Heron Lake Plateau now i’m free from what you are

Quixote was obviously not first on the scene, and to a certain point that was probably a good thing.  It gave a chance for the flare of temper to burn out.  He was, unsurprisingly, with the pups, just your average, ordinary day.  He did wish that he was one of the ones out searching instead -- partially because he still saw himself as somewhat expendable in comparison to Raven -- but since he couldn't convince her otherwise, well... Here they were.

When the howl happened, it quite reasonably scared the litter, and @Owen tried to scatter to go... Oh who the hell knew what that kid was doing, but a very terse shout of his name finally snapped him out of it, thank goodness.  After wrangling his daughters as well, Quixote took a moment to explain that things would be okay, it was just someone being stupid and he was gonna go sort them out.  They were going to be fine, their mom was going to be fine (and would be back soon!), and they should just wait at their little thicket for a while.  After a quick howl to @Eljay to get him over to sit on the bunch (literally, if needed), Quixote finally headed towards where Caiaphas was.


Honestly he was furious that she would even try to do that.  Talk about biting the hand that feeds you.  The fact that Raven had been willing to let in the other pups had irritated him at first -- he'd been worried about how young their own pups were at the time and didn't want the competition -- but by the time he knew, it was too late for takebacks.  It would have been a reasonable choice  either way, and he wouldn't have felt bad telling them to move along.

Quixote was normally a pretty causal guy when it came to posturing for rank.  He took up a fair amount of space naturally just because of his build, and as long as people knew their place, he wasn't going to flaunt it.  Normally.  But this time when he appeared on the scene, it was like he actually cared. Though not quite overbearing, he was definitely in "Yo, I am actually an alpha, don't freaking forget I exist, you noobs,"-mode.  Because holy crud did she really just expect the other alpha would just say "Mmkay, sounds good"?

His words were...  probably the best description would be a cold sort of calm where you know that they've had enough time to think things through and just really were not pleased with whatever nonsense their target was up to.  I'm sure when Raven spoke to you about the pack, she mentioned that it's very familial.  You seem to have forgotten that, because that howl moved you from a member in reasonable standing to be the most untrustworthy sack of meat within two weeks' travel. 

He looked between Towhee and Niamh specifically then, continuing in a pretty self-sure manner, I assume you've also told her what a bad idea that was, and that it was real classy challenging a wolf that's trying to find a missing packmate, yes?  Because he trusted them.  They were reasonable, and he was sure that if she'd voiced some really stupid opinion, they'd probably already tried to set her straight.  But given Caiaphas didn't look ashamed at all, it probably didn't work.

As far as he was concerned, she wasn't even worth a fight.  She'd be trying to lead a pack where it'd be in a constant state of coup d'etat, with fellow leaders also wishing she didn't exist.  How she could be so daft as to not see that, Quixote wasn't sure, but apparently she was.  At the same time, he was also fairly tightly wound, just in case she did something even more stupid.  If she was actually wanting a fight, he wasn't going to be caught off-guard, but he also wasn't going to encourage it.  Again, it was pointless.  You are going to turn around, leave, and take whatever trouble you've gotten into recently with you.  Bridge was burned, don't come back.  He didn't know what she'd done to get the new array of wounds she'd been sporting recently, but he'd been wary of its existence to begin with -- it looked like fight wounds with another wolf to him, and surely if it was from some crazy loner, that would have been worth reporting to the pack.  It smelled off to him, but apparently he wasn't going to have to ask about it. 

But well, she wasn't alone, was she?  Your children will be given the option to stay or go with you, because that hole you've dug isn't their fault, but I'm not going to stop them if they want to jump in too.  Which seemed fair to him.  And honestly, he'd find it kind of hilarious and fitting if the kids ditched their unstable mom for a secure home.