Heron Lake Plateau You know I had heaven and hell in the palm of my hand.

Having not had her brother as a playmate for months now, Niamh had not taken the opportunity to stretch out and run at her full speed, except for hunting- and even then, it was simply a sprint which usually ended with a leap and required a lot of concentration. She caught a glimpse of one of Towhee's eyes- a sparkling dare if there ever was one- before she accelerated and shot forward. Digging in, Niamh did too, taking advantage of the moment to stretch her legs out and gallop across the field like a golden arrow. She veered away from Towhee, laughing as the grasses tickled her cheeks. She looked up, to see X soaring overhead, effortlessly, as the two wolves raced below.

A lake glistened in the distance, drawing nearer and nearer with each stride, and she veered back toward Towhee then, keeping pace with the dark leader and watching her carefully to read her body language should she veer one way or another once they reached the lake- but she did not. As soon as Niamh was certain Towhee was committed to vaulting into the lake, she turned her eyes forward, flattened her ears, and put on an extra, final burst of speed. 

Because of her velocity, she didn't jump terribly high when she leapt into the water- but her speed carried her forward and across the surface quite some distance, toes barely skimming the surface before gravity pulled her down and the water splashed at her chest. She closed her eyes and held her breath as the water swept over her, and she started paddling almost as soon as she began to sink in so she was still moving forward. Once she bobbed back to the surface she expelled air explosively and breathed in with a hefty gasp, paddling back in a circle to see where it was that Towhee had landed. She wasn't far away, but was paddling toward a small island, so Niamh followed suit, revelling in the feeling of the cool water after a mad dash like that. 

She pulled herself ashore and shook her coat out, blonde and caramel hairs sticking up like spikes. X was up, happily perched in a tree, and she looked around to see maybe if there were others, or nests. Surely a roost would be home to more than one bird- and she caught sight of a couple nests nearby, likely belonging to ospreys who would live there and fish in the waters. She nodded when Towhee spoke, and turned toward her friend with a smile on her face. "I like it!" She said breathlessly. "I hadn't checked this out before...I guess I've mostly been hanging around the borders, rather than the interior parts of the plateau- but this is pretty cool!"