Redhawk Caldera Bosses are bad, dude

"Uh," he faltered, and it was just long enough for Towhee to suddenly close the distance and touch him. "Not really, I mean..." He drew back, conscious at least of the fact that she would have no idea what he was saying if she couldn't see him. Being half-deaf did make him a little more thoughtful of things like that. After all, if a wolf spoke to him on his left side, they were lucky if he caught half of what they said to him. In fact, he was very twitchy about wolves being on his left side in general.

"I'm deaf in one ear," he explained. "I can hear okay with the other one, but this one—" he twitched his left ear, "—is totally useless. Not a sound." He'd been born with congenital hearing loss, and Wildfire had simply accelerated the process when she shoved her snout in his ear and screamed. He didn't remember that and wouldn't have really noticed anyway. His was genetic, probably just like Towhee, and he had about a 50/50 chance of losing hearing in his good ear later in life as well. He didn't know it though. That ear still functioned perfectly.