons, so Towhee knew he was likely quality people. And she was actually quietly thrilled at the possible pairing of the two legacies. But she wouldn't be Towhee Redhawk if she didn't take the opportunity to give Atlas a hard time, especially since she was pretty sure she couldn't count on Phox to do that. He would probably just be happy and supportive of the young couple. Gross, the Sovereign thought with a huge smile.

@Reyes

Reyes caught sight of his friend just as a broad smile spread across their face, so he hollered, Hey Cap'n! on his approach, only to remember partway there that the size of his voice wasn't everything. The sound did serve to startle a gathering of very cold songbirds from the tree overhead; they erupted as a cloud of flapping particulate and found a roost elsewhere.

As Reyes closed the distance he was careful with his steps and hoped Towhee would at least see him coming, being supremely red and all. His tail wagged in a rare show of good cheer. Thinking he had gathered their attention well enough by now, Reyes tried again: Thinkin' happy thoughts? Or did you have a particularly tasty dream. Cue knowing smirk.

She didn't catch the shouted greeting, naturally, but Towhee certainly noticed the flock of songbirds suddenly taking to the air. She turned, her muscles stiffening only to relax in the next instant as her orange eyes clapped on Reyes. The tip of her tail stirred in response to his own wagging and she remained paused, allowing him to catch up to her.

-"The former,"- she quipped with a light laugh. -"I was thinking about my daughter, Meerkat. Have you ever met her? She lives at Firefly Glen and just moved up into the adult ranks. And she has a boyfriend. I was just pondering how best to mess with him,"- Towhee shared, aware that she was feeding into a stereotype, albeit one usually attributed to a girl's dad. Little did she know what Reyes thought of her gender...

-"How've you been, Reyes?"- Towhee queried in the next breath. She'd seen him around, of course, but they hadn't had a proper conversation in a while and she warmed to the idea of catching up a bit even as she motioned them forward to continue patrolling.

Try as he might Reyes would never understand the flailing of Towhee's alternative speech; he basically ignored the bulk of it, treating them like a friend with an odd tic he could do nothing about. The accented deaf-speech was easier to follow at any rate.

Well if ya want we could go for a visit, rough 'im up a bit? Or at least let the kid have some introduction to who would be beatin' his ass should anything happen. Reyes liked that idea very much. He hadn't had much fun lately, what with his trip to the Frosthawks and back.

On that note - I meant to tell ya, your people the Frosthawks wish ye well. Maybe if he distracted Towhee with something like that they'd forget to ask after him; Reyes wasn't exactly thrilled to bring up his feelings like some girl or something. He effectively ignored Towhee's question that way.

Towhee snickered as Reyes ran with the trope. -"I'm wondering what Hydra would do to me if I went over there and harassed her son,"- she mused, snorting at the thought. -"I'm sure he's an excellent choice, it's just the principle of the thing, you know?"- she added, just in case her comrade was taking any of this seriously.

Instead of answering her question, he mentioned a recent trip to the Frosthawks. Her eyes brightened at the mention. -"Thanks for the message."- Her feet kept walking as her mind strayed to her sister's pack, wondering about everyone there. As far as she knew, everybody was doing well.

-"I'm just about done with this circuit,"- she said, -"and I was thinking of doing some hunting. I'd love some company."- Towhee was still casually toying with the idea of dropping her secondary (and mostly unused) trade to pick up hunting in an official capacity. Hey, it wasn't that strange to change careers during middle age, right?

Hunting? His ears twitched; an expressive, expectant look dawned upon his face. 

Aye, lets go hunt up some grub! Reyes did enjoy such physical pursuits; he liked hunting more than fighting these days and no longer pined for trespassers to traipse across the borders for him to grab or maim—not that he had done those things in recent memory. Once he had wanted to be a guardian to his family... Then he left his family behind and somehow, like a snake shedding its skin, he shed that desire with them. Hunting sufficed to fill his immediate needs of physicality and personal strength; he was thrilled by the invitation and the chance to show off his prowess to his best bro, to top it all off.

While Towhee thought about dropping their less-used skills, Reyes wondered if that was the route he'd be forced to follow for himself. He held no other qualities worth pursuing aside from, maybe, being a chronicler of the day-to-day events of the Caldera pack, or sharing stories of himself the way a pirate would boast and bray to their crew. The thought of sharing anything like that was nauseating - just as the thought of being man-handled by rogues at the border made his skin crawl.

