Redhawk Caldera Solutions to my gloom.

“It is the mouth,” Bassetki said, earning the quirk of one eyebrow, “it eats and eats and hungers still.” Well, that metaphor would stick with her for a while. Towhee said nothing, letting the stranger finish answering her questions.

I don’t have much energy to give, she quipped, though something hardened in her expression in the following seconds. We don’t do servants around here, she went on with a light frown now twisting her mouth as she recounted, Bassetki. Snakes. Servants. Are you from that Akashingo place?

Her eyes strayed to the mesa in the distance. For some reason, she’d been under the impression they’d migrated elsewhere, perhaps further south into the lowlands. Good riddance, she thought, even as her puzzled orange eyes swung back to Bassetki’s face.