Heron Lake Plateau I'm working on my backwards walk, walking with no shoes or socks.

Phone posting from work so pardon the shortness! Wanted to go ahead and get a post up so this thread doesn’t get bogged down. :)

After a rowdy play session with the kids, Raven had fallen fast asleep in the softly-snoring pile of legs, fuzz, overlarge ears, and too-long tails. She woke up briefly when Qui entered the small space and lay down with them, but quickly went back to sleep again.

She woke up at about the same instant her mate did, roused from her slumber by the sound of Towhee’s voice. Unlike Qui, she was quick to pick up on what her sister was trying to say, and — carefully extricating herself from the tangle of pups so as not to wake them — quickly emerged from the den.

”What?” she said, confused. Of course, it made perfect sense for Towhee to want to step down. She was wounded, perhaps permanently, and her sense of duty to the pack perhaps dictated that she relinquish her position to a more capable wolf. But dammit, Towhee was her right-hand man. ”No...” she mumbled, shaking her head.