Heron Lake Plateau Road Regrets

As she mentioned what happened with the Finwood kids, he cringed a little, muttering something like, Oof.  As if he'd have any better luck bringing it up.  Sure, it wasn't like he was in bad standing with them, as far as he knew -- unless his conversation with Elwood had riled them both up more than he expected -- but that didn't mean they'd listen to a bachelor with no pup experience when it came to pointing out the issues with their brood.  Maybe in another few months when the kids had no excuse he could face them directly, but right now?  Naaaah.

And of course, this being in the past, he did his best to caaasually look the other way when she started to mention Raven, as things were totally still hush-hush secretlike, and he wasn't going to trust Niamh nearly as much as Colt, at least not yet.  Give it another day or three and stuff would probably be out (more?) in the open and he'd have a whole heap of other troubles to whine about.  He sniffed at a few old tracks while his head was pointed the other way, Yeah, Raven.  She's Towhee's sister -- totally different, huh?  Okay, he had to look back to see what she thought, but he did his best to temper his curiosity.

Either way, moving on.  But yeah, the bluffing thing might work on trespassers, but that's because you've got all the intel and they don't -- only thing we had at an advantage back when everyone met was numbers, and if you guys had some more hiding down in that forest or something, it would have ended a lot differently.  He shrugged.  A heaping pile of things would have been different if there'd been more to their little gang -- like the Caldera wolves wouldn't have even crossed into the territory and would have continued on to who-knew-where. I just dunno how willing some would be to listen and learn.  I've been with them basically through winter, and never really met the pups and stuff in a one on one, so not had a chance to even try. -- I think the main issue is just getting the jump on the insanity.  I'll need a pile of good luck for that.  He really didn't know how things had worked out that way.  Maybe they were just a lot warier of strangers than Towhee had previously assured him.  Oh well.