Sun Mote Copse Dance of the sugar plum fairy.

She hadn't ranged very far today, though she'd sworn to keep an eye out for Isi and Raleska as well as Sugar, so she'd spent much of the morning searching near Two Rivers Isle and and Grouse Thicket. She returned home now, empty-handed, but still feeling fresh enough for a border patrol. As soon as she hit the periphery, she began to march along the now familiar route, holding what felt like the world's biggest sigh in her chest.

Toward the end of her circuit, Towhee caught movement in the distance and paused to watch the figure moving toward the copse. When she could pick out details—like the general shape and colors—her heart began to jackhammer in her chest. She darted forward, stopped and squinted. Her orange eyes flew wide when she realized, It's really her! "Sugar!" Towhee bellowed, now charging toward her.

It felt like her heart stopped in her chest when she reached the girl and saw that she was absolutely covered in blood. "Sugar," Towhee hissed, wondering how she was on her feet. There was so much blood, the mercenary could scarcely believe she was alive. But beneath her gruesome paint job, Sugar looked more or less just like herself, if a tiny bit thinner.

Black eyes met Towhee's fiery gaze. Sugar's lips formed the words, "I'm okay." Perhaps noticing the apprehension on the mercenary's face, she looked down at herself, then up at Towhee again, making sure to catch her eye. "It's not mine," was all she said, pausing before adding, "Can we go home now?"

Towhee nodded and pressed close to Sugar, though her little sister didn't seem to need the support. What had happened to her? Where had she been all this time? Whose blood was she covered in? Her lips parted to ask all of this and more when, instead, she gently queried, "Do you want to talk about it?"

Sugar didn't answer right away, though she eventually shook her head and repeated, "I'm okay."

Nothing else was said by either one of them until they reached the border. Only then did Sugar say, "Wait. I want to get cleaned up." With Towhee's help and a lot of melted snow, they scrubbed the worst of the blood and gore from Sugar's pelt. When they were finished, she still looked a little bedraggled and dirty, though it was a big improvement.

"Okay," was all Sugar said before they then began moving in the direction of the den where @Elwood, @Finley, @Avery and @Penn kept house.

I won't be posting separately with Sugar, so this is readily available for nabbage. :)

Edit: I updated the timestamp to Friday the 13th. >:)

Penn had absolutely not been worried for his sister. Sure, he’d gone out looking for her quite a few times since her disappearance, but that was mostly for his mom’s sake and also because he liked exploring. If he’d come home disappointed about not finding her, it was only because he didn’t like to fail, not because it meant she’d had to spend another night out there all alone and probably scared. What did he care if she got herself eaten by a bear or a mountain lion? It was her own fault for wandering off. It would serve her right.

The boy had been napping in his favorite spot some way always from the space his family occupied as their rendezvous site when the sound of approaching footsteps caused him to stir. He was groggy for only a few seconds before Sugar’s scent suddenly snapped him to attention. He was up and running after only a moment of stunned wonder, barreling over the forest detris. He slowed only a little once his eyes clapped onto his sister, though he did stop short of tackling her fully into the ground when he smashed her into a wolfy embrace with a flurry of happy whines and wagging tails.

It was a nice moment, really. Unfortunately, it lasted all of five seconds before he stepped back, posture tense and angry as he narrowed his eyes at her and snarled, ”Where the hell were you, Small??” In the whirlwind of the moment, he dismissed Towhee’s presence entirely, focusing solely on the littlest Blackthorn.

It didn't surprise Towhee in the least when someone came barreling out of the den to greet the prodigal daughter. More like wayward sister, she corrected herself, sidestepping to give Penn room to greet his litter mate. A small smile tugged at her mouth as she prepared to witness a joyous reunion, though it slipped right back off her face when several things happened in quick succession.

First, Towhee noticed the way Sugar went absolutely rigid at her brother's touches. Second, she saw the way Penn drew back, his posture doing a total one eighty as he snarled at Sugar. Towhee didn't hear the sound, though the way his teeth bared was unmistakable. Towhee felt a little whiplash as she made an abortive movement to come between the two siblings.

Before she could, Sugar gave Penn an inscrutable look and Towhee saw her lips form the words, "Don't touch me." Then, without another word, she slunk inside the den. The mercenary wondered if there were cries of surprise and joy coming from inside, though her attention swiftly moved to Penn.

She didn't know her younger brother that well, though she kicked out a foreleg to press gently against his chest, just in case he was thinking of going after Sugar. Towhee's lips pressed together in consternation as she stared at the den's mouth. There was a distinctive feeling of wrongness in the air and Towhee found herself thinking once more, Whose blood...?

"I wouldn't take that personally," she eventually said, speaking slowly as she caught Penn's eye. "We don't know what she's been through..." She felt a shudder creep down the ladder of her spine. "She's probably just exhausted," Towhee added, almost as if trying to convince Penn or maybe even herself. Whose blood? Then, apropos of nothing: "Are you any good at fighting, Penn?"

