King Elk Forest You say it will reach out and seize the sorrow.

She moved to stand beside the trunk of a tree, a stately oak this time. She didn't start weeping again; it seemed that well was empty. Towhee just stood there, hunched slightly around the aching sorrow which had taken residence somewhere in her midsection, probably where her damned useless womb was housed. That thought invited a new emotion into the melancholic mix. She felt a stab of furious anger, which caused her to suddenly lash out and smack her foreleg against the tree trunk.

Pain shot up her leg like electricity and Towhee cried out, an anguished sound. She sidestepped away from the tree, hissing under her breath, only then noticing she had company. For a split second, Towhee thought Bat had returned. The color palette was eerily similar. But even as she shifted her weight off her paw and began to shake it, hissing through her teeth, she realized she was looking at a perfect stranger.

"Can I fucking help you?" she seethed, still trying to shake away the pain radiating in her bones. She felt bad a split second later, especially when Towhee took notice of the stranger's concerned look. "Look, I'm not really in the mood for a meet-and-greet right now," she said flatly, unaware that her already strange voice was incredibly hoarse, scratched raw from all today's sobbing.