Heron Lake Plateau [expletive deleted]

tegan have a heavy sigh, exhaling a breath he hadn't realized he was holding, when raven gave her final verdict. all was fine, bat was passed out again, and tegan felt a lot of the weight he'd been carrying around on his shoulders the last few weeks completely lifted. silently, tegan felt a twinge of regret he didn't spend more time looking. he wondered if he could've found her traveling around with whoever -- or all alone -- on his own. if he'd just stayed out a little longer. to be fair, he had been gone a week, and was pretty weak himself when he returned. maybe this was for the best. 

maybe he'd done the right thing. she'd turned up, after all. what if he never found her? just stayed out looking for her -- or for a body -- and she turned up back at the plateau. yeah, no, he'd done the right thing. he wondered if clover would say anything about it when she heard the news. he figured she would. 

bitch.

he nodded to raven, looking a little frazzled but certainly relieved. yeah, he returned, stepping back from bat only to duck down and use his nose to scoop her body to hang over his neck like a scarf, i'll do that, thanks, rave. for real. thanks. shifting -- because despite bat's small size, tegan was not the bulkiest wolf in the world -- the blackthorn yearling gave a gentle huff and word of goodbye to raven before he began trotting off towards his most recent excuse for a den to put the sleepy bat. she was safe now.