Heron Lake Plateau guiding light

Eljay really was too nice for his own good. Owen had refrained from rolling his eyes when the puppysitter had oh-so-kindly tried to suggest to his more rambunctious sisters that no matter who had started their latest wrestling match, they both really should follow the adult, but Owen couldn't stop himself from giving a little eyeroll when the puppysitter panickily called for him and Kite to stop a minute later. With an explosive sigh of exasperation Owen lunged forward to make a grab for whatever bit of Kite he could most easily reach, wincing slightly as his paws hit incredibly cold icy mud (bluuuuhhgh! Who would voluntarily run on this stuff?! Sheesh, Kite!); blindly he felt fur between his teeth and snapped them shut in desperation even while his eyes spotted Kite's petite white feet, never entirely reliable, gathering a bit too much of the cold mud and starting to skid out from under her and fly up over her head and around in an almost comically inept cartwheeling motion. He yanked his head back as far and hard as he could, even as he felt his own feet starting to skid.

Ah'm shtryin', can'shew shee Ah'm sshhtrrryin'?! he tried to yell none too loudly and legibly back at Eljay with his mouth full of sisterskin and fur as soon as he could find the breath to try and do so, even as he hauled back on Kite's tail and she squealed in ear-bleeding-pitched protest. He might be trying though it was true, but it still wasn't entirely arresting either of their forward momentum. Owen let out a screechy yelp of his own as he felt freezing-cold water oh dear heavens how could water ever possibly BE that cold snaking up inbetween his toes and then overlapping the tops of his feet. Oh no, oh NO— Now it was his turn to start to panic, flailing his limbs about wildly—which only increased the area the cold cold cold water could reach, really, but Owen wasn't exactly thinking straight here—as his eyes rolled wildly and pleadingly back in Eljay's vague direction, silently crying help help HELP! along with he and his sister's more audible and less-cogent cries. Owen didn't have quite the speed and weight to pit against Kite's, but hopefully Eljay would...?! He could only screech and pray. ...And hope that his other sisters wouldn't give him too much hell for it in the future, though that concern was small and distant and dim in his mind right at the moment compared to the big cold lake that was waiting RIGHT THERE underneath him to swallow him up (and probably wake the giant monster Owen was still half-convinced lurked at its bottom up from its hibernation, too, just to eat him up whole).