Frogspawn Swamp a grin made for war

Neither one of them appeared particularly interested in this bit of news. Meerkat gave a little huff, though it wasn't in her nature to get bent out of shape about things. Anyway, the back-and-forth between them was much more fascinating. There was mention of someone named Dragomir, then somebody by the name of Dacio, who had apparently met his end.

She sucked in a breath at this, a dozen questions cropping up in her young mind. How had he died? Was he really gone forever? Did his family miss him? Meerkat's mouth opened to ask when she heard the unmistakable bray of an angry Towhee shouting her name, her full name.

"I better get back," Meerkat said, voice only a little less chipper than usual. Hopefully she could butter up her mother somehow. Maybe mentioning Arcturus would lessen the Regent's wrath. "See you, Arc 'n' Pri!" She waved a paw, then turned and scurried as fast as she could through the muck, back in the direction of the copse.