Two Crows Watch from the Gallows Tree (part 13)

"They're outside in the forest!" he replied. "You gotta be really really quiet and wait a long time though or else they don't come cuz they're scared. Captain Bay took me out there one time like a year ago--"
"Four months ago," Sara corrected.
"Four months ago and we saw one."

“I wanna go!” Tasia wiggled, envious. “Can we go? After breakfast? I wanna go!”

"You two have a lot to do," Sara chuckled. "We'd need to escort you safely out, too."

“But I wanna go!!” Tasia wiggled in protest.

“Tasia,” Aashi warned.

“I just wanna see the fucks.”

“Fox!” Aashi corrected, blushing as she glanced around the table. “I’m so sorry!”

Tomhas burst out laughing, and surprisingly enough Ivar did too. Sera and Rickard both allowed themselves small smiles. Gaius hid a smile by taking a sip of water.
"That's a bad word!" Marcella gasped, pointing at Tasia. "You did a swear!"

(My phone has decided I don’t have cell service anymore??? I thought it was because I was at a remote camp but now I’m on the road and NEED my gps and it just won’t work??? Just took me forever to find public wifi that didn’t force me to click a link in my email — which won’t fucking load without said wifi — first. This is so angering. I have a 2 hour drive and idk how to get there. Guess we gonna download the map)

“No I didn’t!” Tasia looked around with damp eyes, confused and embarrassed that everyone was laughing at her.

“It’s okay,” Aashi said gently, offering a comforting pat. “That is a bad word, but you didn’t know better. Now you did. ‘Aw’ — fawx.”

“Fox,” Tasia repeated quietly, shrinking.

(When my nephew was a toddler he liked helping set the table for meals and would say “forks and knives” and it very much sounded like him going “I get the fucking knives!” And it was so hard to keep a straight face xD)

(Oh no!! Come on, phone, don't do that. Dumb cell service)

(Hot damn that kid has class, get those fucking knives kiddo

Back when I was in third grade my friend said the word 'dang' but I completely misheard it because of the funny voice she was doing and to this day that's the angriest I've ever been at her)

"It's a simple mistake," Tomhas assured her, still giggling. "You didn't mean any harm."

(Wait what did you think she said?)

Tasia nodded earnestly, glad someone was on her side. “I didn’t!”

Ky smiled a little. “What do foxes look like?”

“They…” Tasia looked at Mattathias. “What do f- what do they look like?”

(Damn. But I was super against any kind of swearing as a little kid)

"They're like pointy dogs with big tails. But like small, and they go white in winter and brown in summer."

(Ohhh haha fair enough. My family cusses a lot so profanity was never a big deal for me. Like I personally got in trouble for doing it, but like being around it didn’t phase me at all lol)

“Why?”

(My family doesn't do it a lot but they don't particularly mind, I was just kind of prudish at that age.)

"Cuz they gotta blend in. The snow melts sometimes in the summer in the south of the North, so they gotta change coats."

(Valid)

“What does melt mean?”

"Melt is when ice and snow turns into water." His brow furrowed. "Haven't you seen that before?"

“I never seen snow before I came here.”

"Really? That's so crazy. Snow is, like, all I ever see. I've never even seen actual grass except in pictures!"