Verdigris Ravine Three snakes are beginning to nest in your voicebox.

She’d climbed out of the water eventually, though she hadn’t strayed far. She languished at its edge, alternating between panting and shivering as day waned into night, then waxed into day again. Towhee cramped now and again, though there were no more grotesque discharges. She tried to lay very still, putting all her energy into fighting off the internal infection.

By her third day in the ravine, she felt wrung out but less feverish. She woke from a restive sleep and blinked groggily when her elbow touched a dead fish. Whether it had simply washed ashore or someone had left it there, Towhee didn’t know. She gobbled it quickly, then crawled into the shallows again. She drank as she soaked, letting out a long sigh.

having repainted his blood-marks, zoug considered the wolf who lay among them.

she had offered no threat, nor fight. he had seen her lying weakly beside the water.

it had not been the clan male who had brought the fish, nor any food, but now he stepped lightly, dropping down from the closest shelf of redstone and approaching with green things in his teeth.

zoug said nothing. he halted and squatted and began to mix something with a sharp scent and a slimed consistency.

he had no words for it. he knew only that the crushed plants would soothe the belly and provide energy for some hours.

the ingredients were smeared upon a bone and held out to the wolf. she had no reason to trust him, but zoug knew that if s'ari roused from her early days as mother to find this one dead, her anger would echo again.

After soaking a few minutes, she slogged back to shore and laid down again. She considered the merit of taking yet another nap when Towhee saw S’ari’s companion approaching. She raised her head and watched him in silence, blinking when he offered her what was probably medicine.

She stared for a beat, then said, If this is poison, I’m pretty sure S’ari will kick your ass, before pausing and accepting the slathered bone.

Towhee sniffed it, nose wrinkling. If he’d wanted to poison her, he probably would’ve stuffed it inside food or something less obvious. She hesitated, then licked at the green mixture. It wasn’t as nasty as she feared, though it certainly didn’t taste good.

I’ll thank you if I don’t die, she quipped to the surly coyote. Do you understand what I’m saying? Can you speak? ‘Cause I’d love to hear if S’ari had her pups…

understanding enough of the wolf's words to glean that he and she were of the same mind, zoug grunted. it was a noncommittal sound, hardly more than a brief rumble, but to one who knew his words, it was a display of acceptance.

yet he did not show that she was understood. zoug instead looked off across the ravine and its misting of greenery. there was no reason to display his comprehension and many reasons not to do so.

"s'ari rest. have three. good breath." the man's voice was not halting despite the way his tones swallowed a good deal of the sounds with an odd accent. s'ari was well with her three healthy pups, suckling them in a protected den. 

the single eye waited to witness the wolf's reaction.

He did speak, his brevity making it easier for Towhee to read his lips. She wasn’t sure she understood the last two words, though it sounded like S’ari had given birth to three pups. Despite feeling like a wrung-out dishrag, Towhee managed a smile and a single wave of her tail at this good news.

Awesome, she acknowledged, then paused to think of what to say next and muster up the energy to do so. I’m Towhee, by the way. Thanks for the—whatever this is, she said, waving a paw toward the bone, and for letting me hang. I was—I guess I still am—in a pretty bad way.

But she was pretty sure she would survive, unless of course S’ari’s friend decided to attack her. Towhee had a distinct advantage in size, yet her strength was sapped. That line of thought made her wonder if it was just the two of them—and the three pups, now—living in this ravine.

Are there others living here? she asked, not sure if she should dread the answer.

Nobody had come to bother her. Very possibly, someone had taken pity on her and left that fish. Towhee’s lips pursed, orange eyes resting inquisitively on the one-eyed coyote’s face.

towhee, as was her name, seemed pleased to hear of s'ari's birth. this perturbed and intrigued zoug, who found it unnatural given their status as enemies.

what interest did she have in young new coyotes? the warrior was impassive.

towhee asked about others. "yes. tribe has hunters." this time he was purposefully withholding, and turned his eye upon her as if to say as much.

"towhee sick. how?" he grunted next. had she eaten something bad? had she been injured inside during a fight? was it an illness that could touch the tribe?

He didn’t specify how many, though Towhee noted the plural. Do any of them know how to fish? she asked him, though only in her own head. Wearily, she shifted her weight slightly onto her left elbow, also noting that he hadn’t offered his own name in return.

She met his question with a variation of a thousand yard stare before saying, It was a miscarriage. I think. I thought I’d already… Towhee trailed off then shook her head. Maybe that’s what caused an infection, anyway. I think I’m clearing that now. She tacked on a sighed, I hope.

the wolf spoke many words, some of which zoug understood and others which he did not. 

"you lose child." an observation. "medicine i give heal blood, inside belly." the single eye found the wolf. "best to rest. drink lot water."

His choice of words prompted a sharp inhale from Towhee. She didn’t want to think of it that way. Whatever had come out of her body hadn’t looked anything like a child. It hadn’t been like Blackbird and Butterfly at all. Those names still brought a small ache to her chest, even now.

Evidently the green mixture would help her recover. Towhee threw him a grateful look and a nod of understanding. Infections could be deadly and this one had been pretty gnarly. She thought she was out of the woods now but she had a significant recovery ahead of her.

Good advice, doc, she said. I’ll make sure to follow it. Gonna rest now, as a matter of fact, she announced wearily, tacking on a final, Thanks, before she sprawled again, closing her eyes against the desert sun.