Redhawk Caldera You shout it out but I can't hear a word you say.

Her heart sank when Eljay answered with a frown. Towhee almost looked away, not wanting him to confirm what that look meant and dash the rest of her hopes completely. But she made herself stay still, catching every word that his lips formed. In the end, he didn't know for sure, but the fact that he'd never witnessed such a thing did not bode well.

She let herself slump back in the grass then, face upturned toward the sky. "I thought it was just gas," Towhee said to the clouds overhead, tears sliding down either side of her face before she pressed her eyes closed and became dead to the world, just like...

With her eyes shut, she pictured their tiny bodies. Blackbird, she decided, and... Butterfly. It was kind of a girly name, for her, and she didn't know their sexes. But the markings reminded her of a monarch, just... one that had left the safety of its cocoon much too soon.