Moonspear Chipper and Loud

Kindle was quietly horrified when Kinusi seemed to take pity on him. Clearly he'd miscalculated in his self-deprecation. He'd meant to be humorous, but Kinusi was not amused. He began to feel defensive instead.

"Nobody's holdin' my mouth shut," he assured her, trying to brush off the topic with more laughter. "Don't worry, Kini. I'll sing if I feel like it."

But he was even more reluctant to sing now, as such a big to-do had been made of it.

"Treepie showed me some of the slopes the other day," he said, making further efforts to change the topic. "I wanted to ask if you'd done much hunting on this terrain. I know you ain't lived here in a while, though."