The Heartwood Dance fruits.

How much of that had Towhee Jr followed and understood? Towhee peered curiously at her offspring, watching the shifts in her expression as she processed the story. She pieced together a bit of information about the Redhawk name that prompted a smile from her mother.

-Yes. Redhawk is our second name. For instance, you and I are Towhee Redhawk. Your brother is Sable Redhawk. My brother’s Phox Redhawk. And so on and so forth.-

And she had given that name to Maxim too, a thought which made her heart throb and her jaw set. Towhee exhaled through her nose and redirected her thoughts to her stomach, which still felt fine. There was nary a sign that anything was amiss, digestively speaking.

-Alright, I think we’ve waited long enough. The berries are fine. Go ahead and eat some, though I wouldn’t eat too many. Just ‘cause they won’t poison you doesn’t mean they won’t give you a mean case of the shits,- Towhee cautioned. -And after your little midnight snack, it’s off to bed with us. I’m beat.-

The yawn that punctuated these words was entirely authentic. Towhee would do whatever it took to keep up a brave face for her kids, even when she was completely out of bandwidth. A little rest would help. If she managed to get some sleep, tomorrow would come and she would get to see family. And it would be one more day without Maxim but also one day toward making peace with his absence.

Want to wrap and/or archive here?