Heron Lake Plateau Alfadhirhaiti.

There were many wolves Towhee would miss if they chose to leave for this new venture. But the proximity of the copse went a long way to assuage any particular perturbation over it. With that said, there were two wolves other than her People that she would sorely miss if they went anywhere. She had a hard time believing they would—and if they did, wouldn't they take half the pack with them?—yet all the same, Towhee felt a strong urge to hunt down her godparents just to touch base.

She impatiently wrapped up her early patrol, striding up the slope leading to the plateau proper, orange eyes lifted skyward in search of X. She didn't see the hawk, so Towhee decided to search for herself. She roamed in the direction of the lake shore. Even from a distance, she spotted a gray lump she swore was @Finley. But there were many gray wolves in the pack. And many rocks along the water's edge. She hastened her step to take a closer look.

Ever since Wildfire had shared the news and had invited Eljay to come join her at this new pack Eljay had felt rather jumbled. Had it been Redhawk Caldera he would've said yes right away, but even still, he didn't like this plateau very much and going to a new place might be good. Besides, there were some wolves that he didn't always get along with very well and Eljay would feel more at ease knowing those wolves weren't also there. He felt terribly guilty about wishing that Towhee wouldn't come -- she was family, of course, and she was a good leader, he knew all of that, but Eljay was always afraid that she would happen upon him, appear out of nowhere whenever he was doing something clumsy... Which was a lot of the time.

Overthinking the implications of leaving this pack -- and the pack splitting up, to start with; Eljay wasn't too sure he wanted to leave Raven, either! -- Eljay stared at the water and sighed lightly. It'd all sort itself out, probably, but for now it was a stressful span of time until decisions were made and wolves split up. Eljay was totally unaware that Towhee was approaching; not until he heard something behind him and craned his neck to look around, looking straight at Towhee, who was headed his way...

It wasn't a rock and it wasn't Finley either. Towhee skidded to a stop when she realized it was Eljay. He looked over at her at the very same instant that she froze. Damn, she thought, spotted. There was no turning and beating a hasty retreat to avoid him now.

Biting back a sigh, she slowly trudged forward. She didn't hate Eljay, though Towhee had long ago written him off as something of a lost cause. She rarely bothered with him, though when they did inevitably cross paths, she tried to remember that he was her godparents' son, her brother in a fashion, and not treat him with overt spite.

"Eljay," she greeted in her gravelly monotone. She very nearly asked if he'd seen Finley today but then another thought struck her and Towhee found herself wondering out loud, "Have you heard about this pack split thing?"

Towhee's sentiments about being spotted were muchly shared by eljay, who'd much rather have avoided her altogether. He shifted his weight and got up, greeted her with a meek, uncomfortable smile and said: Hey Towhee.

At her question, Eljay bobbed his head and said, Yeah. I was umm, thinking of going with Wiffle. After all, mommy and daddy had said they might go, and he would hate to lose Wiffle again so soon after her return.

The words burst out of her mouth without thinking: "You should." Towhee blinked once, then decided not to renege. But she should soften what might seem like a blow by adding, "I think it'd be a good place for you. I think Wildfire's going to be a..." She paused, this time actually considering her words before she spoke. "...a gentler leader. I don't know. She just seems more your pace. I bet you'd be happy there, with her." And though the mercenary had some not so nice reasons to be rid of him, she realized she really meant what she said.

Towhee's 'you should' came out rather quickly. Eljay felt a little surprised and caught off guard by her directness, though he maybe shouldn't have been. Admittedly, Eljay felt like arguing her point -- after all, Raven, while not one right now, had been a gentle leader. And Niamh was... Well, maybe not gentle, but he'd not had any negative moments with her either; same with Quixote.

But he didn't. Argue. I guess, he said halfheartedly, feeling nervous suddenly. If Towhee was so eager to get rid of Eljay... Then would he really be any good for Wiffle's pack? What if he totally messed up things for her? Or if she was only being polite by inviting him over? Eljay's gaze glossed over a little as he contemplated these things, seemingly abruptly.

"Have your mom and dad talked to you about it at all?" Towhee wondered. She still wanted to find Finley herself, yet now that she was here and trying to make conversation with Eljay—which wasn't particularly easily—it couldn't hurt to ask. "Like, about whether they might go there?"

