Heron Lake Plateau For I have to appear to be strong

He still wasn't used to it.  Though some of the edges had worn down so he wasn't mentally tripping every five minutes over some problem, he still wasn't sure of anything.  The easiest thing to come to terms with was that he pretty much had to do it if the pack was going to continue to function.  There was still the whole dealing with other people thing which was just... not great.  There was also the fact Quixote perhaps had a few additional meanings to tie on to the Sword of Damocles, making him uneasy in his own skin.  But still, he'd done a few things.  He'd done patrols and dragged Colt back... And then tried to keep by himself while his mind was circling the void, more paranoid and eager to seek the worst options of all.

The late morning sun found him wandering through the empty expanse south of the lake -- he was mentally calling it the Void because he couldn't easily spot any distinctive features in it.  He wasn't really hunting, as it were, but he definitely was definitely poking around to see what edibles might be hiding in the quickly-growing grasses.  It was going to become much more important soon enough for Quixote to provide for Raven in one way or another.  Aside from the obvious solution of wrangling up a crew to hunt some larger prey (which he'd definitely have to do once he was over his bit of stage fright or whatever he'd call it), he needed to figure out where smaller prey was found so he could do it himself if it came to that.

Though by his lonesome the alpha wasn't visibly excited about his upcoming pups, he was definitely doing what he could think of to prepare for them -- though chances were he and Raven would need to have a conversation about the things that he didn't think of right off the bat.  At the moment, these things included sticking his face into a rabbit warren to figure out if it was one that would be easily dug out or if it was one where he'd just have to hope that the inhabitants came out to play.

It was odd, not being a leader. At first, Elwood wasn't quite sure what to do with himself, but it only took a couple of days for him to slip back into his normal routine. He might not have been the one making executive decisions anymore, but he could still hunt and patrol the borders. And he hoped that the pack was in capable hands; only time would tell, with Raven, Quixote, and Towhee at the helm, but he reminded himself to give them a chance.

He was returning from a circuit near the southern edge of the territory when he spotted Quixote -- or, well, part of Quixote. The new Alpha's head was mostly hidden in the opening of a rabbit warren, and Elwood couldn't help but smile at the sight. It would have been easy for him to sneak away without interacting with Quixote, but there were enough relationships that needed repaired; he didn't want to add to the list of fences that needed to be mended.

"Anything in there?" he called out quietly, not intending to startle his packmate.

It was, needless to say, hard to see anything with his giant fat head blocking most of the light.  However, he thought he had a pretty good idea of how this one was set up.  It was pretty clear that it had a hairpin bend or some kind of weird downward spiral that made it so he had no idea where the main rooms were unless he excavated a huge radius.  Unfortunate.

Then came a voice.  Though Quixote didn't jump, he was quick to back up out of the hole, as it wasn't exactly the best place to have a conversation nor the most secure position to be in.  Quixote's initial expression when he spotted Elwood was very uncertain, but that quickly faded when it was obvious that he didn't seem to be sour about anything. Then again, they were both left out of whatever Girl Talk had gone down, so unless Elwood was going to subtly echo Finley's anger at the whole thing, there probably weren't too many bad feelings between them, right?  After all, Quixote had pretty much brushed off the conversation about Towhee's leadership as now a nonissue -- he'd told Towhee the problems he had so there weren't any dark secrets, and now he was alpha.  The real question was how he was supposed to treat the ex-leaders.   With some respect, he imagined, but the fine details?  No clue.  Whatever.  He's just go informal like usual and see what happened.

Quixote's forehead had a nice horizontal streak of dirt across it from where it had rubbed against the entry and roof of the warren, but it didn't seem to bug him at this point.  Yeah, think so.  But not easy to dig out.  He moved towards it again, half-crouching to stick his front leg down into the abyss to figure out where it went, even though canine legs weren't exactly great for doing such things.  It gave him a slightly better idea, but only just, so he stood back up and shook out his fur -- he'd come back for this lot later.  Hope you weren't hoping to hunt this batch, I've probably scared the hell out of them.

