Heron Lake Plateau The clock may run out on us.

I assume @Niamh, @Tegan and @Colt may be with her at this point but I kept things vague—tags for awareness!

Carrying Orca back to the plateau was back- and heartbreaking work, yet Towhee didn't utter a single complaint. She didn't speak at all. When they reached the outskirts of their home, she stopped and gently lowered her sister's corpse to the ground. Rather than turn to acknowledge any of her lupine escorts, she made a few weary gestures and sent X to fetch @Elwood and @Finley particularly. Towhee knew she should call @Raven too but Orca was beyond help now and she knew the healer still needed to heal.

While she waited for her godparents to arrive, Towhee sank to her haunches and stared at the ground. They hadn't caught up to Screech and resuming the hunt later seemed pretty moot; he was in the wind now, sort of like Phox. It had already occurred to her that her entire litter was now dead to her, though that knowledge washed over her again now and it took all of her inner might not to sit there and weep over all that was lost.