Starglow Basin Re_jaded.

The rim of the caldera gave Towhee an awesome view of the wilderness. She stood at its southeastern edge for a while, staring off toward the lowlands as the stranger’s lips moved in her memories, forming the words, “If you have the time, come to the lowlands. Verapaz. We’re settled in the Starglow Basin, southeast from this place.”

She’d left Bushtit with @Killdeer and Treepie today, merely because sometimes a mother wanted some “me time.” But here was an opportunity to enjoy some solo travel and indulge her morbid curiosity. In the days since meeting that two-faced stranger right here at the caldera, she’d done a lot of pondering…

Towhee now had a vague suspicion about the guy’s identity. If she was right, she should probably walk the other direction entirely. But she found herself picking her way down the slope, then loping through the neighboring woods. She’d always enjoyed the lowlands, she told herself, and it was probably just a case of mistaken identity.

But if it was “Casanova,” what could he possibly want with her? He wanted to see her badly enough that he had sent someone out to locate her. That was sort of flattering, wasn’t it? Of course, the obvious answer was that he might have some sort of interest in her or any progeny resulting from their tryst. If that was the case, the next most obvious answer was that she could simply lie.

When she came within earshot of the basin, Towhee wasted no time in throwing back her head to howl @Soto’s name. She was now impatient in her intrigue, orange eyes peeled for any sign of her Latin lover and—not that anybody but her needed to know it—the father of baby Bushtit.

@Tierra is also welcome to crash this if she wants.

Absolutely!

Tierra knew that the man who’d been sent after Towhee had returned, but she hadn’t gotten around yet to asking him if he’d found her. She could have told him who she was, had him ask her mom to come for her specifically, but she hadn’t been sure she even wanted Towhee here. Okay, not exactly. She wanted her mom here more than anything. She just didn’t want her seeing them like this.

That fear vanished as soon as she heard Towhee’s characteristic off-key call at the borders. Tierra was immediately on her feet and on her way.

-Mom- she signed enthusiastically, one-pawed, barely stopping. The movement pulled at her neck and shoulders but she didn’t care. There was nothing she needed more, at that moment, than a hug from her mom.

The moment someone appeared, Towhee looked toward them almost hungrily. She recognized the figure, though it wasn’t at all who she’d expected to see. Her jaw dropped as her heart leaped, then began thumping hard against her ribs as she hastened forward.

More than a year had passed since the last time she’d seen Tierra. Her daughter looked a little threadbare and felt rather bony when Towhee promptly pulled her into a hug. She supposed she shouldn’t be totally surprised; they’d last bumped into one another not far from here. Had Tierra been down here this entire time, she wondered?

Still gripping Tierra by the shoulders, Towhee drew back to look into her face. She then gently released her and stepped back one pace further for a proper assessment. Was she injured? A broad paw fluttered toward Tierra, hovering near her neck particularly. There were scabs and scars. Towhee fussed but did not touch.

What the hell have you been up to, kiddo? she asked, paws dropping and soft eyes locking on her face.

Tierra fell into her mom’s hug and stayed there for a good moment longer than she’d have usually put up with it. She closed her eyes and wished, when she opened them, the last few weeks would vanish and everything would be back to the way it was when they’d both been hanging around Mereo. She never thought she’d miss it as much as she did in that moment.

-It’s a long story.- she replied, adding the signs out of habit. She tried to play it off, but she couldn’t meet her mom’s eye.

-I didn’t actually think you’d come. Or that he’d find you, even. I figured there was no point giving him a name. I don’t know why he wanted you here. Soto, the guy who’s kind of in charge. Not the one with the message.- It was hard to keep track of, and even worse now that she felt slower than ever.

-Whatever he wants, you should turn it down. Just… trust me.-. She added, hesitantly signing fully rather than speaking. She didn’t see anyone around, or hear them, but that didn’t mean they couldn’t be overheard. And she really didn’t want Towhee getting mixed up in all this, as happy as she was to see her, and as tempting as it was to look to her for answers. It wasn’t her mess to clean up.

