Blackfeather Woods stage 3: bargaining

She looked at him with disdain, though Towhee made no move toward him. She hadn’t seen him since the caldera’s final days, when they’d been forced to cohabitate for the sake of Phox’s—not theirs, she thought savagely—kids. Although she could seethe over all the treachery and lies involved with that entire situation, Towhee did not dignify them with more than a passing thought.

Anyway, Titmouse didn’t seem to be in his right mind. She watched warily as he made several abortive movements, crying all the while. Was he ill? Or injured? Hopefully, Towhee thought meanly, feeling absolutely no pity for her wayward litter mate.

When he tucked his tail, it triggered an instinctive reaction despite herself. Towhee raised her own and bared her teeth, feinting in his direction as if she might attack. But she wouldn’t. It wouldn’t do any good anyway. Titmouse was a disease that could not be cured… possibly literally, now.