Redhawk Caldera All that wasted time

As convincing as Finley's fake smile was, Elwood could still see its hollowness. He had become awfully accustomed to that expression during the long and troubling days after her accident at Moonspear. She greeted him with genuine affection, licking him right on the eye in a manner that could only be called Finley-esque. He clamped his eyelids shut, wrinkling his nose. "Oh, crap, now you've gone and done it -- I can't see out of that eye anymore," he teased in a rare moment of playfulness. "You're the only leader left with two working eyes," he added; he probably would've earned a punch from Fox had she heard that comment.

Reopening his eye, he gave a wave of his tail before gently trailing his nose down her shoulder to her subtly rounded stomach. "How are you feeling?" he asked, stepping back to look at her. It was a loaded question and he knew it -- he didn't just mean her physical state, but her mental and emotional condition as well.