Redtail Rise Moon Singer

His song faded as his lungs emptied of air. In the subsequent silence, he pricked his ears and studied the distant rise. Abruptly, Bushtit realized he’d stood upon it once. Sometime the previous summer, just before he’d decided to depart the Teekon Wilds, he had met Sienna at its crest, a queen seated upon her throne. Was that her voice breaking into a second verse?

Bushtit drew in a deep breath and rejoined her, their voices weaving in the wintry darkness. Hers enticed him closer, though the yearling didn’t move from where he stood on the frosted plain. He was tired from a long day’s travel. He had many more miles to go, come morning. He couldn’t really afford a side quest.

But he could spare the breath to query after her—what had she called it?—empire. Bushtit still assumed he was speaking to Queen Sienna, to whom he offered his regrets at being unable to join her properly in her throne room.