Sun Mote Copse Gadgetville

They were playing in the little dooryard beside the log when Meerkat's head turned to the side. Towhee followed her little girl's gaze and saw the Sovereign approaching their little den site off the main rendezvous. She straightened up out of her playful bow, her lips twitching as the puppy hopped up out of her own bow, only to gallop toward Wraen and resume it before her queen.

As the Regent watched this unfold, she realized with a sudden pang that Meerkat had just done something X used to do: alerted her to a presence she hadn't yet sensed for herself. Towhee swallowed the bittersweet lump in her throat at the thought of her old friend. Right then and there, she decided she would one day take Meerkat to the old roost on the plateau and tell her not only about the hawk but her Aunt Orca as well.

Blinking back to the present, Towhee watched as Meerkat greeted the leader with a shouted and signed, -"HI!"- The Regent added her own, -"Hey, Wraen."-