Heron Lake Plateau Unleash my halo.

@Phox moves closer to her, nipping at her hip. "We've returned home," he murmurs. Somehow, Towhee knows what he's saying, even though she isn't looking at him. "The caldera—our birthright—belongs to us now. I am the king and you..." His muzzle touches the lobe of her ear, causing it to flick. "You are my queen, of course." Towhee turns to look at him, expression curdling like sour milk. Why was he being so weird? And who was he to claim her like some sort of sidepiece?

"How about I'm the Alpha and you're my Beta, more like," she quips without looking at him. When she finally turns, he's not beside her. He's behind her. Towhee blanches as she feels him rear up and grasp her around the hips. "We need an heir," he purls. She snarls and bucks but Phox doesn't budge. If anything, his grip tightens. She twists around to bite him but something—his teeth, presumably—sinks into her nape, piercing the flesh painfully and locking her in place. Towhee screams.

Towhee jerked awake with a scream. She couldn't hear the sound but she could feel it tearing up and out of her throat. With a gasp, she rolled her head, blinking blearily at a blindingly white sky. She felt incredibly disoriented and lay there, staring emptily upward as several birds circled overhead, until she felt a second pinch to her nape, which made her recollect the first. It had woken her from a screaming nightmare that was already fading into the ether.

"X," she griped, "why—?" The hoarse question died in her throat as Towhee flipped to her belly and pushed into an upright position. It took a few blinks to orient herself and figure out that she was at the bottom of the plateau, where it gave way to Grouse Thicket. This was not where she'd fallen asleep last night. She'd gone to bed with her brother at the top of the falls, just like usual...

Her orange eyes sought the hawk, full of questions. "How the fuck did I get here?" she asked, noticing out of the corner of her eye that the fur on her forelegs was in disarray. "The fuck happened...?" she murmured with bewilderment and a touch of fear, ears slicking backward as X did his best to communicate a term that she took to mean "sleepwalking."

It was early and Kaala was up again, wandering the farthest areas of the territory and memorizing them in her brain. She hadn't hunted in a few days but she made note to do it later, paranoid that if she didn't do something to help at least once a day she would be booted by that she wolf, the leader of RedHawks. Everything was quiet and peaceful in the morning which is what made it her favorite time of day. This morning was different however, as an ear piercing scream scared the ever like crap out her and her own Yelp filled the air. Instantly she was off, heading toward the sound of fear and within moments stumbling upon the female with a bird next to her, making strange gestures at her. She stared for a moment before she let out a breath "Are you alright ma'am?" she asked, ears twitching as she kept a respectful distance unsure if this woman would be as fierce and unwelcoming as the alpha. Though after studying the woman for a moment she decided she seemed more disgruntled and confused than dangerous though she wouldn't base her actions off this first appearance.

-Sleepwalking? Like walking while I was asleep?- she signed dumbly, earning an emphatic nod from X. Towhee muttered, "What the fuck..." to herself as she tried to recall anything about her trek down here. The last thing she could remember was taking her nightly meds à la Dr. Raven and curling up—ohhh...

She wasn't usually one for painkillers but the headaches following the mishap at the borders had been killer, so she'd accepted her sister's medication without fuss, then continued a nightly regimen. "That stops now though," she mumbled to herself, glancing at X and saying for his benefit, -No more meds for me.-

No sooner had her forelimbs stopped moving when the bird abruptly exploded into the air, causing Towhee to turn. She thought it was Wildfire at first glance, though a closer look told her this was a stranger who only resembled her older sister. She felt X set down on her shoulder blade even as she squinted at the stranger, whose lips were particularly hard for her to read. Funny how that happened sometimes.

"What did you say?" Towhee asked, voice garbled and gruff as she moved closer in the hopes of being able to lipread more effectively.

She flinched and lifted a paw, startled by the quickness in which the bird shot uipward wings flapping loudly. She stood half turned to run away, half ready to defend herself before she saw the feathered creature land on the wolf's shoulder. That grabbed her attention real quick and she eyed the pair with interest, never having seen a wolf be so close to a bird like that before. The woman spoke, her voice all messed up and coming out weird and Kaala cleared her throat speaking more clearly "I asked if you were okay. I heard a scream. My name is Kaala, i'm new here" she spoke each word a bit slower, speaking loudly in case the woman had some sort of head injury making her a bit slower than average though not pronunciating so slow as to act as if Towhee was dumb.

She made out every second or third word. This hadn't happened to Towhee in a while but it frustrated her the same as always. She wished that learning ptero was a condition of membership in Redhawks, although she knew that was an idyllic pipe dream. She muttered under her breath, mood already soured by the circumstances prior to Kaala's arrival.

"I'm fine, I just..." She didn't feel like talking about her apparent sleepwalking episode with a nearly total stranger, so Towhee shrugged impatiently. X rebuked her with a quick nip to the ear, which caused a rumble in her chest.

"Did you say your name was... Call? I'm Towhee. And this is X," the mercenary said, mustering patience she didn't really feel.

