Sun Mote Copse But if I can make it to the street

Whatever nervous tendencies Nellie was putting off were outweighed by Phox's attention on her mother. He smiled dumbly at her when she greeted him and even when she mock-chastised him for not bringing home the bacon. Flicking whatever switch in his head to "casual" mode, Phox slid into the conversation easily. Psh, I thought this young lady here would already have brought you some. She's not a half-bad hunter, you know? Whether she'd learned it from the Frosthawks or picked it up on her own, she'd certainly shown him up by chasing down and killing that rabbit the other day.

He didn't make any effort to explain why he'd come around, but since they were all of the same pack, Phox decided it probably wasn't even necessary. No sense in making up excuses when he didn't need any. Besides, he and Niamh had been friends for a long time; even longer than Nellie had been alive (yipes!), which meant hanging out with one another wasn't entirely odd or strange. Yes, these were all things he assured himself of, and the more he convinced himself of it, the more confident he was that everything would go smoothly.

His writer, on the other hand, is a lot less sure of that.