Heron Lake Plateau nous sommes l'emeraude

He was trotting back to the den with an oversized fish in his mouth.  What was it?  Who freaking knows.  Maybe it was an early salmon, or just some other weird fishy beast.  Didn't really matter other than it was edible, did it?  Either way, he'd put it on the shore of the river and kept fishing for another half hour or so to try to catch another before bringing it back to the den.  Even by then, his awesomely sensitive wolf nose was pretty sure that fish weren't exactly the greatest thing to leave sitting around or even go put in the cache -- it just wasn't gonna last that long, and would bring every scavenger and carrion-seeker in from miles around.  Maybe in winter it'd be fine, but definitely not right now.

So, he was coming home a bit early for his midday nap, but hey, whatever.  He'd get to see the kids and bug @Raven if she hadn't skedattled off and left the pup-watching to someone else.  As he approached the den, there was a little shadow poking her head out of the blackness!  How bold, but at least she wasn't scrambling off into the underbrush, thank goodness.  Quixote tried to make some sort of garbled whuffing noise around the fish in his mouth, tail wagging behind him as he came up towards the den.  

Regardless of whether she came over to see him or just chilled out at the entry, he sat the fish down near the entry, calling out, Got some lunch if you want some?  He was just kind of assuming Raven was there, because his attention had quickly shifted back to Phoebe, who he was going to try to nuzzle despite potential weird fishbreath.  And you're out here saying hi to the birds, aren't ya?  Wait, how long before the pups turned into little piranhas who'd annihilate whatever he brought home?  The fish was still pretty much inedible to them without help, right?