Redhawk Caldera Made in the dark

She was sore following the spar with Hydra, physically and metaphorically. A few days later, Towhee's fatigue disappeared and her indignation morphed into sheepishness. She shouldn't have acted like such a sore loser. Although it rankled—as much as the youth had come to enjoy Hydra's company, she was still an outsider—she knew she owed the girl an apology and explanation. Hydra had won, fair and square, and deserved respect for her skills.

For the second time, her orange eyes scanned the trees from the edge of Bramblepoint, hoping Hydra was running amok in the brambly forest again. Raven lingered nearby, a bit to Towhee's embarrassment. She didn't necessarily want her older sister bearing witness to this. But the adults were growing weary of her wandering off on her own and insisted on escorting her beyond the borders. Towhee just did her best to ignore Raven, which was easy enough as long as she didn't glance over in the medic's direction and instead kept her eyes glued on the nearby woods.

Nobody ever showed, which sort of made sense; it would have been very serendipitous to run into the girl a third time. With a sigh, Towhee motioned for Raven to walk back with her. They returned to Redhawk territory and the rendezvous site in silence, with Raven padding off to find something to eat and a slightly moody Towhee following Phox's trail toward the caldera. She plopped to her haunches nearby and watched him, his boisterous behavior soon coaxing a smile back onto the Xi's lips, though she made no move to join him. She cast Raven a sidelong smile when the caretaker appeared nearby and flopped down to munch on a snack.

Only when he suddenly seemed to catch a whiff of something did Towhee straighten up and bound to her feet, finally trotting to Phox's side with a loud sniff. "What is it?"