Heron Lake Plateau Have you ever heard of the Butterfly Effect?

Note to readers: this post references events that haven't entirely unfolded yet, however there's a mutual agreement on the outcome. ;)

Everything felt like a mess to Towhee, so it was difficult—no, it was impossible—to enjoy their victory. All she could do was ignore her exhausted body and mind, and patrol the borders again and again, enforcing and reinforcing markers in the hopes that @Screech and his sidekicks would stay away. Meanwhile, she worried about what the rest of the pack thought about yesterday's events. How did she feel about them?

Trying hard not to think too much and just focus on the task at hand, Towhee nonetheless brewed one hell of a headache. She stopped in the plateau's shadow to take a very brief break, her attention snared by a shadow gliding across the ground in her direction. She squinted upward and felt her heart lurch as she saw X preparing to swoop down and join her. When he landed, she gave him a steely look, then turned away.

"I trusted you," she said coldly after a long beat of silence, still refusing to look at him. "I gave you one job. You failed me, you know. You failed all of us." If the hawk responded in any way, she didn't know it. A moment later, she felt the soft beat of his wings as he took flight and vanished into the distant skies. She felt terrible for a second—could she really blame the bird for this mess?—and let out a long, dog-tired sigh.