Redhawk Caldera I'm leavin' tomorrow, whatdya say?

That suggestion appeared to appease the Regent. Towhee still had some misgivings about the whole thing, though there was plenty of time to plan and prepare if these games weren't even being held for weeks. Maybe she would even float her earlier idea past Reyes. The pups would still be young, but they were discussing a trip to the coast soon, so maybe this wasn't an outrageous thought either, depending on who was involved and where it took place. All details she could suss out later.

She would've been happy for any subject change, though Rue touched on something that particularly tickled the Sovereign. Gods, yes, she was beside herself. She probably should've considered whether Rue would approve of how Towhee was handling the entire thing, but the only room in her head and heart was dedicated to loving those unborn children.

She opened her mouth to say as much when an errant thought passed through her mind like a single rain cloud in an otherwise sunny sky. It was actually a memory: a despondent Niamh reacting to the news of Towhee's pairing with Reyes. -"Just makes me feel old, is all,"- she remembered her friend saying. Her mind tried to fly even further backward in time, though Towhee pressed her lips together and shut down that whole train of thought before it could go off the rails. No one and nothing was going to spoil her joy about this.

"Oh heck yeah," she said, smiling softly, "I've been looking forward to grandkids since the day I first realized they were a distant possibility." And that was not an exaggeration. Even years on, Towhee would never forget how the whole notion had buoyed her up during a particularly bleak time in her own life.