Heron Lake Plateau Troy, this is Midsomer

Phone post! I’ve been wanting a thread with this guy. :)

Raven was exhausted. Just physically and emotionally spent. The past few days had been draining in nearly every way, and that wasn’t even taking into consideration the long, tiring week of travel they’d endured prior to everything happening. Raven was hyper-empathetic and compassionate to a point that sometimes it sapped her own inner strength, and acting as healer, counselor, and peacemaker for a narrowly-escaped second war had pushed her to her limits.

As if that wasn’t complicated enough, a late heat had picked this fine time to show up and throw a bunch of obnoxious hormones into the mix. Typically, Raven withdrew into solitude during these times and devoted herself to studying plants and medicine in an attempt to avoid everyone (particularly males) and not draw attention to herself or cause unnecessary ruckus in the pack.

She had already failed spectacularly in that regard, and the memory of the incident with Titmouse was horribly etched into her memory. She did her best not to dwell on it -- and she certainly didn't blame the boy -- but it wasn't easy. She found herself thinking about it at that particular moment and was horror-struck by her body's inappropriate response to the memory, so she forced her thoughts down a different avenue.

This was an interesting place for a healer. Though many of the plants were still sparse and dormant in the wake of winter, she could already tell that spring would bring a vast bounty of plants both familiar and new to her. She was excited to explore this aspect of her new home and possibly discover new treatments for injuries and illness.

Her thoughts were interrupted by the sudden raucous splashing of a duck charging into the water, and her eyes flicked up to land on her packmate Quixote. She knew him in the way that coworkers know one another — mostly in passing, indifferently cordial, nothing particularly personal. But she’d gained a newfound respect for the gruff, stoic gamma when he’d been one of the few voices of reason raised against bloodshed between the Redhawks and Titmouse’s would-be pack. For that, he had her gratitude and she flashed him a friendly smile.