Heron Lake Plateau locked and loaded, where the hell is peace of mind?

She was finally home.  She looked terrible; her fur was wild and unkempt.  Overnight her wounds had reopened, though not as badly as they could have.  She was swollen, hungry, and tired.

The snow that had fallen did not stick, but the cold that had been brought with it was bitter and unwelcoming.  She loosed no howl as she arrived, too tired to do anything than try to find somewhere and nap.  She walked the outskirts of the borders, hoping to hunker down in the tree-side of the Plateau near the Thicket, and she hoped she didn't run into anyone along the way.

Unfortunately Fire wasn't going to get very far before someone picked up on her scent.

Ambrose wasn't sure what drew him after her. Maybe nothing. Maybe the sight of snow falling on the plateau had him sort of weirded out, it was way too early for that shit. But whatever caused him to roam, roam he did, and right across Fire's path. He saw her igneous silhouette set against the grey of the sky and chose to seek it out.

When he got close, though, Ambrose was surprised. His brows raised as he looked her over and without missing a beat he cajoled her, Hate to see the other guy. There was a slight tone of concern to his voice but he wasn't going to outright ask about what happened—but she seemed like she'd had better days.

There was literally nobody else she would've liked to have seen less.  Okay, maybe that wasn't exactly true.  It could've been Colt or Niamh, and she wanted to explain herself to them like she wanted to swallow an entire hive of wasps.

Still, he is able to draw a smile from her.  It is feeble, her usual demeanor snuffed by the pain in her neck and shoulder.  She's so cold.  She looks a hell of a lot worse than I do.  She wonders if next time she's caught out in the open it'll be Siarut, and if he'll finally take her life like she deserves.  She wouldn't doubt it.

Obviously, the only solution is staying home forever.  Looks like she'll have to make nice with the newcomers.  She tilts her nose to his ear, and the recovering injuries he'd sustained from the bear.  She had wanted to check in on him (only because she was an aspiring medic, of course, and for literally no other reason at all) but she'd been wrapped up in her own stuff.  Heard you got into a tussle of your own.  Looks like it's healing up okay, though.

Towhee probably looked like a drooling, overly excitable infant: curled up in a ball, eyes huge and smile huger as she stared at her own toes. They wiggled and her cheeks ached as the grin tried to stretch even wider. They wiggled! She could feel them too. Just barely. But it caused hope to blossom in the former Beta's chest as she suddenly pushed upright with a bark of laughter. Perhaps it was ironic that she should begin to recover so soon after stepping down, yet Towhee scarcely thought about it as she sprang to her feet.

She glanced down as she gingerly spread her weight onto her three fully functional legs. She wriggled her toes again and smiled, though Towhee refused the urge to test any weight on the limb. This might be it, all the feeling she would ever recoup. Or this may simply be the first phase of recovery and she would one day regain full sensation. There was no way to tell, though she wasn't going to risk injury by getting ahead of herself.

With that said, Towhee had to tell someone. Feeling light as air despite the usual drag of her still-mostly-dead leg, she began trotting slowly across the plateau, giving a loud and happy bark when X spontaneously appeared overhead. Without a word, she suddenly darted across the snow-dusted plain, a break in the clouds materializing the bird's shadow racing just ahead of her toward the north.

When she arrived at the slope there, panting hard but buzzing with endorphins, Towhee caught sight of a familiar black silhouette slipping into the thicket just further downhill. She thought she caught a glimpse of red just beyond Ambrose's shoulder. She swallowed and licked her frothing jowls, then began picking her way down to investigate. She hardly reacted when she felt a familiar pinch to her shoulder blade, followed by X's slight weight.

When she slid up alongside the swarthy Iota and saw a disheveled Ceara hunched on the ground, Towhee stiffened. "What happened?" she demanded, her wriggling toes and buoyant mood forgotten. The sun slid back behind the scudding cloud cover, their shadows fading ominously.

He recalled their spar and wondered how this could've happened, because she was quite skilled. Ambrose didn't want to admit it but he was genuinely concerned. Her retort made him smile a little more — there it was, that old spark! 

Then there was Towhee. She showed up just as Ambrose was opening his mouth to joke around a little more, asking about things in a much more concise manner. Yeah well, I only had a bear to contend with, and that's nothing next to a woman scorned, which was his backhanded way of saying, look at you, taking names and kicking ass, except it sounded pretty chauvinistic.

What happened? Towhee's voice cut in, and Ambrose stopped his chuckling and verbal prodding to glance at her. He saw the hawk and would've visibly paled if it were possible; he'd forgotten about her little pet. He responded before Fire could — She got in a fight, obviously.

Well, shoot.  She kind of got the gist of what he was saying, even though it was kind of an ass-backwards way of giving a compliment.  Maybe he was just salty she'd kicked his ass, right, and he didn't just want to come out and say how awesome she was?  Her smile widened and she let out a puff of laughter, that was quickly stifled when she saw someone else breach the horizon.

