Sun Mote Copse The thing about kinked tail

Towhee found Wraen's rebuke so utterly absurd that she froze, simply staring at her. She remained in this state throughout the Sovereign's following words, her insides full of hellfire that lashed and licked, making her blood boil and her skin break out in a rash of heat beneath her fur. But she did not interrupt and, in fact, managed to tamp the flame a little by the time Wraen finished.

-"Sorry, I don't mean to yell at you,"- she said after a pregnant pause where she attempted more successfully to leash her fury. -"For the damn record, though, I was calm when we talked. He just didn't like what I had to say, so he went around telling lies because he's butthurt."- That was blatantly unkind and Towhee knew it, though she was still quietly furious about all of this.

-"You're mistaken, we were never that close,"- Towhee corrected a little woodenly, -"at least, not on my end. He knew the score the entire time too, so don't let him try to tell you I led him on or some kind of horse shit."- And now he was certainly no friend of hers and, of course, she wanted to renege on her offer of involving him entirely. In fact, she wanted to hunt him down and whup his lying ass before telling him to scram.

But as the moments ticked past, Towhee's anger cooled a little. It wasn't gone, by any means, but she knew she shouldn't seek out Pippin anytime soon. -"Oh, I'll track him down eventually,"- she said, picturing herself wringing his neck, -"but not until I don't feel so fucking pissed off about it."- Even if Wraen didn't, she gave herself points for her presence of mind there. And hopefully by that time, she wouldn't want to throttle him so badly.

Suddenly, she moved closer to Wraen again and flopped down just like before, with a windy sigh. -"I wanted to punch you just now,"- she admitted quite frankly, looking up to meet the Sovereign's eyes, -"when you said she doesn't belong to me, I mean. But I know what you're saying. And you're right. One day, I'll tell her all about this and she can make up her own mind. And probably be grossed out and judge me. But she's still a baby, for now. My baby."-