Blacktail Deer Plateau sunrise drink it fresh

"No!" the youth replied emphatically, "I didn't see any nests and I wasn't bothering them! They just attacked outta nowhere 'cause they're jerks." It was clear she felt passionate about the topic, though the proverbial smoke stopped hissing out of her ears when Blue Willow questioned her about the cuts. "I was with Thistle. She's a Healer too. She reminds me of you." She smiled fondly at her aunt.

It seemed Junior didn't want to linger on the subject, however, as a question popped out of her mouth the next second that had nothing to do with that: "Aunt Willow, what are mates... exactly?" Her parents had been mates yet they weren't anymore. They barely spoke to each other. Now her father had two new mates. That's the way Junior had come to understand the arrangement, anyway. One was a boy, the other a girl. She hadn't been brought up in a monogamous, nuclear family so she didn't even know what was normal and what wasn't... and that Peregrine's polygamous arrangement went very much against tradition. "Like, how's a mate different than a friend?"