Heron Lake Plateau Sooner rather than later

Speaking of families, the two youngest members of the Pho-Tow squad appeared out of goddamn nowhere. Well, one of them did, ramming into Raven's legs like a furry bowling ball. Towhee missed her brother's half sentence entirely as she blinked at this development, totally nonplussed. She'd read the Guidebook, damn it! It had clearly said:

By the 5 week mark, pups may accompany adults on short trips away from the den.

Oh, maybe that was her mistake: she shouldn't have left them alone, she should have brought them with her. Well, they were here now, so... no harm, no foul? Except she could only see the one (Fen), where was the other? Surely her blind daughter hadn't found her way here via magic. Fig was around here somewhere, for sure...

Her orange gaze found Phox. She couldn't hear him calling for their son, though she could read his body language clearly. Wanting to do her part, Towhee called out, "FIGLET!" and began scouring their surroundings.

Although 98% of her attention was on locating her son, the remaining 2% of Towhee's brain registered the twosome's unceremonious arrival here as both exemplar and metaphor. Although she had never envisioned her life going like this—she would never have kids and certainly never leave her birth pack—Fig and Fen had come out of fuckin' nowhere and wiped out everything she thought she knew about her world.

Along with their father, they were taking Towhee to new and uncharted places. Hopefully Raven would come around and understand that. And if she didn't, maybe she could just be glad to be rid of these two adorably naughty baby faces... oh, and Fig and Fen too. ;)