Sun Mote Copse Windshield wiper.

Despite the continuing rainfall, Towhee was on cloud nine just now. Right as rain, she mused inwardly, snorting. It had been hard to watch Meerkat leave again but she'd come! And they'd spent hours together! Life wasn't perfect on either end, yet her daughter's visit had really put a spring in her step, especially so soon after being reunited with @Figment and @Fennec.

Of course, it didn't take reality long to rain on her parade. Towhee channeled her extra energy into a patrol, which led her past the eastern borders. The water had risen several dozen yards now, all but swallowing the original riverbank. And still the rain fell, fast and hard. The water was really starting to churn too. As she stood there and watched, a dead fawn floated past.

Tempting though it was to dive in and grab for it, she remained very still, orange eyes following the carcass until it vanished along the rapids. She then turned, her mood officially dampened. They might have to make the call soon, though hopefully they could wait until @Niamh returned. The Sovereign was just thankful that Meerkat and Bronco had already safely come and gone.

quick before I turn innn

Since returning, the rain seemed like it was incessant, and what was normally something Fennec didn't mind soon became unbearable.  There wasn't much they could do about it, though... so wet and miserable it was.

The rain was distracting.  Noise and sensation wise, she had to stop a bit more often, take stock a little more.  Add the slick ground and the fact that she'd been gone, and Fennec's travels didn't stretch far from where she'd told @Penn they were staying.  

She remembered the river as a guiding feature, though, and when she found herself wandering today, the water rushing seemed louder than usual.  She slowed, pricking her ears and slowing down.  The rain made her unaware of Towhee for the moment, but she was caught by the change in the water.  She'd come here for a drink, but instead paused and listened.  It sounded as if the river was faster... and bigger? Judging the distance, she eased carefully forward, knowing the bank was likely not great for approach.

She'd just hit the treeline when something prompted Towhee to glance at the rising river one last time. "Fen!" she shouted in surprise when she saw her daughter. Where had she come from? A second later, she realized how close the blind yearling had ventured to the rising floodwaters and she swiveled rapidly, loping to join her.

"Hey, the river's flooding," Towhee huffed close to her ear, "and there's a current." Feeling perhaps a bit overly protective, she moved to touch her shoulder against Fennec's, standing parallel to her. Naturally, she couldn't help but remember a similar day earlier in the year. "Should've gone with the stick," she joked, her expression and voice a little tight.

By now, Fennec had grown fairly used to Penn sneaking up on her.  Still, when Towhee approached, it took her a second to recognize her mom in the rain.  Her head shot up, but she didn't move.

I know, I can hear it, she said, without a lot of inflection.  Weeks of travel had made her more upfront, if possible, and it was a slow minute before she realized how it might come off.  She didn't walk it back, though.  Part of what lurked at the back of Fennec's mind was the idea that, despite her travels, her mom and dad would still see her as someone needing looked after.  It was true, in part; but she didn't have to like it.

What stick? She did acquiesce, though, and took a step or two back from the water.  I was just going to get a drink, but I guess.... there's tons of water.  She said, with a barely-there smile.  The puddles around wouldn't be nearly as good as the stream, but thinking about it a little more, the risk of getting even more wet hardly seemed worth it.

Fennec seemed just as surprised to see her. Despite herself, Towhee's lips twitched as she watched the yearling go rigid, then relax. "I know, I can hear it," her lips said. The Sovereign didn't hear the tone, of course, so she simply nodded. She wondered if it was loud, not that such a concept meant much to her.

"A walking stick," Towhee replied, wondering if it would jog her memory. "Better yet, a paddle of some kind, since everything's going to be underwater soon." She clicked her tongue before adding, "Not sure you wanna drink from there. The current's pretty strong but, more importantly, I just watched a bloated corpse drift past. There's a ton of other places to get a drink around here that don't come with dead body flavor."

Of course, she wanted to coax—maybe even nudge—her daughter toward one of the many pools of water close at hand. But Towhee checked the impulse. She did feel protective of Fen, especially so close to the floodwaters, yet her daughter had just come back from being out on her own for months. Surely she could handle herself. And her presence here was still so tentative that Towhee didn't dare do anything that might make Fen want to leave again soon.

Oh, ugh.  Seriously?  She hadn't even considered that, but while she wasn't down for drinking now, there was a note of interest.  Fennec had a thing for the macab and a flood bringing dead things in sounded like a great way to scare anyone.

