Bramblepoint I learned that from the pizza man.

There was something strange in the air lately. Finley smelled peculiar and Elwood seemed to be glued to her side (or her backside) much more than usual. Towhee observed these things with a shrewd eye but chose to ignore them for the most part. She kept herself busy with routine patrols, cavorting around with Phox and taking continued language lessons with Raven, among other things.

This afternoon, she grew frustrated with trying to pronounce some more difficult words and angrily gestured, -I quit!- before moodily stalking away from her older sister. She headed toward the borders, intending to do a patrol, but instead wound up flopping beneath a tree to brood. Her mind wandered to her godparents briefly before a distracting scent blustered by on the May breeze. It belonged to her prodigal brother, Gannet. She muttered under her breath.

A flicker of movement caught her attention and she turned to see Raven walking toward her, a concerned expression in her yellow eyes. "Towhee," Raven began and the Xi had to resist the urge to look away, lest she miss what her sister had to say (as much as she was certain she didn't want to 'hear' it), "you've been kind of moody lately." The pup felt a flash of indignant heat but hadn't gotten further than pursing her lips before the caregiver added, "I miss him too."

It took her a beat or two to realize what Raven meant, her face screwed up in confusion. It cleared suddenly and she rasped, "He left." There was no mistaking the angry flash in her brassy eyes.

"We don't know that," the black she-wolf gently corrected. "We don't know where he's gone or why. We're trying to figure out what happened and bring Tit back home. He's family and he belongs here with us."

Towhee had nothing to say to that. Turning away from Raven, she rose back onto all fours and began stalking toward the nearby Bramblepoint. Suddenly, she wondered if she might run into @Hydra again. She would really love a rematch, especially right now while she was feeling particularly feisty and in bad need of a distraction. And she was pretty damn sure she would make a much better showing today than she had the last time.