Eljay remembered that mommy and daddy considered going, though he wondered as he opened his mouth if that was because they had said anything, or because Wiffle had said something about it. Either way, it didn't really feel like his place to say, but neither did he want to really sell Towhee a 'no', so that left him at a bit of an impasse. "Uh.." he murmured as he thought. "Not really. I don't think they decided yet." Which wasn't really a lie, because he hadn't actually heard anything about them definitely going, but neither did it feel like the entire truth. Eljay added after a short pause, even though he had wanted not to tell that bit of information: "They're considering, though." He felt guilty and even though the party in case -- who probably wouldn't mind him telling any of this, anyway -- wasn't there he looked away, looking flustered.

Towhee's face turned to stone when Eljay informed him they were considering. An internal struggle commenced behind that angry mask. It wounded her that they were considering abandoning Redhawks, though she reminded herself that wasn't really the case. The packs were meant to be closer than allies and, geographically speaking, they would practically be next door neighbors. All the same, it would be a bald-faced lie to say Towhee didn't feel bereft and betrayed by this possibility. She knew right then she shouldn't go looking for them; she'd just end up having some sort of meltdown, for sure.

"Great," she ground out after a moment, voice low. She kind of wanted to stomp away, yet Towhee managed to restrain herself. She peered at Eljay, the cold anger on her face flickering and becoming more like fear. "If they go, do you know how many will follow? What'll be left here? It's going to nuke the pack, right in time for winter. Redhawks could quite literally die." Okay, that was a little dramatic... or was it?

Towhee clearly wasn't very happy with the thought of Finley and Elwood leaving. Eljay supposed only in that moment that they must be kind of like a mommy and daddy to her, too. They had practically raised Towhee and her siblings, after all, along with Raven and Lagan and himself and the rest of the pack, of course. Eljay felt regretful that he had told her about this. Maybe he should've let mommy and daddy tell her themselves, once they'd made the decision.

Suddenly Towhee seemed to get rather.. like he'd never seen her before. Almost afraid, an emotion he didn't think tough, cool Towhee possessed. "I.. Sorry, I didn't mean to upset you," he said, "I should've maybe let them tell you, when -- I mean, if they would decide. I'm sure lots will stay. A lot of wolves like it here. Raven and her family is staying too, right..?" And surely that meant many would stay to be with her, because Raven was pretty great. Eljay felt a pang of sadness as he said it, at the thought of leaving Raven once more. She'd been so upset after he had left for Drageda. What if she didn't forgive him this time? She had seemed to encourage him following Wifi, but somehow Eljay's wounded heart still didn't rest easy that she may not change her mind if he really did leave.

He hadn't upset her, not really, but Towhee wasn't really in the mindset to reassure him of this, nor was she opposed to shooting the messenger right now. Fortunately for him, she ground her teeth together and held her silence, eyes flickering across Eljay's face when he spoke. He was trying to reassure her now and Towhee became uncomfortably aware of how whiny she probably seemed right now that Eljay of all people was comforting her.

"I don't know," Towhee answered gruffly, which was the truth. It didn't make sense for Raven to go, although some wild part of Towhee wondered if Quixote mightn't take the opportunity to bail on the likes of herself, Phox and Niamh. "I don't want to talk about this or think about it anymore." And just like that, she turned and stomped away, feeling only marginally bad for maltreating Eljay but mostly feeling angry with herself for getting upset like that over hypotheticals.

It didn't seem possible to comfort Towhee, or at least not when your name was Eljay. He frowned as she gruffly responded that she didn't know, though it seemed unlikely to Eljay. Raven wouldn't just ditch everyone like that, and he was pretty sure from their earlier conversation that she really wouldn't. Anyway, he grimaced, unsure what else to say, but luckily Towhee was the one to suggest they stop talking about this or thinking about it. "Okay," Eljay said numbly but before he could change the subject to something that she might care about, Towhee was already gone.

Eljay stared after where she'd gone off to and then let out a big sigh, feeling tense and uncomfortable with the entirety of this conversation. The concept of the Redhawks ceasing to exist because of Wildfire's new pack, wolves being hurt in the process... he, too, preferred not to think about it then, and he wandered off to try and find something to divert his mind.