He kept these thoughts tucked away on the average day. Faced with the chance to spend time with one of the only decent men of the pack in this instance, Reyes found it easy to shove the pedantic considerations of his thoughts aside and focus on the physical. What're you in the mood for? He asked, as if a wolf had any choice when it came to the wild spawning of beasts.

Reyes reacted enthusiastically and Towhee grinned at him, though she felt the need to warn, -"Awesome, though you should know that I suck."- She barked a laugh. -"But I'm working on getting better. Just bear with me."- She paused, lips pressing together as she considered his question before adding, -"What do you think about beaver?"-

Her orange eyes twinkled, wondering if he'd take the easy setup for a dirty joke even as she pivoted on a heel and began trotting toward the dam situated on one edge of the territory's namesake landmark.

It hadn't yet occurred to Reyes that someone with a hearing deficit might find a task such as hunting supremely difficult until Towhee made their remark. Despite Towhee's slight accent there was nothing to indicate his problem and Reyes was dismissive of it on most days; faced with it now, he realized how wrong it was of him to ignore such a fault. But that only meant he would be doing the lion's share of the work... And he liked work.

What do you think about beaver? Towhee asked next.
Can't say I'm fond'a it, but food is food. He replied. The joke was presently lost on him. Reyes wasn't exactly a womanizer at his age and wasn't quick enough to connect those dots. Gotta get at 'em before they get wet. Their shelters were no joke—once they were in the water there was a low chance of success.

For a beat, Towhee thought he'd bypassed the opportunity for a tawdry joke. Then he both surprised and delighted her with his seemingly offhanded comment. She snorted, shooting him a sideways glance. Judging by his expression, he hadn't even meant that as a joke. She laughed again, harder, the sound an off-key bray.

-"I think it's the other way around,"- she quipped in reply, then considered what he might've meant if he was actually being serious and not simply playing the deadpan card. -"Why is it bad if they're wet?"- Towhee queried, well aware it might be a stupid question. But she wasn't afraid of looking like an idiot, not if she learned something that would help her possible hunting career.

For all his travels and adventures Reyes was a little naive. He did not connect any of the dots. Besides the smell? It means they have a home somewhere nearby and if they make it to water, there's hardly any chance to grab 'em. Hadn't Towher hunted for beaver before? Maybe not.

But I'm up for the challenge. If we can corner one and grab it fast enough. He grinned, looking around briefly for signs of beaver activity - then paused. A slow melting of that grin... And something clicked. Wait.. am I missing something?

His first couple of words earned a muted snerk from her. But the rest made sense. So when he suddenly cottoned onto her, she shook her head and replied, -"Nah. We're almost there."- Indeed, they were coming up on the edge of the caldera where the beavers' small, mud-packed lodge stood.

Rather than approach it directly, the Sovereign slowed and lowered her voice (although not quite well enough to be truly considered a whisper) to ask, -"I defer to you on this. What's the best approach to beaver-slaying?"-

Reyes shot his friend a look, unsure of how to take the commentary or the tone of the past conversation. Here he was being friendly with his superior but somehow Reyes was taking the piss, he just didn't understand the joke. It didn't matter - they moved along together until a mud-laden hutch came in to view alongside the caldera, the water around it having gone stagnant with the increasing cold of the season. 

Towhee tried to whisper and Reyes shot them another look, sort of a "oh my god would you shut up?" expression; it was brief, as Reyes grew distracted by the sight of the lodge. I dunno if you even need to whisper here. Its cold, there's not much water for this thing to swim in, it might even be.. Dormant, or something. Sleeping.

Reyes was making this up as he went along but it made sense to him. I mean, if you had to brave frigid water to go in 'n out of your den, would you wanna do it frequently? That was an aside more than anything. It would take some thought to work out the best method of attack here. We could dig it out. Might have'ta, if you want a mouthful o' beaver.

His blunt response surprised a sharp huff of laughter. -"All right,"- she agreed before guessing, -"Hibernating? Do beavers hibernate?"- Towhee glanced dubiously at the nest made of mud and sticks. It did look rather cozy, the perfect place to hole up for the winter.

She missed a bit of what Reyes said next, her eyes cutting back to him in time to catch the remarks about digging it out. Too invested to think about making jokes now, her eyes narrowed a bit as she declared, -"Game."- She looked back at the lodge, wondering how much fun it might be to simply destroy it.

But wouldn't that send the beavers away from here? And thus eliminate a reliable source of food for the pack? Towhee licked her lips thoughtfully. Maybe if they just made a small hole and took one or two, it wouldn't send the others packing in search of somewhere safer to live. She felt a little proud for even thinking of that, when it was so tempting to simply stomp all the beavers.