The stick comment worked a bit, she did briefly remember, but she couldn't recall when they'd talked about it.  You want to come with?  she asked, not wanting to assume Towhee would stop what she was doing.  It was nice to have to offer, too.  She didn't mind getting help, she'd found, she just didn't like it when other wolves assumed she needed it.  

This was more, though, because she had missed Towhee, and was willing to nab any chance she could to talk and fall back into old rhythms.  She'd changed some in the past few months, but that wouldn't change anytime soon.  If the water does keep going, guess we'll have to ask the fish how they do it.  That or ask the squirrels.  She was curious what they'd do if the water kept coming... wait it out?  What if they couldn't?  She was glad they'd come now, secretly, but wondered if the other places she and Penn had traveled were getting this too.

She assumed there were unmentionables in any given drink of water they took as wild animals, yet Fennec seemed to be in agreement that drinking close to a nasty corpse was taking things too far. Towhee snickered under her breath, the noise all but overtaken by the rhythmic beat of the rain and the soft rush of the river. If she'd had to rely on ears to carry their conversation, she would've been in trouble, but fortunately she was a practiced hand at reading lips even in less than amenable conditions.

"'Course," she replied easily, motioning for Fen to take the lead before catching herself. Towhee rolled her eyes and said, "You pick a direction, I'll be right beside you." This required a little more overruling of her protective instincts and urges, yet she remembered how much this stuff meant to the yearling. Besides, she'd just navigated herself around the wilderness and back, so she could handle a traipse through the copse, even if it was waterlogged.

Fen began musing about what they should do in the event the rains kept coming. Towhee let her know, "Niamh's actually out right now, looking for a suitable place to go in case we need to evacuate." Hopefully it wouldn't come down to that but, even as she spoke, she found herself lingering on the image of Fennec at the edge of the rapids just moments ago. She swallowed, then shook off that thought and queried, suddenly laughing, "Wait, squirrels? Why squirrels?"

Because if we can't live in the water, we'll have to try the trees, of course. Fennec responded, as though it should have been completely obvious.  That was a crazy thought, though, having to move because of rain.  She'd never imagined water could do all of that.  You really think it will get that bad?  Wow. 

As she went, Fennec lowered her head, and despite her talking, tried to focus on the sounds around.  She didn't want to lead them into anything embarassing considering she'd just gotten back from her independence challenge.  The direction she chose was one that lead almost back the way she'd come from... but a little at an angle.  She wasn't ready to go back to the usual clearings just yet, and she figured the more open spaces would have had more chance to collect some good pools.

Towhee huffed a laugh. "Oh." She paused to actually give it some thought, despite its lack of merit. "I think we'd have better luck with the fish. I can swim okay but I'm shit at climbing trees. Not that I've ever tried. I don't think?" She pursed her lips and tried to think back on whether she'd ever been daring and/or dumb enough to attempt climbing a tree.

She couldn't remember. She shook her head and trailed along with Fen, still letting the yearling take the lead. "Unfortunately, I do think it's very possible... probable, even. I've never seen so much rain or water in my life, aside from the times I've been to the coast. Have you been?" she suddenly wondered.

Yeah, Penn n me went there first.  It was alright, but kinda annoying.  The ground there isn't right.  She'd had fun, but she'd hated the sand.  It dropped off and rose up a lot more abruptly than dirt and it shifted beneath her awkwardly.  She was unstable enough in new places without that noise.  It's loud too.  Between the seagulls and the waves, there'd been a constant thrum in the background that was more even than this rain.

But the worst part was, I tried to feed @Penn to a seamonster, but none of them would take him.  Pretty rude of them to pass up on a gift like that, even if he probably is full of shit.  He'd dodged most of her attempts to shove him into the water, but they'd each gotten a few good dunks in.  She wasn't sure what she thought of the salt, it left a weird taste for what felt like days after.

Have you? she asked, realizing she'd never really talked with her mom about where she'd been before here.

She listened carefully as Fennec described her opinion of the coastline, smiling despite the downpour that washed away some of her daughter's words. Luckily, Towhee was the queen of knitting a narrative out of contextual clues. She wondered where else she had traveled and what she thought of all the various biomes out there, sensed in her own, unique way.