Elwood peered past Quixote as the other male backed out of the entrance, although he obviously wasn't able to see any of the rabbits that were surely within those tunnels. Quixote confirmed his suspicion, though he admitted that any quarry would be hard to reach -- Elwood agreed, since they were surely aware of the wolves' presence now. He shook his head, indicating that he hadn't been planning on hunting those particular hares.

"Nah, but it's good to know they're there," he replied. Rather than address any of the drama that had gone down between their wives, he cast his glance around the terrain, brows lifting thoughtfully. "We could look for the other exit," he suggested; he had worked as a team with others in order to flush rabbits out of their homes before.

At least he hadn't ruined Elwood's plans or something.  Yeah.  I sense a lot of hunting in my future, he said with faint amusement.  And so it would be, even to his detriment.  

He turned to indicate an arc behind him that was probably roughly a quarter circle, It wasn't over there at least.  Then, back to Elwood, But that doesn't narrow things too much.  Unfortunately.  Also unfortunate was that rabbit warrens didn't come marked on a Minesweeper-esque grid.  That'd be great, someone should make that happen.  Quixote raised his head high to look across a wide slice of the landscape, looking for any suspicious divots in the tops of the grass.  Might be one over there.  Or a rock.  So Quixote headed over to take a look.

Elwood looked in the direction that Quixote indicated, his gaze sweeping the landscape for any sign of what could be the other entrance to the warren. The new Alpha speculated about its location and began to search, so Elwood did the same. He moved in the opposite direction of Quixote, figuring that they could cover more ground if they split up.

He ranged a short distance away from his companion, inspecting the still relatively unfamiliar terrain. Now that things had settled down -- well, kind of, anyway -- he decided that he needed to spend more time acquainting himself with his new home. He wanted to know it like the back of his paw eventually, as he had the caldera. For now, though, he focused his senses on looking for those pesky rabbits.

"Find anything?" he called over his shoulder, wondering if Quixote had had success near the rock he had spotted.

Woo, rolled well!

Nothing was all that interesting between where he'd been standing and his final target, which did have a rock.  There was a hole there, under where that rock was half-buried, but he wasn't entirely sure if it was connected to the same tunnel system as the other one.  It didn't smell as frequently used, and there were other scents around as well, like maybe a weasel had gone hunting there a while back.  Yeah.  Either a different one or another entrance.  Not sure which.  He sniffed around a bit more, Anything over there?  Quixote only looked up briefly, then went back to sniffing at he warren entrance.  He really didn't spend too much attention to figuring out the differences between kinds of rabbits, usually, maybe he should attempt to figure it out for the future -- it wasn't like tracking rabbits was anything like following a herd of deer.  They were just kind of... There.

Elwood's ears twisted as Quixote replied in the affirmative, confirming that he had found another hole in the ground likely belonging to the rabbits. He continued his search for a few more moments before answering Quixote's question as to whether he had found an opening as well. So far, it didn't appear that there was a third entrance -- aha! He paused and squinted, looking into a dense growth of shrubbery. He could barely make out the mouth of a burrow under all the branches and leaves, but it was there.

Turning back towards Quixote, he said, "Yeah, there's another one over here. What do you think? We could try to flush them out." With at least three entryways, their chances of success were questionable, but it would at least be entertaining to give it a try.

Damn these rabbits must have been busy if there were that many tunnels around here.  To a certain point he was surprised they didn't trip over them more often, but maybe they had some sense and just dug off the beaten path.

How do we deal with three though?  Think they're all the same system?  Honestly he didn't usually pay attention to how the warrens connected.  It could be any number between and including one and three.  Like maybe I start digging at this one and maybe it'll run out yours?  One warren entrance was obvious, two made sense with two people, but this?  Not a clue.  But if their long-eared prey had any sense, they certainly wouldn't go out the one he'd been sticking his arm down not too long ago... Right?  Whatever.  His brother was the expert hunter, he was just the guy who beat up people and otherwise just got by doing whatever.

Honestly, he hadn't come out here expecting to bring anything home with him other than some more knowledge, but if he did end up with half a rabbit or something, Quixote wasn't gonna complain.

"I guess we'll see," was Elwood's reply, accompanied by a shrug of his shoulders. In the worst case scenario, they wouldn't be able to stir up any rabbits from their underground hideaway; but maybe they would be pleasantly surprised and have a body or two to pad their caches.

