Blacktail Deer Plateau Rock n' roll

Gingerly, Peregrine hoisted himself into an upright position, keeping his weight balanced on his intact right foreleg. The left still throbbed and ached, yet he bore through it as he lifted his hindquarters and stood. Balanced on three legs now, he stood there awkwardly, trying to decide how to walk with his leg bound this way. Eventually, he hiked it backward, holding it awkwardly against his ribcage. He then took a single hopping half-step forward.

"Oh, man, this is gonna take a while," he warned Blue Willow, allowing himself to lean against her lightly. "How about you tell me a story while we walk? Tell me something about your childhood," he requested.

Perhaps two hours hence, the two Alphas (he decided he would not consider them an Alpha pair, since they weren't mated) arrived at the rendezvous site. Before the pups could run up and bowl him over or otherwise hurt his bad leg, he warned them with a low growl. Osprey Jr., who'd led the charge, stopped dead in her tracks, ears flattening. The others crowded behind her, gazing up at him questioningly.

"Sorry, bubs, but daddy can't play right now. I hurt my leg," the swarthy Alpha explained, speaking to them even as his eyes flicked about the rendezvous site. Neither Hawkeye nor Kisu seemed to be present. That was all right. "You have to be gentle. Don't knock into my leg or it'll make daddy cry," he told the whelps jokingly, though the fact of the matter was that it probably would make him tear up if one of them bumped into his bum leg accidentally. And he supposed it was only a matter of time before it happened.

Steeling himself against that thought, Peregrine turned to the newly minted Alpha female. "All right, what now?" he wondered, unsure as to whether she had any more remedies for him or if she'd already done everything she could for him. "Puppy seeds?" he prompted softly.