Sun Mote Copse A dream drawn from the sheath.

Towhee met Fen's straightforward announcement with a slow blink, then another. Penn was leaving? How did she feel about that? More importantly, Fen wanted to go with him? As soon as that knowledge landed, her first instinct was to protest, vehemently, for a thousand different reasons, many of them selfish. Her lips parted as she almost forbade it, before Towhee remembered that she wasn't speaking to a child. They pressed together and she just stared at Fen for several more beats, expression twisted into one of deepest consternation.

At length, she said, "Okay," and then, after a breath, "You're decided? You've thought it through? You..." Towhee paused as a sudden though sidelined the rest of them. "Hang on, are you...? And Penn...?"