Blacktail Deer Plateau The sound of my heart

Undoubtedly it was a stressful ordeal for Kisu to have his daughter, who had no idea about his relation to her, ask about his dead mate. Saēna was beginning to learn to read other's emotions from their faces, and she got the sense that Kisu was unsure where to begin, although she didn't have a word for what she thought he was feeling. He hummed, then explained that Pied was the name of her mother, who had died.

Saēna, of course, didn't comprehend this at first. It didn't make any sense, considering her mother (Hawkeye) was very much alive and definitely not named Pied. Being as it was all she had ever known, the Redleaf-DiSarinno (as she thought she was) denied it brightly. “Mom's name is Hawkeye!” And then, as if she was clueing in on some grand joke, she grinned and chirped, “silly Kisu.”

A month or so more and understanding would have been immediate, but Saēna was still at an age where repetition was required to solidify meaning.