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Vasa's scoffing tone was lost on Towhee, so she took the comment entirely differently than her niece likely intended. "He goes off scouting pretty often," she agreed, "but catch him when he's around and I'm sure he'll be happy for you to tag along. I'll tell X to pass along your message," she added.

The next thing she knew, Vasa told her to forget she said anything and then left abruptly. Towhee gazed blankly after her before her face twisted into a bit of a scowl. It reminded her of that time Kiwi had done something similar, although she and Phox had sort of instigated that. In this case, Towhee wasn't sure what exactly she'd done to make Vasa behave so oddly.

But she wouldn't read too far into it. Teenagers, Towhee summed it up with a shrug. She resumed her plod around the borders, wondering if Fig and Fen would be inexplicable and moody when they grew up. She got so caught up in that train of thought that she forgot about her likely barren womb entirely.