The Sentinels Boarfish

She made no response to his riposte. More and more, Towhee was realizing that was going to be exactly what happened. He was putting her in a horrible position, not that he seemed to care. She replayed the visual of his lips forming the words, “So what?” and she winced at their callousness.

Towhee stared as his story unfolded. He’d killed a bear? Singlehandedly? The same bear he’d thought had killed his entire family. She took several moments just to marvel at this, when a realization crept up on her and pounced in a way that reminded her of that she-wolf’s attack from behind some months ago.

You don’t actually want to see them, do you. It didn’t come out as a question. You don’t care where the copse is, because if I leave here without you, you don’t actually have any plans to come find it. You…

He’d just said it: he wasn’t Swordfish anymore. He wasn’t Meerkat’s and Njord’s son. He was someone else entirely. Towhee grappled with this realization. She felt like she might puke. She could only hope that her daughter would find some comfort in knowing he was alive.