Heron Lake Plateau shadow, my sweet shadow

And apparently this is SPARTA 300!

Being able to focus on keeping Raven on her feet and stable drew his mind away from the anguish and guilt for a while.  Her stumbles and unsteadiness kept worrying him, though.  She was so weak, and he didn't think there was much that could be done other than to wait.  Great.  Quixote was not good at waiting -- it was up there with sharing and expressing his feelings in a productive way.  Her first embarrassing fall into the puddle made him more careful and attentive from then on.  It was that bad.  He really had been close to losing her, huh?

Once his mate was safely settled on the earth again, he carefully smoothed out the fur he'd messed up while helping her get around.  It's nothing -- I'm standing by that 'anything you want or need' thing.  As far as he was concerned, it was a promise he'd always keep.  Helping her around was what she needed, so it should be expected.  Quixote hovered for a moment longer, looking her over to make sure there wasn't another wound to clean or fur to smooth.

Deciding there wasn't, he finally settled down next to her (but slightly at an angle, as he didn't need to be in the water), watching Raven attentively.  He hadn't lost her, she was here and he'd pour all his effort into making sure she got better.  How long do you think it's going to take for all that to heal?  Is it going to still be a problem when the pups get here?  Birth was supposed to be really painful as it was, wasn't it?  Just what she'd need, a bunch of still painful wounds adding to things.  He also was definitely Not A Medic, and pretty much didn't pay attention to how long things took to heal -- in his world either he still hurt or he didn't, time usually didn't matter.  He did have plenty of questions and worries, though, even if he didn't expect to get answers to all of them this hideously early morning.