Heron Lake Plateau but as for me and my house, we will serve the lord

The morning breeze carried birdsong throughout the territory. Blondine had stayed up throughout the night so that she might be able to hear it for herself from beginning to end, as opposed to regretfully catching only the grand finale. She sat beside a fast-running creek with one paw in to keep her awake; if not for the cold, she might have fallen asleep hours ago. 

Most of her packmates (if they hadn't already done so; it was taking Blondine a while to get used to their habits) would be rising soon, and she looked forward to having some company.

Tag for reference!

Every once and a while the world seemed to remember it was supposed to be summer and cranked up the heat, and after a few days where he'd trusted the clouds to stay and was outrageously betrayed later in the day, Quixote now took no chances.  He'd shifted his schedule to wake up a bit earlier so he could go do stuff before the sun tried to murder him.  Then he could happily come back for family time and/or a siesta in the cool shade of the den at the hottest hours of the day.  With the pups still so small, it wasn't like there was a shortage of room -- and besides, it gave @Raven a predictable period of time to go wander around and escape the tiny hellions if nobody else was up for dealing with them.  And if he'd returned from the morning's escapades with something edible for her, even better!

Anyway.  Today?  Today he had no idea how he was going to start his day other than with a drink.  He was still a little bleary and hadn't really noticed he was going to be showing up right near where one of those new folks Raven let in was.  Quixote had been heavily suspicious at first -- their meeting at the borders would have gone much differently if he'd been the one to show up there -- but that had waned because as far as he could tell, none of that lot had come anywhere near the den... So maybe it was ok.  Who knew.

The brown woman was clearly in view and probably had been for a good ten to twenty seconds before his brain caught up and processed it, even though he was walking towards the water the entire time.  His steps faltered for a second, but you know what? He was already here.  Whatever.  Uh.  Hi.  Yup.  Best socialized alpha on the planet getting a drink right here.

Late reply because I am horrible.

The face was vaguely familiar, but his scent was unmistakable. If there was anything that Blondine was good for, it was keeping track of her elders — whether in age or rank — even when the effort was one-sided. Southern manners, I suppose. Howdy, Blondine replied cheerfully, rising up onto all fours, Didn't see you comin'.

Figuring that he had no idea who she was, Blondine thought to introduce herself before diving any further into the conversation. I'm Blondine. Blondine Abernathy. One of your healers, but yet without a specialty.

No problem! It happens. :P

Had Raven gotten better at remembering to mention him as well?  Uhh.  Quixote, he said simply as he raised his head and licked the water droplets off his maw.  It'd be a while longer before he was more conversational, but it wasn't like it was unusual for him to seem kind of standoffish if he came off that way.

He wasn't entirely sure if she was just trying to use a flowery turn of phrase or if there was someone else around who'd count as a healer.  It was his understanding that Eljay was more focused on just caring for pups and stuff, not healing, so Quixote didn't count him.  Either way, Quixote's mild confusion was fairly obvious,  Does that mean the other woman you came with is one too, or..?  He was pretty sure Raven said she was a fighter of some kind but maybe he was misremembering.   Or was someone super secret about their healing skills?  The only proper healer he knew of was his mate.  More were good though, he guessed.  It'd let Raven just hang out with the pups instead of getting dragged off to every emergency at least.

Slightly confused, Blondine cocked her head and gave a side-leaning grin. I reckon you have more than one caregiver around these parts? In most packs, the hunters and the caregivers were the most bountiful, but maybe they ran things differently around these parts. And even if they did, would Blondine have been wrong to think that no one else had ever picked up the trade?

Ah, it was inconsequential, their banter.

It was a little confusing, but maybe that was just Quixote being bad at everything ever involving words.  Raven's always the one who gets dragged in if someone gets into trouble.  -- I mean there's Eljay who's a caretaker too I guess, but I dunno how much healing he actually does.  I think he just takes care of pups and stuff.  He frowned thoughtfully.  Did he do any healing?  Nobody'd really said anything about it -- if someone was hurt, Raven was always the one who got called.  For all Quixote knew, Eljay might not know any more about proper non-pup-related health stuff than he did as an obvious not-a-medic.  Few others kinda know enough to help I think...  Shrug.  No title for any of them.  She'd said healers so he was going through those who he knew were actually healers.