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

The stranger flinched but did not retreat, which was kind of ballsy, Towhee thought. She stilled her paw and set it back on the ground, gingerly, wincing a little. But her eyes remained pinned on Bat's lookalike, scrutinizing her as she weighed whether she felt like answering that question.

"Do I look all right to you?" she retorted, though without heat. "I'm not going to spill my guts to some stranger, no matter how well-meaning," Towhee added gruffly. She'd unloaded a little on her kids and she would take a massive emotive dump on her brother when he got back but she was not going to cry on some stranger's shoulder.

Although she really didn't feel like making small talk, Towhee still wasn't ready to return home yet. She considered telling this would-be good Samaritan to beat it, though on second thought, she was weary of sitting around and stewing in her feelings. It would take a lot of time and hashing it out to truly accept and make peace with her inability to bring children into the world, though she'd fulfilled today's quota of mourning, she was pretty sure. So why not seize another opportunity for a distraction, despite her initial reluctance to engage in chitchat?

"Are you from Frosthawks?" she found herself querying. They weren't far from there, though an idle sniff told Towhee nothing informative.