Without further preamble, he crouched and wormed his way beneath the shrubbery as best he could. The smell of rabbits was certainly strong here; that was a good sign, right? With his rump likely protruding from between the leaves in a comical way, he began to dig at the hole beneath the branches, hoping to scare whoever was inside -- and hoping even more that their escape route would lead towards Quixote.

Dice liked me tonight. :P

As Elwood moved in to see about scaring the rabbits out, Quixote got into position in case one decided to come roaring out the entrance he was watching.  If it went out the other way... Well, there was a nonzero chance he'd miss it.  Quixote was waiting, relying on the fraction of a second where the rabbit might freeze upon spotting a predator at the door to be able to kill it.  There was a shuffling noise from the tunnel!  He tensed, ready to pounce whenever the brown blur appeared.  And then it did, and the ink black wolf snapped at it, wrenching the creature the rest of the way out of the hole.

He shook the rabbit violently, and after that it was still.  Quixote stood up, the hare still dangling from his maw, to show Elwood that their efforts had won a prize before heading over to meet him.  Though as alpha he probably had the right to just claim the whole thing, Quixote wasn't planning to do so.  Figuring out how to split it was always the thing, especially since he was still giving priority to Raven -- it was unfortunate wolves didn't have butcher knives.

Yay!

He continued trying to invade the rabbits' space, adding a few snuffles and growls for good measure. After a few seconds, he paused in his digging and backed out of the shrubs, peering around its leaves to see if Quixote was having any success. As his gaze landed on the Alpha, he watched as a hare erupted from the other tunnel; within moments, Quixote had dispatched it with his jaws.

"Nice!" Elwood called as the leader approached him with their success hanging from his mouth. If he had hands, he probably would have offered Quixote a high five. Now, there was the matter of what to do with the rabbit. They could eat it, or put it in a cache, but Elwood made a different suggestion. "Why don't you take that to Raven? I'm sure she's hungry," he said with a knowing smile.

Quixote dipped his head, then set the hare down a moment so he could respond, Thanks.  But you sure?  Could try to split it if you wanted something to bring home.  Yeah, sure, it wouldn't be a ton to eat but Quixote would offer.   As long as he had something to bring back to Raven, that was the important thing -- he'd just be giving away his portion if anything.

If Elwood was sure, Quixote wasn't gonna complain -- it was probably one of the perks of being alpha, or maybe just because there were the pups on the way, even though Finley already had hers running about causing trouble.  Whichever.  He just kinda wished there was something Elwood would get out of it too if the whole thing went to Raven.  Then again, maybe everyone was a lot more selfless than he was.

"Yeah, I'm sure," was Elwood's reply. He wasn't just doing it to seem honorable, either -- he truly did think that the best use of their efforts would be to feed Raven. Besides, he knew where to find food if he was hungry, and he would be keeping an eye on this particular location in hopes of poaching more of the rabbit residents.

Briefly, he considered verbally acknowledging the rift between Raven and Finley -- but decided against it. They would work it out in time, and -- at least in his mind -- the cooperation he and Quixote had just participated in spoke volumes. So, with a smile, all he said was, "Tell her I said hello." His tail swung briefly through the air behind him; if Quixote planned to depart to deliver the rabbit to Raven now, he would take his leave, as well.

So no splitting required.  He nodded, then with a wag of his tail and a slight smile, Okay, thanks.  He did really appreciate it, but was pretty bad at properly expressing it.  Quixote had issues and might not always be the nicest dude around, but he was nothing if not dedicated to Raven -- even if at this point they still weren't officially mates yet.  He still kinda had to remember to do something about that.

Either way, good that this had proven that Elwood didn't seem to hold any grudges against either of them, but Finley was still a giant question mark and he didn't know how long that'd last.  Yeah, will do.  With that, he leaned down to pick up the rabbit and trotted back off in the direction of their usual meeting spot to hopefully find Raven there.  A more successful day than he'd planned, but he'd take that without complaints.  With small prey located, maybe next time he'd have to find some deer or elk or something... Hm.