"Didn't know you had a brother, sunshine," Teige said through a mouthful of burger. He'd rolled onto his side and now raised an eyebrow at Hawk. "You meetin' him in Enodia as well?"

Hawk paused a long moment. "No," he said, finally, and then more quietly, "No. I'm not."

Teige looked rather startled. "Oh," he said. "Ohhhhhh. Sorry."

"N...No, I..." Hawk shut his eyes briefly, but all that was summoned behind his eyelids was peering at a figure from over a downed fencepost, watching where it stood in the rain and ash of his front yard in Violetta. "...I just never talked about it before," he said awkwardly.

A soft gobbling noise disturbed his thoughts then--at some point a young wild turkey toting two chicks had sidled up to him, picking lightly over his tailfeathers. She now stood up to look him in the face, murmuring.

"Oh," Hawk fumbled, "H-hey."

Teige merely looked surprised; he watched the chicks and then their mother make themselves at home up against Hawk's side, pinning his tailfeathers securely to the mulch.

"Look at these bold things," Teige said. Hawk accepted the visitors without complaint, taking a bite out of his own hamburger.

"I guess she decided to chance it with us tonight," he said, "'stead of whatever's out in the woods."

"So, what, can you understand them?" Teige wanted to know. Hawk chewed thoughtfully.

"Kind of," he answered. "I get the gist of what they say."

"What�do�they say, then?"