Lost Creek Hollow In the morning she said "Listen,"

She was glad to have the focus shifted off of Gannet, but as soon as Terance began to talk about his new love Ibis soured; she wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt - no, both of them. The more she heard, the less and less she could focus. Then her dad did something she would have never expected, and he cussed! It wasn't much, but as someone that never heard that kind of language, it stuck out. Ibis looked utterly surprised (and a little bit repulsed) as she peered at him; her eyes wide, ears at first tilted towards him so that she could listen attentively like a good daughter, suddenly slashing back. He didn't seem to react to the words, except for maybe a vague lilt of humor to his tone, which also baffled her.

Ibis swallowed a lump in her throat and went ahead with the conversation, pretending she hadn't heard that little slip-up of his. He hadn't reacted to it, so she took a cue from him (but it was still a bad word, gosh, how dare he!). So she's... Not like mom, she countered as clearly as she could. But you... You like her? Is she um — do you like her because she's smarter, or, or prettier, than mom? Why else would he have abandoned them all? There had to be something about Treason that was better, even if Ibis could never ever see it. Her mother was everything; she was kind, warm-hearted, the love of Ibis' life — so what made Treason better than all that?