Firefly Glen ^________________________^

She willed her body to calm down as silence—broken only by the sounds of eating—stretched between them. Maybe if she didn’t look at Sobeille for a few minutes, Treepie could stop the response that not only embarrassed her but also clashed with her entire sense of self.

Sobeille finally spoke, inquiring about her siblings. Tiuttuk looked up at her without thinking, the sight of her tongue running over her teeth causing her to stand quickly and shuffle her hind feet closer together. Subtly—she hoped, anyway—she tucked her tail between her legs.

And then the words actually registered, a mild sadness spearing through her and very effectively dowsing the warmth gathered in Pie’s core. She thought of Pauk and Kaujimaq, their faces eternally youthful in her mind. She realized with a pang that it was quite difficult to picture them at all. Then there were her older siblings, whose names escaped her at the moment.

No, she said, because she didn’t feel like dwelling on such sadness right now, even if the subject matter had taken care of her little problem. It’s just Tiki. How about you? Tell me about your family.

Slowly, Pie folded to a seat again. She just hoped that if she didn’t look at Sobeille too much and kept busy talking, her body might not betray her again. It would be strange anyway, wouldn’t it, to get turned on while talking about their families? All the same, she kept the brush of her tail firmly positioned between her legs.