Heron Lake Plateau very rare, mom jeans on her derriere

I wrote this in a weird order and now it just seems clunky.  aaagh

And not everyone apparently hated him, score a point for Quixote right there.  He should still probably make more of a point to hang out with the other wolves of the pack other than his direct family.  Put it on the list.

Quixote wasn't expecting the reason behind being called here though.  For whatever reason, he hadn't expected Tegan really had much interest in leadership -- going off on adventures, sure, but more of the leader types kept closer to home in his experience. Maybe he was just growing up or something?  But after what happened with Niamh, he wasn't really quick to jump right on that idea.  Shall we say, renewed caution?  The real question was if what happened with Bat (or what might have happened prior to that out at Blackfeather) had left any scars that might rear their ugly head at an unfortunate time.  Okay, in both cases it wasn't like things had ended badly in the end, even if at times it had seemed it would go that way.  

No denying you've done a lot for the pack.  That part was super clear.  And man, was he happy that Towhee wasn't the one running the conversation because chances were he was gonna ramble at least a little.  Gotta ask, though... Obviously you've had a few things happen that weren't just ordinary days.  With your trip to Blackfeather and then what happened recently with Bat... How do you think things surrounding both of those events would shape you as a leader?  It was like one of those interview questions where there was no good answer, but what he wanted was that awareness that might prevent that weird unexpected response Niamh had.

But before Tegan could start answering, he made sure to say, And I'm not saying you have to make up something to answer it now if you don't know.  But I want to know you've thought about it -- good and bad.  Because I'm not against it, but it's a lot more than if you'd just said you'd want to run the next hunt or something.  It's not something to rush.  Quixote seemed pretty casual about it all, but that was probably because he was being totally honest with what he'd said.  Tegan was perhaps a little odd, but no matter how outlandish he seemed at times, he might actually be a decent leader.  At the very least Quixote couldn't recall him ever really causing too much trouble (other than darting off to BFW without backup).  Not a responsibility to take lightly.