Firefly Glen (PHE) The ballad of the witches’ road.

kukutux did not understand. like killdeer, worry rose. towhee had been upon her borders not long ago with the pup newly born; now the child was here, among so many.

quietly she wondered if her companion from the sun mote was unwell. it would not do to say aloud. but towhee's status as mother and grandmother should have led her to consider these things. it did not, and so concern flowered where kukutux did not allow judgement to grow. perhaps the fear of losing the child to hunger had opened some terror inside towhee that only a mother comprehended. having sung two daughters to sedna, kukutux questioned if she too might have tucked a new child close and never let them from her sight. towhee would be given the warmth of the camps as was best and right, and in doing so, the duck hoped she  might come to feel safer.

"it is good to see your faces," she murmured, stepping alongside killdeer to regard the baby with great warmth. why had towhee come now? why had she not arrived with meadow and reyson and their children? "will you rest in the healing camp with me for a time, towhee? i must at last sit down," she added, turning her attention to killdeer. "will you come with us? i wish to hear all word of the mountain."