Tierra deflected the question before diving into a spiel that left Towhee’s head spinning. Her daughter knew Soto? She was aware of his attempt to locate her? She mentioned the stranger who’d come looking for for, though Tierra also said she didn’t know why he was trying to track down Towhee. And before the elder Redhawk could make any sense of that, Tierra dished out a warning.

Her ears folded backward. For a long beat, she said nothing, just stared searchingly at Tierra’s thin face. She was so glad to see her after so long, yet something about this situation put a pit in her stomach. Towhee took a couple breaths and wondered if she could usher her away from the basin before Soto responded to her summons.

She finally broke her pensive silence to ask, Who is this Soto guy? It was kind of rhetorical question, though she gently implored, Tell me what you know about him.

She wavered under her mom’s searching look, but was relieved when the question wound up being about Soto. She didn’t want to get into Akashingo or the other place, or how fucked they were, starting fights they couldn’t win. She definitely couldn’t even begin to explain Octavio. She wouldn’t understand, but despite the start, there’d been something there.

And now, this place still had its claws in her.

-He’s harsh. He saved my life. But I don’t know why he did it. I just don’t think he’d be asking for anything good. And I don’t think he’d care about using someone to get what he wants. Especially someone who isn’t one of us.-. Us. She hadn’t meant to put herself as one of them, but at this point there was no point in lying. Her mom would know it when she didn’t leave with her. If I don’t.

“He’s harsh,” Tierra began and all Towhee could think about was the way they’d smashed like, well, wild animals. But then she said, “He saved my life,” and that was like being dowsed in cold water. Her eyes found the gnarled flesh on her daughter’s neck again, her lips pinching together. Despite this valiant act, he sounded a bit like trouble.

What happened, that he needed to save you? was the first question out of Towhee’s mouth. Is that how you met him? Who’s ‘us’? were the second and third.

Before Tierra could possibly answer any of the rapidfire questions, Towhee suddenly had a strange thought: were her daughter and Soto involved? No fucking way, her inner voice hollered, fueled in part by denial but also by the way Tierra had described him and the strangely haunted look in her eyes.

Tierra opened her mouth to defend him just to close it again.  She didn’t actually know.  Octavio was dead, and her nearly with him, and she still had no idea why.  Just the kid they’d taken?  Or some other reason entirely, because why the fuck would Soto or Niño decide they needed someone else’s random kid around?

They’d kidnapped her.  But that was different.

-We got attacked.  I don’t know why.  And I don’t know how, but he got me out of there.  It was just the two of us left, with the… pack.  There’s more of us now, here.-  It was mostly true and more than a little vague.  Gang had nearly slipped out, replaced at the last second.  -I didn’t join because of him.  But I owe him now.- 

That wasn’t why she stayed at all.  She’d left plenty of places she owed in the dust.  But if she didn’t want to leave, then that was at least a reason that might make sense to her mom.  There was no way she was fessing up the truth; that she wasn’t ready to leave the only supply she had.

-You don’t.-  At least, unless something had happened.  She remembered Soto saying they’d met when he sent Arslan but didn’t remember if he’d explained how.  She’d barely been able to manage translating half of what he’d said anyway.

Towhee quickly gathered that her hookup led a pack here and Tierra was part of it. Counting the stranger who’d come looking for her, there were at least three of them living here. She didn’t know why she pondered these statistics like they mattered, though she supposed it all came down to that morbid curiosity.

Tierra’s “you don’t” didn’t make a lick of sense to Towhee for a second, then she realized what her daughter meant. No, she didn’t owe “Casanova” Soto anything, just like he didn’t owe her. She was still running on an assumption here. Her orange eyes swept the nearby basin, as if hoping to set eyes on him to be entirely certain “Casanova” and Soto really were one and the same.

I honestly have no clue why he’s looking for me. I thought maybe he was looking for Jr, Towhee said, currently unable to remember if the sisters had met, because his name and description definitely didn’t ring any bells. But then I realized maybe I have met him. Only we never exchanged names. We didn’t even speak…