Firefly Glen (PHE) Chicken charmers.

Towhee quickly gave up on trying to do the math, though Chakliux hadn’t been kidding about the plateau being overrun by children. She mouthed the word “wow” as he ran through a list of names. Towhee hung on his every word, though she still hoped there wasn’t a quiz at the end, because it was too much information to memorize.

I bet, she murmured.

She idly wondered what that was like, having never heard the laughter of children. She’d seen it, of course, and it was one of the most incredible sights. Towhee genuinely couldn’t imagine what it must sound like, though surely it amplified the experience. It wasn’t often these days that she had moments like this—where she pondered the drawbacks of her disability—but she quickly processed it and moved on.

So, how many kids have you fathered in total? Towhee wondered, because everything was a (friendly!) competition. She added playfully, Do you even know? I wish I could have so many, losing track could be possible, although it’s kind of hard to do that, as the mother. Your body kind of keeps score for you, which was of course a massive understatement.