It was easy enough to tell that the other female wasn't in a good mood, whether that was due to Kaala's presence or not she didn't know. Still it made her feel like it was, still somewhat put off by the way Niamh and Phox had made it seem like they let her in on some sort of kindness and that her membership here wasn't needed or appreciated but simply tolerated. She had been threatened after all, if she decided to leave, the leader woman had made that much clear. When the female gave a vague answer, seeming hesitant to speak about her troubles Kaala gave a small smile nodding slowly "I wouldn't be too keen to share my problems with a stranger either, it's okay she spoke in the same manner as before as she watched the interaction between the bird and wolf. They seemed familiar with one another, like friends, like they had a bond of sorts and it reminded her of the elder wolf at her home pack Seymor. Seymor had began to turn blind and before he did, he rescued a fox pup who in turn became Seymor's guide. They seemed to keep one another in check a lot of the time too, like siblings or close friends and they had this weird sort of behavior about them that the fox used to guide Seymor in the right direction even though they could talk. She had assumed cranky, prideful old Seymor didn't want it blatantly obvious that he couldn't find his own way even though everyone knew. It made her wonder whether or not the girl's inability to understand her was due to a sort of disability, like a hearing problem or auditory processing thing since she had seen the weird gestures between Towhee and the bird when she arrived on the scene.

Her suspicion grew when the girl introduced herself and messed up Kaala's name a little bit. She gave a small laugh, a nervous sound and shook her head. She spoke again, making sure that her lips formed each word very carefully Kah-luh. Nice to meet you Towhee, sorry it's on such an apparently shitty day" she gave the woman a half smirk, joking around and hoping it would lighten the mood at least a little bit. Then she turned to X and studied him keenly, her eyes softening "He's beautiful... she murmured. She had always loved birds, raven's especially with their black feathers that sometimes seemed so black that they gleamed blue or purple. "Please don't take this badly but...is he some sort of aid? I knew a wolf who was blind. He rescued a fox pup before he lost all his sight and the thing kind of guided him" she asked the question awkwardly shifting his weight uncomfortably. "I saw you and the bird making gestures, like a silent conversation. Seymor and his fox kind of did it too" she explained her gaze dropping to the ground. She wasn't normally so quiet and unsure of herself but this was a place filled with strangers and she was nearly at the bottom of the rankings, of course she was a bit scared.

Kaala corrected her, enunciating her name slowly, which better allowed Towhee to pick up its pronunciation. She then began talking, quite a lot, and the Beta just did her best to follow. She still only caught every other word or thereabouts, though fortunately she was pretty good at sussing out context clues and making sense of things even when she couldn't follow word for word.

The observations about X didn't ruffle her feathers at all. She actually appreciated Kaala's interest, which smoothed out some of the jagged edges of her mood. "Yeah, he's my companion of sorts. If it wasn't obvious, I'm deaf. I'm reading your lips. You're a little tougher than most, so the slower you speak, the better I'll understand. What's this about this guy and his fox? Blind dude named Seymour? Are you kidding me?"

Kaala felt a sweet rush of relief that instantly softened her demeanor as Towhee confirmed her suspicions. How awkward would it have been if she hadn't been deaf? She breathed out a sigh of relief and listened with interest as Towhee explained that she was reading Kaala's lips but that X was a companion. That was even more interesting to her than if the bird was a guide, she wondered how Towhee had earned X's friendship. When Towhee pointed out the pun in Seymor's name she blinked dumbly a few times, surprised she hadn't noticed it before and then began to laugh. Once sobered up and she shook her head "No i'm one hundred percent serious. His name was Seymor, I never really noticed the irony there" she grinned and lowered her rear end to the ground "He rescued a baby fox before he went totally blind. The fox in turn became his friend and helped guide him around when his nose didn't do the job." she explained it again, trying to use less words hoping it would make things easier for Towhee. "What were those gestures?" she asked eyes lighting up with the thirst for the knowledge of things she had no clue about. She hoped that Towhee wouldn't think her rude.

She really wasn't pulling Towhee's leg. "Huh," the Beta said, intrigued by the story but not into it enough to press for more details. It was hard enough reading Kaala's lips, she didn't want to subject herself to this conversation a whole lot longer.

But there was hope! "It's a sign language called ptero. I'd really appreciate it if you'd try to learn it, so we can communicate more easily. I can start you off with a few signs if you like, then almost any long-term Redhawk could help you learn."

Her tail switched as she then went through a few basic signs ("hello," "good morning," "what's up?", etc), speaking the words aloud as she slowly demonstrated the movements. "We'll need to come up with a name sign for you," she added. "Maybe this?" She made the sign for "call," then another for the letter "A," then looked to Kaala for approval.

She was fascinated by the silent language and even more interested to find out that the long termers of the pack knew it. She watched the movements closely and when Towhee had finished she repeated them back, looking to the girl for approval. She figured it would probably take some time to get them all to memory but she would definitely try since she had found the first friendly face in a while and she was almost desperate to have some friends. The assigned Ptero name was fine by her so she nodded her consent "That works. It was nice to meet you Towhee. I'll try to learn Ptero so we can actually talk. I'll leave you be now if you want" she said, waiting for confirmation before heading off. She didn't wanna bother the girl, especially since full communication seemed rather difficult at the moment.

I am so sorry for the wait. We can end this at Towhee's post!

No worries! I'll archive. :)

Kaala approved of the name sign and Towhee let her know, "Your signs were pretty good. They could be more fluid but I think that'll come naturally with practice." When the she-wolf promised to work on learning ptero, then pardoned herself, the Beta made no attempt to keep her. "See you," Towhee said, making the sign as well.

"So," she said to X as she began to climb back up to the plateau, "sleepwalking. What the fuck?" She shook her head and mumbled under her breath, huffing a dry laugh when the hawk's talons gave her a sympathetic squeeze.