Blackfoot Forest The simorgh sleeps on velvet tongues

She braced herself for some tale of horrible wrongdoing, remaining tense throughout Hawkeye's explanation. When her friend finished, Pied released the breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding in a loud whoosh and asked, "That's it?" She sounded taken aback at first, but then her expression clouded and she repeated incredulously, "That's it?"

Pied couldn't believe that Koontz would react so severely to what amounted to a verbal sparring match. The spotted yearling suddenly wanted to sink to the ground and cry at the petty unfairness of it. Her cousin had disowned her over a simple case of Hawkeye putting her foot in her mouth. Of course, Pied didn't think about the fact that Hawkeye must've reacted poorly to the whole thing to inspire such agitation in the level-headed Redleaf-DiSarinno.

"God," Pied muttered under her breath, then shook her head rather roughly. "So stupid. I can't believe I've been denounced over something like that." Her lips pursed and then she let out a low, slow breath and decided, "Anyway, it doesn't matter. What's done is done. We should all just... move on with our lives."

Despite the determination in her voice, Pied's heterochromatic eyes became glazed as she stared off into the distance, unable to stop thinking about the issue. Her unblinking eyes faced away into the forest, unseeing, even when a ghostly silhouette passed between two trees before disappearing again.