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She exhaled as Phox pressed her for more details, breathing out an apology. "I keep doing that," Meerkat admitted sheepishly, pushing upright a little and settling her weight on her elbow. "I feel like all I do lately is pinball wildly from place to place, from one person to the next, picking up and dropping bombs. I'm sorry," she repeated.

Meerkat drew in a deep breath and explained, "Tierra is one of the twins," before pausing and adding, "Mom's kids from this year." Her gaze lingered on his face, something unreadable on her own. He had never met them, which was a crazy thought. She didn't blame him but it was still a shame. "Mom was missing for a few days so I wonder if she went looking for her." It was equally possible she'd gone after Reyes, though Meerkat didn't even feel like getting into all of that.

Squeezing her eyes shut for a moment, Meerkat reached up with her free paw to rub at her forehead. "It's bad, dad," she answered. "You should go visit her, meet her kids. She's in a lot of pain and beside herself because she can't do shit about Tierra. I know it'd mean the world if you showed up."

Better yet, they should go home to the caldera, taking Peregrine and Vesper with them. Meerkat did not voice this thought, though her lips pressed together as she wondered about Phox's next move. She knew it was more complicated than simply uprooting them like that. Honestly, she didn't particularly care what Maegi or Mou thought—she still couldn't get past their deception—but she most certainly did care if her younger siblings got hurt.

Thinking about it made her feel even more tired and a little pensive too. If they tried to take the kids away from the Blackfeather pair, that would upset the children and almost definitely cause a fight among the adults. And it wasn't like they could simply invite Maegi and Mou back to Redhawk Caldera to become one big, happy family, not with their history with Towhee. The more she thought about it, the more impossible the whole situation felt. And for better or worse, Meerkat didn't even get a say; it was entirely up to Phox how he wanted to handle it.

Meerkat couldn't bring herself to ask him what he planned to do, even though these thoughts really got under her skin. Maybe she was afraid of the answer.