Hurt flashed briefly in Penn's eyes as he was rejected. He deserved to be, of course. He'd yelled at her, and it wasn't like he'd ever made a habit of treating her kindly before. Still, he felt his gut sink at her words, coldness slipping through his veins as she walked away. He corrected himself quickly, though, masking the pain with a roll of his eyes as he looked away and found himself peering unexpectedly at a black foreleg stretched across his chest. He blinked up at Towhee and his feigned exasperation was replaced with surprise. Had she been there all along?

Penn's face contorted into a soft frown when she began to speak. He'd never taken the time to talk to her before and if ever she'd tried to talk to him, he hadn't paid her any attention. She tried to reassure him, which he found to be aggravating as it suggested she had seen the hurt. He didn't like for anyone to see him as weak, and things like concern and feelings boo-boos definitely spoke of weakness.

So, he switched his expression again to one of nonchalance as he gave a shrug and another roll of his eyes. "She's probably just being a fuckin' weirdy, more like," he corrected her with a sly grin, "Which isn't actually weird at all for her." He shrugged again.

Towhee's next question made him pause. He peered quizzically at her as he said, "Um... Yes?" Penn, of course, considered himself to be great at everything. Whether he actually was is anyone's guess (he's not). He didn't know why Towhee had suddenly deemed it so important that it needed to be the second thing she'd ever said to him, though. Maybe Sugar wasn't the only weirdy.

It seemed he didn't even really need the distraction, though it had clearly worked one way or another. Towhee stole one final and furtive glance at the Blackthorns' den (whoseblood?) before squaring her shoulders and boring her orange eyes into her younger brother's face. It was like looking at a miniature, masculine Finley; Penn certainly had his mother's eyes. A rush of affection swept through her, both for this boy she hardly knew and her godmother. Maybe he didn't need it, though Towhee suddenly really hoped he would be up for a game.

"Okay, good. Show me your best move," the mercenary invited with a wriggle she hoped goaded the youngster into an attack.

Towhee's next move did nothing to allay his suspicions that she was just as much a weirdy as Sugar. Penn wasn't the best at reading the room, but it struck him as strange that she would start a fight with him right after he was reunited with his lost sister. Fortunately, he was easily distracted, not to mention he was consistently surrounded by weirdies. So, when she threw out the bait, he grinned and positioned himself to grab it.

"You think you can handle it?" Penn challenged as he slipped into his own fighter's stance. He actually wasn't all that bad at fighting. I mean, he was no Towhee, but he and Crow had spent most of their lives trying to murder each other, so he had plenty of practice under his belt. It was practice with someone equally as inexperienced as he was, but it counted some.

He didn't strike immediately, instead pacing around her a bit to try and get her to make the first move. He and Crow had charged haphazardly at each other enough for him to have learned that it was better sometimes to not do that. This probably wasn't what Towhee had meant by showing his best move, but he wasn't concerned about that. His best move wasn't going to be just one thing--it was going to be winning the dang fight, and this was the start of how he intended to do it.

Despite her misgivings about Sugar's reappearance (drenched in someone else's blood), Towhee cracked a smile at Penn's taunt. She didn't answer, instead readying herself for a good sparring match. Her orange eyes watched him as he slipped into his fighting stance too, the mercenary's muscles tensing in preparation for a counterattack, and she was a little surprised when he began to circle her rather than just go for it like she'd hoped.

"What're you waiting for?" she taunted loudly. "I said," she repeated, her slur making the words come out especially dopey-sounding, "show me your best move." Just in case that wasn't enough to goad Penn into attacking, she added on a mischievous, "Bring it... bitch."

Penn smirked at Towhee's taunts. Not because he was amused by her words, but because she sounded stupid and he found it funny. It was cruel of him to laugh at the expense of the disabled, but he was young and he had yet to be slapped across the face for it. Perhaps this would be that moment. We can only hope.

His dick-ish sense of humor aside, her words did get his blood boiling. Not in an angry way, but in an eager, aggressive kind of way. Like when two drunk guys are getting in each others' faces in a bar because one bumped into the other's elbow and one shouts come at me, bro! (it totally happens). With a toothy grin and a loud snarl, he flung himself at Towhee before she'd even finished the word bitch, hoping to take her by surprise and allow him to wrap his teeth around her muzzle (or some part of her in thereabouts region).

Before the epithet had fully left her mouth, Penn launched at her. It was enough of a snap movement that it caught her partly off guard, though not so swift that she took the brunt of it. Towhee whirled as he came, feeling the brush of his teeth on her snout as she swiftly sidestepped. One of his canines snagged the soft, leathery flesh of her nostril, quite possibly tearing it, but that didn't faze her, even when she smelled the coppery odor of her own blood and felt it drop on her upper lip.

