Heron Lake Plateau locked and loaded, where the hell is peace of mind?

Towhee probably looked like a drooling, overly excitable infant: curled up in a ball, eyes huge and smile huger as she stared at her own toes. They wiggled and her cheeks ached as the grin tried to stretch even wider. They wiggled! She could feel them too. Just barely. But it caused hope to blossom in the former Beta's chest as she suddenly pushed upright with a bark of laughter. Perhaps it was ironic that she should begin to recover so soon after stepping down, yet Towhee scarcely thought about it as she sprang to her feet.

She glanced down as she gingerly spread her weight onto her three fully functional legs. She wriggled her toes again and smiled, though Towhee refused the urge to test any weight on the limb. This might be it, all the feeling she would ever recoup. Or this may simply be the first phase of recovery and she would one day regain full sensation. There was no way to tell, though she wasn't going to risk injury by getting ahead of herself.

With that said, Towhee had to tell someone. Feeling light as air despite the usual drag of her still-mostly-dead leg, she began trotting slowly across the plateau, giving a loud and happy bark when X spontaneously appeared overhead. Without a word, she suddenly darted across the snow-dusted plain, a break in the clouds materializing the bird's shadow racing just ahead of her toward the north.

When she arrived at the slope there, panting hard but buzzing with endorphins, Towhee caught sight of a familiar black silhouette slipping into the thicket just further downhill. She thought she caught a glimpse of red just beyond Ambrose's shoulder. She swallowed and licked her frothing jowls, then began picking her way down to investigate. She hardly reacted when she felt a familiar pinch to her shoulder blade, followed by X's slight weight.

When she slid up alongside the swarthy Iota and saw a disheveled Ceara hunched on the ground, Towhee stiffened. "What happened?" she demanded, her wriggling toes and buoyant mood forgotten. The sun slid back behind the scudding cloud cover, their shadows fading ominously.