Heron Lake Plateau ashes against the grain

As she passed by, he reached out to nip at her flank playfully.  She did look good and he definitely didn't mind that.  Even after everything...  Even if the scars were still a reminder of things he wasn't able to prevent, he'd take almost perfect any day of the week, because things hadn't turned out so bad, had they?  Hell, sometime soon they needed to schedule their off time so they could go spend some time together -- without their precious bundles of fluff bounding about.

While they waited, he did his best to herd the pups all together and convince them to settle down for a nap or something.   They weren't really big enough that they could totally be ignored and left to their own devices, but at least it would be nice if they could stay out of trouble for the duration of a meeting.  Owen was particularly uncooperative.  Hell if Quixote knew why, but he swore that kid had it out for him somehow.

And there was Niamh.  With lunch?  Damn, I swear everyone just wants to one-up me.  That bit of snark was quieter, though Niamh probably heard it too -- it was in good humor, at least.  And from the scent of it, a bird again, goddamnit stupid feather creatures.  Then louder and directly to her, Hey.  Been liking that bit of responsibility, eh?  It was a sly reference to the real reason for the meeting.  Well, he was gonna stay down here, wasn't like he could get past Raven anyway since the entry wasn't that huge.