But Fen asked her first, so the Sovereign said, "Yes, I've been to the coast." Notably, she'd thrown Fennec's uncle off a cliff there, though that wasn't her only venture there. "I've never been much of one for traveling, though. I'd rather stay home. But if you're up for it, I'd love to live vicariously through you. Tell me more about where you two went?"

Sure.  While Fennec would have liked to hear more about Towhee's travels, she didn't mind talking about her own either.  In fact... she wasn't about to pass up the chance.  A solid part of leaving had been so she'd come back with something like this to say.

Some of it was forests like this, of course.  But one I swear was haunted, and I think I got @Penn to believe it too.  Fennec responded, smirking.  He could deny it, but she knew he'd been spooked that night.

We did get to the beach.  And there was this ravine we got lost in, at least until I smelled water and led us out.  She said with no small amount of boast to it.  Honestly I have a hard time picturing it, but Penn said it was pretty cool looking.  Huge rock walls with a bunch of colors.  She just remembered the lack of wind and the hard, cool ground at the bottom.  Everything had seemed so simultaneously loud and silent at the same time.  She conveniently left off the bit where she'd gotten them into that lost mess in the first place by insisting they go that way.  It all worked out, and that was what mattered!

Few mountains and such too.  We didn't make it up north.  She'd have liked to have, but they hadn't had time.  It was the highlight reel, but if they had run into trouble, Fennec wasn't about to reveal the details to her mom.  She was happy her parents had supported the trip; she wasn't about to make them regret it.

Fennec indulged her and Towhee kept her gaze fixed on the yearling's face so she would catch as many words as possible despite the inclement weather. She did glance away to note they weren't far from the tangle of tree roots some called The Nest. She should steer them in that direction or at least let her daughter know there was someplace close by where they could duck out of the rain for a moment.

She waited until Fen finished before saying, "If somewhere cozy and dry sounds good to you, hang a slight left," before, in the very same breath adding, "Haunted woods, ravine mazes and beaches full of sea monsters. Huh. What was your very favorite place you visited on your travels?"

Easy, haunted forest. Fennec replied immediately.  It was still on her mind so it was pretty easy to determine automatically.  I've never heard trees sound like that.  Sometimes it was like they were growling, sometimes it was like they were crying.  Super spooky.  Of course her mom wouldn't be able to relate, but since Fennec's entire world was primarily sound, the place had struck a special note with her.  She liked that she'd know it the instant she set foot there again.  It would be neat to have a home like that, with a special tone.

Do you have a favorite? Rather than gush more about here, she turned the question again, hanging left as Towhee had directed without breaking the discussion.

Her daughter flowed in the indicated direction as gracefully as a river, Towhee's lip twitching as the poetic comparison drifted through her mind. Soon, they were approaching the entrance to The Nest. She opened her mouth to warn Fennec of the roots everywhere, though she clapped it shut. Surely the yearling knew the place. If not, she could certainly master the layout without her mother holding her proverbial hand.

Settling down inside, Towhee crooked one foreleg underneath her chest and began licking the wetness from her coat (reaching to do the same to Fennec's if allowed). She pondered the girl's question as she dried herself. The obvious answer was home, yet she'd called so many different places by that name over time: the caldera, the plateau, the grove and now the copse. In her younger years, she had staked far too much importance on landmarks, though nowadays...

"Okay, this is gonna sound cheesy as hell, but it's the truth: my favorite place is wherever you and your brothers and sisters are. If you guys can't be there, then your dad, Niamh and the rest of the family. Isn't there a dumb saying about this? 'Home is where the heart is'?" She chuckled, yet despite the lameness of the words, she curled closer to Fennec, truly blissfully happy to have her so near again, wet dog smell and all.

You're right, that is lame as hell.  Fennec replied, but she said it with a smile and leaned in to her mom gratefully.  She wondered quietly if she might be like that someday, boring and willing to settle anywhere.  Probably the latter, but never the former, she surmised.  It wasn't the staying in one place that she minded; it was the fact that every day started to feel like the same old thing.  She could introduce her own chaos to the mix sometimes, but if she didn't have wolves to play off of, there wasn't much she could do.

It was hard to talk to Towhee while sharing warmth, so she stayed where she was for a bit.  At length she'd likely share more of her travels, but dragging a story out of Fenn could take some doing, and of course she'd lie about bits here and there.  Play up her role, shit on Penn.  The usual.

this felt like a good fade!