Northstar Vale My rusty wings are weak and tired, oh.

Tell Towhee what to do? That sounded downright outlandish, which meant she really must be desperate. In all their years together, Phox had never been the leading type. Okay, so there was that one time at the grove, and we don't talk about what happened there. Besides, where else would they go? It wasn't like he had any desire to return to any of their old haunts, and sure, there was a pack that had moved in next door, but they seemed to be keeping to themselves.

Phox hung a foreleg over her even as she went into a freaky laughing fit, patting her back and remembering how distraught he'd been the year before last with Niamh's disappearance and later learning of her death. He could only hope Maxim's story would turn out differently.

-Let's stay here,- he said, -That way, when Maxim comes back, he'll know right where to find you and the littles.- No sense in complicating things if he showed up tomorrow. Wasn't it always the moving around that made connections so difficult to keep? Fennec and Killdeer knew where they were, and quite frankly, Phox wasn't really in the mood to move again. He'd had quite enough of that.