Heron Lake Plateau Give the girl a gold star

Towhee's head cocked as Niamh began telling her about a distant mutual relative of theirs who'd had his toes bitten off by, as she described, psychopaths. Her brows lifted, intrigued. She wanted to hear that story. But her attention was abruptly stolen—and she missed the bit about his long life and host of chilren—by a weird sensation in her affected limb.

She jerked around suddenly, giving her deadened hip an instinctive nip. Towhee couldn't help but feel a blast of hopefulness. It quickly crashed and burned though. It was just another phantom pain. She'd had a few of them and figured they'd either cease eventually or she'd simply grow used to them. The leg was still as unresponsive as ever; she knew because she stood there and tested it. Nothing happened.

Biting back a sigh, Towhee faced forward and began shuffling again, a bit of agitation evident in her movements. She tried to coax it out of her muscles as she faced Niamh again and said, "Sorry, I missed that. Tell me more about this guy who had his toes eaten by whack jobs."