Redhawk Caldera Just as I took the world on my shoulders

Oh, Towhee thought. She might've read more into it or pressed the matter if not for the boys distracting her. Her son had escaped Killdeer's clutches and was now running right toward her, her grandson hot on his heels.

"Incoming," the Sovereign said, moving broadside to the boys to block Fennec right as the paler woman lashed her tail and said, "Fuck it. Never mind. I'll come back." Towhee did a distracted double take, fielding Caracal and Killdeer and promptly shooing them away.

This wouldn't be the first or even the hundredth time Fen had been inexplicably moody around her. Towhee was pretty used to her daughter's mercurial moods. But the rude exits were a pretty recent development. She felt a stab of annoyance at Fennec's treatment of her, though she quickly remembered that Bronco was gone. Fen might not be raising her son alone, so to speak, but...

"Hey," she called out to Fen's back, "I know I'm deaf but I'm still a pretty good listener, y'know, if you wanna talk about it."