Heron Lake Plateau I'm a police officer. I'm a police officer and I want a cup of tea.

You were touching it when it fell on you, remember? Owen squinched up his little face and tried to remember this for certain-sure. He supposed it was possible... Maybe the antler-thing really did need to vampirically touch a wolf and suck out some of their vital lifeforce in order to animate its own cold white bones. Why he should want to run over and play with that thing, though, or test this hypothesis out, was beyond him. Owen wasn't gonna touh that antler with the proverbial ten-foot-pole.

And he didn't really want to tell his sisters about it, either. In one scenario, they might end up as the antler's next victims, after all. And in another scenario they might just use it as an excuse to point and laugh at him. None of them seemed to take his little conspiracy theories nearly as seriously as they should... and horror of horrors, one of them might find it so laughable that they might deliberately put themself in the antlercreature's power just to try and prove him wrong! Owen definitely didn't want that on his young conscience. That was the kind of thing that could scar a puppy for life. Far better to play it safe that way, right? Right.

He did look up at his father with a modicum of trust at last, however, as Qui pointed out that he was right here and ready to save his son from the Antler of Doom once more if it should prove necessary. His father had chased the thing off for now, at least, it was true—and contrary to his other fears the thing hadn't come pouncing right back. Owen wagged his tail and scooted his butt closer, glomming onto his father's leg afresh, on the far side from the terrible antlercreature (just in case). Ihsaymeh irrawubrrmwuph, he said, oh-so-helpfully, and then tucked his head gratefully against Qui's foreleg. Okay, so maybe the babbling pseudowords were clear as mud, but the intent behind them was more crystalline— - Yes you did save, thank you. -  Next maybe his father could be hired out to chase monsters from under the bed before puppies curled up for the night, or ghosts from the den walls or something, ey? In any case, Owen had obviously had enough, and didn't want to hang around out here just in case the vampire antler suddenly awoke and went for the jugular. He started to tug and poke at his father, trying to pull his protector along with him in the direction of the dark, safe den.  - Home! -  Quick, before any nuisancy sisters came around. Or before the antler summoned some of its own pack and friends, if antlers had such things—Owen shuddered to even think about the potential consequences of that!