Bramblepoint I'll man the flashlight.

She noticed the amicable flick of Hydra's tail and felt a secret delight at it, though she kept her face carefully neutral as she regarded the older youth. "She's not with me today. My brother, Phox, is back there," Towhee replied, making her sibling's name sign automatically as she spoke. She shrugged as if to say none of it mattered.

Her burnished eyes took on a shrewd, speculative light as she asked in her slow, difficult-to-understand speech, "Would you practice fighting with me?" For some reason Towhee could not exactly explain, she figured Hydra to be the perfect opponent. And if she happened to hurt her (however unlikely), at least she was an outsider.