Sleepy Fox Hollow we are just happy to serve you

The voice cut through her morose thoughts and she looked up, immediately stiffening upon seeing who it was. Wylla seemed to be in more of a chipper mood, but Maegi didn't trust her one bit. Their last interaction had been prickly at best; she certainly didn't want to deal with this right now.

I was praying, she responded. It was a lie. What had she been doing? The bird was beyond saving—perhaps Maegi had just spaced out, paralyzed in a crisis of conscience. Finding herself suddenly cloaked in the hawk's own feathers. My faith honors the dead and dying. . .no matter which soul it is.

Maegi glanced down, staring sadly at the avian youth. You can have it, she said, her voice pitched low. She didn't have the stomach for it, not anymore.