Redhawk Caldera On into the gold river

Although Towhee spent time with most of her pack mates—the ones worth her while, anyway—she still spent the most time with @Phox. Because X went everywhere she did, this meant that her brother and the bird had gotten quite comfortable with one another. In fact, when the yearling hunter requested to "borrow" the recently healed hawk to try out some innovative hunting tactics, Towhee allowed it with only minor reluctance. She watched Phox jog off into the distance, his winged shadow soaring overhead, and felt a small pang. She had kind of hoped X would refuse, yet the raptor seemed keen to seize any opportunity to stretch his wings and, well, meat was meat.

Trying to shake off the feeling that a piece of her was missing, Towhee made her way to the borders. Before she could even start a patrol, she discovered two figures standing there. The fur along the guardian's spine bristled as she immediately loped toward them. As she closed the gap, her head lifted and her tail arched. She kept her muzzle low to protect her throat, her orange eyes boring into the pair of (admittedly striking) strangers.

"State your name and business," she demanded in her garbled monotone, her expression even more severe than usual due to feeling out of sorts over X's absence.