Yeah, that earlier thing about how there had been nobody else she wanted to see less?  Totally untrue.  Somehow, Towhee's entire existence had slipped her mind — perhaps she mistakenly thought that the former Beta would still be recovering or keeping to herself or being literally anywhere but here — but now that she was here with her determined fiery eyes and her big intimidating bird.. she would've rather explained herself to Colt.

Obviously, Towhee was just so demanding because she cared.  At least, that's what Ceara liked to believe.  She was an asset and a hard worker; even if Towhee didn't give a fuck about her on a personal level (which she also did not believe to be true), on a professional level she had to care.  It didn't make it less annoying, though.

Ceara already felt pretty lousy, and this whole thing was much more convoluted than she cared for.  Telling Llewellyn the whole story (including the cough cough naughty bits) hadn't gone over very well, so she pondered over how to whittle this down to its barest bones.. to save herself the embarrassment, of course.

But Ambrose cut in first, and she couldn't help but snort.  Obviously.  Ceara closed her eyes and raised her brows as her train of thought crashed.  She admired his spunk, but did he really know who he was talking to?  Even with a bum leg, she thought that Towhee and X could rip Ambrose a new one, no sweat.

There was a boy who was head over heels for me.  We met a few times, but it never amounted to anything.  I found out he was Blackfeather.  He and his family were leaving to start a new life away from that whole mess, and he asked me to come with him.

She snorted.  I told him to get lost.  There was no way I was going to abandon you guys, even though this was back when I had first joined.  Not only that, but he'd been part of Blackfeather.  I barely knew this guy.  

Whittle it down, you dumb shit.  They don't need to know everything.  Anyway, I ran into him again while I was out scouting, and he was kind of a dick for no reason.  So we got into a fight.  I hurt him, he didn't hurt me.   He went back home.  Then when I was scouting the coast, someone met me there.  I told her my name, and she just fuckin' slammed me.  No warning or anything.  She was his sister.  

She rolled her shoulders and wiggled her toes, trying to ease some of the tension she felt.  I got lost for a few days, I blacked out.  I lost a lot of blood.  I couldn't tell where I was.  I finally found my way to the Falls, and then I was able to parse out where home was.  She looks worse than me, though.  I don't know.  They shouldn't be an issue.

But it was nothing.  How's your leg doin', anyway?  Let's talk about anything but me.

She sensed that Ambrose was first to answer her question, so Towhee slanted her snout to catch the words on his lips. She squinted a little at the "obviously," though her attention shifted back to Ceara as she began to explain. As the story unfolded, Towhee's ears fell further and further back. There was no way for her to detect the other woman's tone, though there was something queerly cavalier about the way she delivered the details. The Iota's "obviously" echoed in her mind again. Why were they both being so... dismissive?

Ignoring Ceara's question, Towhee asked, "Do you need me to send X to get Raven?" She fully expected the red she-wolf to reject the offer, further downplaying the situation. At least, Towhee hoped the two's behavior had more to do with the circumstances than her presence. She might not carry a leader's title any longer, yet she still considered looking out for her pack and its members her first priority.

On mobile, will format later (I say, like I have ever gone back and actually done that ever)

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Towhee seemed troubled, though she couldn't (or willfully did not want to) pinpoint why.  In truth, Ceara had been so dismissive because she was scared. She had been attacked out of nowhere for no reason, and she didn't know if she could handle a full-blown pack rivalry.  She didnt think herself or the situation important enough to go to war for, but she couldn't fool herself into believing that someone wouldn't want to do something.  

She alsI couldn't fool herself into believing she didn't need medical attention.  Had she been able to reach her own wounds, she might have blown off getting treatment, but the assailant had hit her precisely where she couldn't reach.  She dropped her gaze and cleared her throat before signing, -Yeah,- unaware that @Ambrose knew how to sign.

Ceara surprised her by agreeing. But before X could so much as unlatch his talons from Towhee's shoulder, Ambrose volunteered to fetch @Raven himself. Before wolf or bird could react, he took off uphill, leaving them with the injured party.

Towhee made a clicking sound that was evidently X's cue to dismount; he spread his wings for balance, then leaped to the ground and settled. This freed the mercenary to move closer and crouch beside Ceara. "I'll get these clean," she said perfunctorily, remembering how Ceara had done the same for her after her spill on the caldera.

While they waited for the Alpha female to arrive (with or without her swarthy escort), Towhee methodically licked Ceara's wounds, doing her best to scrape them free of blood and other debris, hoping those still oozing would continue to clot.

I'm not sure if Houkie has time to respond to this, lol, so I'm gonna go ahead and post!

Now that Ambrose was gone, it was a little easier to talk to Towhee.  She respected Towhee, of course, but Ambrose had the unfortunate effect of being kind of cute, and she didn't want to look like a little bitch in front of him.  Towhee had wrecked on a tree in front of her, she was sure this was nothing in comparison, embarrassment-wise.

Thank you, she says quietly, eyes dropping, Um, I'm sorry about all this.  I don't want to, you know, cause any problems.  Who did?  How is that leg doing?

