Sun Mote Copse you always feared god-born achilles

The first to appear was a pale woman who looked like she’d blown in from the north. Meerkat noticed she clung to the foot of the mountain, so she exchanged a look with Towhee Jr before padding a little nearer to the border. Her eyes never left the stranger, at least until she noticed her giant shadow. He stood close to the woman, a silent guardian.

Her mouth opened to reply to the question when a third figure materialized, another swarthy fellow with a slightly smaller build. Meerkat found it curious that he didn’t flank his comrades but instead chose to move to their other side, as if trying to surround the two visitors. Between that and his sarcastic greeting, Meerkat was immediately on her guard.

Her eyes bored into Jr, wondering what she might want to say to this mismatched trio. As soon as she began signing, Meerkat’s lips parted to begin her translation. She tried not to editorialize too much, though she spoke carefully, her mimicked Ptero similarly careful.

-“This is Towhee and I’m Meerkat. We’re from Sun Mote Copse. We’re here because we wanted to formally introduce ourselves to our new neighbors, although I know you’re not really that new anymore. Sorry we couldn’t make it here sooner,”- she said, though there was a tightness in her eyes.

Meerkat wasn’t really that sorry, though she was nothing if not diplomatic. She actually found she shared the sentiment Jr had conveyed: why hadn’t they taken it upon themselves to pay a visit to the copse? Why hadn’t they done that long ago, before deciding to stake a claim that negatively impacted not one but two established packs?

-“May we have your names and the name of your pack?”- Meerkat decided to ask before meeting Jr’s eye and asking, -“And is there anything you’d like to add, J—Towhee?”-