Heron Lake Plateau machines just got workings, and they talk to me

This was going great until I started watching Critical Role, woops.  So sorry if it's a little disjointed. >_>

Quixote, on the other hand, was having an excellent day so far, aside from the anxiety that he was trying to bury.  Things could go terribly wrong, couldn't they?  The only way to not think about it was to distract himself.  In Raven's absence, he'd tried again to catch one of the damn birds and actually, finally caught one.  It was just your average duck, but it seemed like it had recently narrowly evaded some other predator and this time it hadn't been so lucky as it was a much easier catch.  After the resulting explosion of feathers, he'd pranced back with the bird, set it down nearby, and, well, waited.

The call for the betas had sent pangs of panic through him, and for a few minutes he sat up, ears canted towards where the howl had come from.  What was happening over there?  Was he going to be called over next?  Kicked out?  The thing that hung heaviest on his mind was the potential that if he wanted to stay with Raven, to have a family or whatever was to come out of their union, that he'd have to fight for her.  Like legitimately no holds barred, mess someone up because you're running counter to pack law and tradition kind of fight.  As he lay there, head on his paws, staring off towards the seemingly endless horizon of the plateau, he was almost warming to the idea -- or maybe that was just the random bits of sunlight, whatever. Either way, he'd pretty much talked himself into doing it if necessary -- after all, if he'd messed up that badly, he might as well go out with a bang.  But even as he pondered, no other call came.  Seriously.  What was happening?

Time passed.  Slowly.

Let's be honest, waiting wasn't very interesting.  Quixote's eyelids drooped and he was probably a few minutes from dozing off entirely when he spotted her now-familiar figure approaching.  Something was off.  He sat up quickly, ears flicked forward.  Raven's words, though -- they sent a shiver down his spine, the familiarity not lost on him.  Quixote got to his feet, rushing to meet her.  He looked behind her for a second, but as she seemed to be alone, he turned back to Raven,  What happened?  Quixote reached out to nuzzle her cheek.  As mentioned, there were many ways he could imagine it going wrong, but none of them were what actually happened -- all of his ideas ended with Towhee still as the alpha.  And as such, before she could speak, he continued, Like-- if it was that bad you could have called me over, as much as he disliked the idea (and was probably going to be glad to have not been there after hearing what happened).

He was concerned, and perhaps in a way that was weird for him.  Normally, everyone was left to their own devices, and as long as everyone could continue to exist in some sort of vague harmony, usually he didn't mind what happened to anyone beyond that.  Okay, Colt being kicked came a little close to doing something he'd later regret, but this had him a bit more agitated if only because he didn't know what to do.  It wasn't like there was an obvious cause for him to fix (aka some annoying person following along behind that he was totally supposed to beat up).