Moonspear sparkling water

He made a little O with his mouth when she replied, seeming more glum than usual. When was the last time he had seen her really happy? Phox grimaced, thinking it had been way, way too long. Then again, he had done everything he could think of to help. Not that it would ever be enough, and not that he would ever not feel bad for her. She was his oldest alongside Fig, and making their lives (along with their siblings) the best possible was kind of his whole job these days.

He isn't, Phox admitted, thinking of adding in a whole "don't blame yourself!" spiel, but figured Fennec wouldn't want to hear that. I don't know all the deets between you two, but I've fucked things up with your mom more than a billion times, and somehow she keeps letting me stick around. Towhee had been especially hard on him when they were younger, but thankfully seemed to have soften over the years... a smidge. She was even pissed when I wanted to hang around Epoch a bit longer and wait for Maxim.

Which, hindsight being twenty-twenty, turned out not to be worth sticking around for. Maxim was still nowhere to be found, Epoch or otherwise, as far as Phox knew.