Hideaway Strath Starfire

He looked exactly how she imagined everyone trapped in the grove felt: downtrodden as all hell. Towhee wished she could manage a smile for him, if only to put him at ease, but she just couldn't. Their situation was dire and she couldn't waste her energy on plastered-on smiles.

"I'm going to see if I can climb the rocks at the pass," she explained patiently, "and you'll stay below, at ground level, but watch my back." Even as she said it, something occurred to her and she added, "If you see that I'm in any kind of danger, you get to throw a rock at my head. Doesn't that sound like fun?" Okay, so she was able to manage a smile, albeit a very thin and wry one.