Heron Lake Plateau I left my pride and stepped inside a bar

He let her decide where they would go - he was interrupting her walk, after all - and simply followed, trying to word what it was he had wanted to say.

"Nothin too much.  I went and tried to smooth things over, a bit.  Gave her a fox I caught, told her I didn't have a problem and that she shouldn't take anything I say too seriously.  Ended up sayin I had a hard time talking to her."  He frowned.  "She didn't seem to like that much, basically told me to learn how to talk properly or fuck off.  Sorry, in a few more words."  He tended towards paraphrase, not remembering the exact conversation, but he told it as accurately as he could.  The admittance he had issues reading her hadn't been particularly easy to make either, and it made the reaction he had gotten all the worse.

"I just wonder.... you and everyone else seem to get along with her just fine.  What gets her tail in a knot so much about me?  Shoot straight, I don't offend easily."  Which was probably the whole issue here - he didn't, Towhee did.  He tended to watch what he said around the kids, but when it came to adults, Colt really had one setting.  Jokes and hard truths.  He was hoping to maybe get a little of that truth from Raven now, if she'd give it.