Redhawk Caldera Now if you'll excuse me, I have a little hell to raise.

Sebastian wasn't to know it, but his effusive reply instantly warmed Towhee to him. Then he mentioned her attempt at storytelling a while back and this pleased her even more. All the while, the Xi carefully controlled her expression. She didn't want him to think she was easy to please or win over. He was still an outsider and it would take more than one encounter to truly earn her respect and trust.

She always wanted to learn more and more about her parents, but she couldn't turn down an opportunity to relay some Redhawk history. "I left off with our birth, didn't I?" she recollected out loud. "Well... as you may or may not know, Raven took over as our wet nurse when Fox died. When we were only a few weeks old, it got so cold that they had to move us from the den to that big cave. Do you know of it? Anyway, it was a risky move but we all made it there okay. The entire pack came to stay there with us because the weather got really bad. In fact, it snowed so much that there was a small avalanche, which blocked off the entrance. We were separated from half the pack, including Raven..."

Towhee paused there to take a breath and peer at Sebastian's face to see if she'd left him on tenterhooks, as she hoped.