Lost Creek Hollow Does your mother know that you're out?

They didn't get far before he tried to broach the subject again, to which she made a point to ignore the question. Maybe it was rude. Certainly her mothers raised her better than that; Ibis imagined Lily rolling her eyes too, but did not engage regardless.

She tried to maneuver the conversation to something more palatable and said, You live in a forest like us -- um, like mom and Okeanos, it looked different, smelled different, but she would rather face the strange forest than deal with her feelings right now. Do you have a favorite place? I found one in the willows and it was secret, but then Eleuthera found me and I had to share it, the memory had been a negative one up till this point, and Ibis felt a pang of regret, missing the familiarity of her friend. She looked at her dad expectantly after that, finally giving him a moment to speak.