Sun Mote Copse It's called a lance, hello!

Again, Niamh rolled her eyes, this time at his attempt to sully his own reputation. "That ain't your fault. You didn't cause Fennec to be blind, and you sure as hell didn't cause the landslide. I nearly went ass over tea-kettle down that same mountain of rocks 'cause your sister decided she was gonna try and climb it...That is stupidity, but we both know Towhee." She said, with a short laugh. There was no talking sense into Towhee when she put her mind to something. She'd esaped the grove- but trying to return to it had nearly killed not only herself, but Niamh too, who had been forced to go to her rescue. 

He seemed worried, still, about Fennec, and she still sensed that he carried a bit of guilt with him over her blindness. As far as Niamh knew, of course, the kid had been born that way- and that wasn't his fault. She shrugged. "Fen's a nice kid. Even Bronco thinks so- so if she can win him over, she'll have no trouble making friends who can be by her side for the rest of her life. And she'll have you too." She said. It felt odd, stepping from one side of the self-deprecating  conversation to be on the support-giving side, but at the same time, it felt natural to want to console Phox. He didn't deserve the punishments he was giving himself. He was a good guy- and there weren't many of those. 

Niamh shrugged when Phox spoke about the potential of her having kids again, but she remained quiet, and somewhat stiff. There had been too many other kids in the pack. Finley and Elwood had had foud, and Wildfire and Eljay had had two- and without many other adults to step in and help out, she'd been left on her own while her mate stepped up to lead...And had subsequently gotten himself killed in the process. And when she'd gone to the grove to beg Towhee and Phox to take her in...They had recommended that she stay in the Copse. "Maybe if I'd taken the kids and joined you guys, Nellie would still be around." There was a tinge of spite in her voice, and she refused to make eye contact with Phox for that point. "But who's to say. Maybe both of them would've been buried under that pile of rocks had I done that. Maybe me too. Who fucking knows."