Towhee tended carefully to her pack mate's broken flesh, trying to do a thorough job without inflicting any additional pain. At length, she settled back on her haunches, the task finished. She caught the movement of Ceara's lips. Her own lips pressed together as she thought back on the woman's tale.

"We came a long way to escape trouble with the Blackfeathers," she said lowly after a moment. She wasn't sure what else to say. Towhee had lots of questions about the details of Ceara's story but she was stuck on that one point for now.

I know this thread is a few weeks old now but hope y'all don't mind if Ray still pops in!

Raven's heart was in her throat. A dark, creeping sense of foreboding dread had wrapped its cold fingers around her heart and squeezed. Not this again, was all she could think. After a harried and breathless Ambrose had approached her, insisting that Ceara was injured and needed medical attention, he had filled her in on the run back. Not Blackfeather. Not again. Raven couldn't stomach the thought of another conflict with those vile, disgusting creatures.

They had moved all the way out here to the middle of nowhere. Abandoned their homeland, the fallen mountain that bore their name. Given up everything they'd ever known to move to a place that nobody liked. And for what? The thinking behind it had been to put some distance between themselves and Blackfeather, and for a time, it seemed to have worked. But now the Blackfeather filth was sniffing around the Redhawks' doorstep again, and Redhawks were turning up injured -- again.

The more she stewed on it, the angrier she became. By the time they reached Towhee and Ceara, Raven was in a thunderous fury. And that was saying a lot because the normally demure alpha was not typically one to get upset about much of anything. If those assholes hadn't gotten the point last time around that Redhawks weren't to be messed with, Raven would bring down upon them a level of hell and fury that would leave nothing but scattered ashes in their wake. It had been bad enough that they tormented her siblings and packmates for fun before, but now she had children to think of as well.

Giving Towhee a friendly boop on the neck with her nose as she drew near, she went immediately to Ceara and looked over her wounds. It appeared that Towhee had already cleaned them up sufficiently, but a few of them might need herbal remedies if infection tried to set in. "God, I'm so glad you're okay," she murmured to the ember-coated Blackthorn. She gazed meaningfully at her friend for a few seconds, thankful beyond belief that she wasn't in worse shape (her memory treated her to an image of her sister Wildfire laying in a crumpled heap, nearly dead, with broken bones). Then she turned her eyes to Towhee, the one wolf she knew would understand the seriousness of the situation. "Blackfeather. Again?"

Not at all!

Her lip flattens alongside her ears, and she seems to shrink back into herself.  She felt like a failure; a no good, beat-up dog.  They had traveled all this way only for her to get them back into a mess like this.  She could only hope things wouldn't escalate any further.

It's not long before Raven appears, and their eyes lock for a second.  There's something smoldering there, and she has to drop her eyes to the ground to keep the tenderness from leaking.  Thanks, she says, and waits her turn as Towhee is adressed.

She noted Ceara's shift in expression and the minute cues of her body language in reaction to her words. Her head cocked, curious about how she might have taken them. But before Towhee could ask, she felt a familiar cool, leathery nose against her neck. She turned her head and sidestepped out of the way, giving Raven's hip an affectionate nip as she took her place beside their injured pack mate.

Towhee didn't respond right away to Raven's question (and all the other questions it inferred). When she did speak, she did so more slowly than usual. "After what happened to me—and now this—maybe we ought to consider putting a kibosh on traveling for a while. It's needlessly dangerous." Her lips pressed together momentarily. "Surely they won't come this far seeking a fight. But if they do, we'll have the home field advantage and everyone will be here to defend the plateau." After she spoke, she shrugged, "But that's your call."

She may have been the Alpha during the first battle with the Blackfeathers—and it had been her decision to come here—but now the Redhawks' fate rested in Raven's and Quixote's capable hands. Towhee would, of course, do what she could to assist the leadership and defend her family and turf. But she wasn't an Alpha or even a Beta now, plus there was her bum leg to consider. If it came to round two, Towhee would be playing a very different role.

Raven felt a weird twinge deep down somewhere as Ceara's gaze met hers fleetingly, and it made her feel...uncomfortable. Things had been weird since the night her friend had confessed to being in love with her. Not to the point that Raven didn't enjoy her company -- for she truly did -- but enough to make her question and second-guess every interaction in a way she hadn't done before. She was glad when the Blackthorn's eyes fell away from her own and the strange tension faded back into the shadows behind the miasma of anger brought on by the news of Blackfeather coming around again.

She considered Towhee's suggestion for a few beats, and then nodded. "I agree," she commented, chewing her lip as she thought. "It's too risky, and we're too isolated. It'd be easy for them to pick us off one by one if too many are wandering alone. I'll talk to Qui about it, but I'm sure he'll agree too." She felt a moment of gratitude that they had X -- he'd be a valuable asset in helping to keep an eye out for strangers in the surrounding territories, for sure. She turned her attention back to Ceara and asked, "You need rest. And food. I can rustle up something fresh for you if you want to find somewhere comfortable to lie down. Might need to get some medicine on a few of those cuts, too."