Grinning impishly, Towhee made no move to counterattack. "That's more like it," she said with a touch of sarcasm, hoping to provoke a second round. "But I sincerely doubt that was your best move. Now show me!" she veritably bellowed, bracing herself.

In the moment he missed his grab at her, Penn fell into the trap his impatience, sour temper and determination usually laid for him. This was the part where he let his frustration and eagerness take control, which meant reckless moves and sloppy mistakes. He wasn't self-aware enough to recognize it, though, which is silly seeing as he started his matches off by trying to push his opponent into the same trap. Ah well. Off he went.

Penn spun to face her again, hackles raised in annoyance as he licked the tiny smear of her blood from his teeth. He didn't waste any time in rushing at her again, this time aiming lower to try and snag one of her legs. Worst case scenario, he'd barrel underneath her and use his bulk to throw her off balance. Except he really wasn't very bulky to anyone except maybe Sugar Glider. I feel bad for this kid.

He wasted no time rushing at her again. This time, Towhee fully anticipated the attack and could've sidestepped it reasonably successfully. But where was the fun in that? Instead, she reared onto her hind feet as he sprang forward, causing her younger brother's head to slam into her midsection. It wasn't pleasant—she hated the sensation of having the wind knocked out of her—but it gave the mercenary an opportunity to hunch her body over his. She made to wrap her forelegs around his shoulder blades and then alligator roll, flipping them both to the ground.

What the fucking fuck??? was about all Penn could muster into his brain as he smashed into his opponent's stomach and she managed to flip him like a damn pancake into the ground. This was not something Crow had ever done to him, nor was it something he'd ever attempted himself. He usually tried to protect his vulnerable belly, not use it as a soft place for his enemies to land while he octopus-ed his arms around them and made them feel like god damn fools.

He had no idea how to defend against it, so he resorted to his usual which involved a lot of flailing and snapping at thin air and not a bit of getting free. The most he could hope for was some pity to inspire her to let him go, though there would be no salvaging any dignity from that either.

She succeeded in her maneuver, only to knock the wind out of herself a second time due to the way she landed. Huffing and puffing like she'd smoked a pack a day for fifty years, Towhee rolled away from Penn's scrabbling limbs, though not before taking a solid kick to her bad thigh. Towhee groaned and winced, though she could hardly blame him. She'd started it.

And she'd done that to distract him from whatever might be afflicting his prodigal sister. Towhee eventually regained her breath and crawled into an upright position, orange eyes momentarily straying to the nearby den. There was no sign of Sugar or the other residents, so presumably some sort of reunion was still taking place indoors. Her brow furrowed. Whose blood? she thought again, though that thought was eclipsed by the mental image of what Finley's face must've looked like when Sugar had set foot inside the den.

That thought made her lips twitch into a smile. All the while, she hovered there like a sphinx, leaving herself wide open to another attack from Penn.

It took Penn a few moments before he was able to figure out where to find the ground. It didn't seem like it should really be that hard. The ground was the thing gravity was pulling him towards, and it was also the thing that was stopping him from falling any further down. The flip had apparently caused him some sort of vertigo, though, because it was not so easy as it ought to have been. Or maybe he had an inner ear thing. I dunno.

When eventually he righted himself, it was to find himself lying sphinx-like on his stomach directly facing Towhee, who was lying sphinx-like on her stomach. He blinked at her in wonder across the four or so feet of space between them. She was open for attack again, but that didn't occur to Penn. He was a bit distracted.

"How the fuck did you do that?" he asked incredulously before his face split into a laughing grin, "Can you teach me??"

No attack came, though Towhee became sharply aware of the possibility when she sensed movement from Penn's general direction. She tore her attention away from the Blackthorns' den and squinted at him, just in time to catch everything after "did." It took her a moment to suss out what he must've asked, at which point she broke into a grin.

"'Course I can. It wasn't anything too fancy." As she spoke, she rose back onto all fours. "I can teach you that and all the fancy stuff: everything there is to being a mercenary," Towhee promised, then glanced at the den again. "Later," she added. "I think I'm going to see how the reunion's going. If you go grab something for Sugar to eat, I promise I'll one day teach you my top secret deadliest move."

Penn grinned eagerly, ready to learn how to do that thing and to try it again--even if it meant he would be flipped and slammed into the ground a few times in the process. He was intrigued by her comments about "the fancy stuff", though she didn't elaborate and instead excused herself. He frowned a little, but didn't protest other than to roll his eyes at the idea of fetching anything for his sister. He got over it quickly though and stood, shaking his coat off with a jolly wag of his tail.

"Ima hold you to that!" he called as he walked away, completely overlooking the fact that Towhee would never hear him. He liked hunting well enough to play along, and he did like the idea of collecting some fancy moves for his repertoire. They would probably come in handy for future shenanigans, after all.