-"Just tell me what to do,"- she said, -"or show me. Whatever works."-

Okay. So if he wasn't super keen on diving in to the water to get under the lodge, and they weren't going to destroy the lodge from the top, Reyes would have to come up with another method. Or bite the bullet and do something reckless — he wanted to impress his friend after all, and they could use the fatty meat from a beaver for their stockpile. 

Reyes frowned as he tried to think, but, there wasn't much coming to mind. A few minutes passed and then he huffed and shrugged. Guess it can't be helped. You stay out here and keep an eye out for any movement. I'm gonna try and scare it out. If.. anything is in there. Except that would also mean getting in to the water. It wasn't quite blizzard-level at this point in the timeline so the water wouldn't be too cold. 

As Reyes moved away from Towhee's side he attempted to find a route around to a spot where the dam met the water's edge. He almost pranced as he went, trying to avoid the gross feeling of wetness from the water or the mud, clenching his jaws as his toes soaked and then, gradually, his feet and ankles. Reyes probed at some spots and scratched at the surface of others, only stopping to listen between actions.

He thought he heard something moving and listened intently, but nothing major happened. Reyes then tried climbing on part of the muddy pile of wood, rising up as if he was about to mount it, scrambling, getting on a small ledge for a precarious amount of time, then losing his footing and leaping back down. The entire lodge shuddered—and something inside scrambled around, loud enough for his ears to catch it.

There is definitely something in there. Don't think it wants to come out.

She was told to stay put and watch for movement. Got it, Towhee thought, dipping her snout decisively. Her orange eyes tracked Reyes's movements as he closed in on the lodge, then performed what she might call an assessment. Without working ears to provide any context, it was sort of strange to watch, though Towhee had lived long enough to recognize the visual cues associated with hearing and listening.

"Okay, um..." she said rather artlessly after catching the remark he threw her way, "what—" She didn't get any farther than that before something splashed near the lodge's base. Towhee stiffened, prepared to make a move if a beaver emerged on the shore, though she noted with some disappointment that a shadow glided out into the lake instead.

Of course while Reyes was mentioning the hermetic nature of the beaver, it was in actuality slipping out from a gap in the lodge's submerged belly. Its shadow passed alongside where Reyes was standing and he remained oblivious — but he was intently listening to a pile of sticks and mud.

Towhee murmured something that broke his concentration and he pivoted an ear, then shot his superior a look that was typically reserved for cinephiles inside a movie theatre; but he did notice that Towhee cut themselves off sharply and appeared to be looking towards the lake.

I told you to watch for it! He chided, forgetting for a moment that they weren't just best buddies out for some manly hunting, but a leader and their subordinate trying to feed a family. Reyes looked hastily at the water's surface and then to the lodge, but he couldn't hear anything else from inside, and had to admit defeat.

Fuck. That was probably our one chance. It knows somethin' is up and probably won't come back to this place for a while. Not that he was particularly invested in stuffing his face with wet beaver, or anything.

She almost didn't catch his shout, her attention still fixed on the underwater shadow. It rapidly disappeared and she swung back to face Reyes just in time to get chastised. Towhee met this allegation with a blink before calling back, -"I told you I sucked at this!"-

Even if she hadn't been able to read his lips, his body language admitted defeat, so she knew the jig was up. -"Sorry,"- she offered with regret but not much real remorse. After all, even the most skilled hunters didn't always succeed. -"We can try something else, if I haven't totally broken your faith,"- the Sovereign offered offhandedly.

As they moved closer to each other again, Towhee even managed a light laugh as she threw an elbow at Reyes. She did hope he was game to keep trying elsewhere, though she did say, -"Shame, though. Think of what a great weapon a beaver's tail would make. I could chase all of Meerkat's boyfriends with it, give 'em a good WHACK..."-

Wanna fade here? :D

Sure!

Feeling the pinch of failure, Reyes went quiet and did not comment or engage with Towhee as they formulated a new plan. There would be other opportunities. Look on the bright side, at least nobody drowned — he hadn't been this close to water in a long while, and maybe they would have been successful if he had braved the cold and the wet, or swam after the giant rodent himself. 

He chuckled at his leader's quip about the beaver tail, though there was a lack of feeling to the expression he wore upon his face thereafter. A dead-eyed, glum look of defeat. Yeah, sure, Reyes finally remarked lowly, forgetting that Towhee wouldn't have heard any verbal reply until the last second. He raised his head and nodded - gathering his friend's attention - before following them along the lakeside to their next chance.