Heron Lake Plateau This is our second opportunity to escape our sins and start over.

There was a cave behind Tegan's Tears which made for an awesome retreat in the middle of a hot patrol. Towhee scoured most of the borders before splashing through the wall of water and plopping down on the cool, slick stone. She stared at the curtain of water, back-lit by the May sunshine, and wondered at the vibrations she could feel against her belly. It reminded her of thunder. Was the waterfall loud, like a storm?

When she felt sufficiently cooled, the Beta ducked back through the water, out into the daylight once more. She stood by the edge of the pool, enjoying the spray, and decided to simply hang out here and wait until sunset so that she could do an evening patrol.

ATTN: @Screech. :)

Screech had wanted to find Raven and talk to her about some stuff, but as soon as he started to hunt her down, his paws took him away from her scent rather than towards it; before long he was closer to the descending plateau in the lower reaches of the territory, and gave up all hope of finding the Alpha when the sound of the falls began to fill his ears. Soon all he could hear was the white noise of the fast-moving water as it dumped from pleateau to plateau, which was exactly what he needed. Screech couldn't think very clearly with all the cacophony around him. He found a weird kind of solace in the noise, feeling the bass of the thundering water and easily deciding that he preferred the sound and sensation of it crashing around him.

But, as he was moving around one of the animal paths, he thought he saw a dark figure — or a trick of the light — some kind of silhouette moving around behind the falls that he had not anticipated. At first glance (fleeting though it was, and through one eye no less), he thought he'd somehow stumbled upon Raven. This gave him an opportunity to confront her about this Quixote business — blackmail not far from his mind — and he bee-lined for a path leading towards the darkness behind the falls, not realizing who he'd actually found there.

Time passed sluggishly, making her feel antsy. She hated that she couldn't just go, though Towhee knew she must be careful. Restlessly, she stood up and thrust herself through the falls again, letting the cold water pound her back and chase off some of the stir-craziness. She stood in the darkness for a few heartbeats, then repeated the movement—and found herself abruptly face-to-face with Screech.

Recoiling to avoid impact rather than because of any personal distaste, Towhee gracefully swerved to the side and hopped to a nearby rock, slipping somewhat before finding purchase. "Yo," she said from her mossy perch, head cocking as she blinked through the darkening air at her wayward brother, unaware that the churning, roiling water likely drowned out her simple greeting.

He didn't hear anything above the roar of the falls, but that didn't stop Screech from being an idiot and trying to shout his way through the noise himself; he was convinced that he'd spotted Raven and so he didn't hide much as he bellowed, HEY SO WE GOTTA TALK — THIS WHOLE PREGNANT THING IS NOT OKAY, LIKE, WHAT IF THEY FIND OUT WHO THE DAD IS — except as he came to the end of his pointless shouting, he realized he wasn't face-to-face with his older sister, but with the ex-Alpha and his lip-reading sibling Towhee. The look on his face spoke volumes: stupification first, then mortification, and then an absent staring as he realized who he'd been screaming at. OH, HI TOWHEE. I THOUGHT — NEVERMIND.

Between her own movements and the dark air, Towhee didn't catch any of her brother's hollering, save for the latter bit. "You thought?" she prompted. Having noticed his wide open mouth and exaggerated enunciation, she couldn't help but question, "Are you shouting?" It privately tickled her when she could make such observations, seeing as volume had literally no impact on her, which she thought to remind him: "You know that's, like, totally unnecessary, right?"

The heart-stopping, blood-chilling sensation that crept upon him could've been from the crashing of the falls, and the spray they tossed about; surely his silvered pelt had become a few shades darker since he'd snuck over here — but no, it was from the thought that Towhee would somehow understand what he'd said.

He was lucky though — despite not knowing what she said in return, she only looked at him like he was an idiot (which he was), and didn't do much else. Okay. Okay, this is... Fine. This isn't the end of the world. Her voice was almost entirely drowned out by the water gushing around them, but he managed to at least get the gist.

Maybe he should start over. So he tried again, this time with some pretty weak ptero (but at least that was one way to communicate): I thought you were R-A-V-E-N, he tried to sign. He didn't have to include how happy he was to find Towhee instead, because fuck he'd never been happier to have a deaf sibling until this very second.

Her head tilted at his response. "Ah... nope." Her white-streaked shoulders lifted and dropped in a shrug. "Nice ptero," she observed, eyes glowing like live coals as the darkness settled.

There was a pause before Towhee added, "You're welcome to go find her, if you're looking for her. I have to start a patrol soon anyway."

Oh, phew, okay. Everything was good. Clearly his luck was beginning to turn (lmao) - and maybe nobody would find out about the indescretion between siblings. He could only smile, awkwardly, quickly, as Towhee complimented his use of ptero and while he would reflect on that later, it was her quick dispersal that made him the happiest. Seemed like he caught her just prior to a patrol. Screech didn't really want to find Raven, suddenly. He didn't want to talk about the potential kid-nieces and nephew-spawn he might have seeded in his older sister. Can me run you? He ptero'd quickly, messing up a word right off the bat because he still wasn't up on the lingo,

While she waited for him to make a decision (and likely depart), Towhee bent down to lick some of the water from her coat. She started with her forelegs but quickly moved to her chest, then her belly. As she hiked a leg in the air for better access to its lower reaches, she noticed a strange lump... down there. She blinked and quickly slammed her leg down so Screech wouldn't see it, then squinted at him almost suspiciously.

His query perplexed her, distracting her quite effectively. "Um." -What?-

Fuck. He knew he must'a screwed something up. Syntax maybe. He probably flailed too much (but to be fair he didn't like the humid feeling of the waterfall around him and he didn't wanna lose balance, and whatever). He cleared his throat as if to correct himself verbally but then clued in, like a dumbass, and just redid his comment: Can I join you? But by the look on her face, she didn't seem interested in company - which was fine too.

He tried again, this time getting the sign right, more or less. Towhee pursed her lips, the nodded. Before she said anything, she resumed all fours and sprang down from her rocky perch onto the grass. She forced thoughts of the lump she'd discovered to the furthest corner of her mind and kept her tail low just to be extra sure Screech couldn't detect it.

"Yeah," she said simply in delayed response. "Come on." She broke into a jog, curving around the plateau's nearest corner to begin winding northward.

Although she seemed distracted (or less than enthusiastic) Screech didn't take it personally (for once). He watched her athleticism with some jealousy, but didn't mention it as he joined her [madsh] and soon the two Redhawks were off to survey their home for threats. Maybe Screech should've been doing this stuff from the start, but it hadn't felt worthwhile until right now. It was good to get his blood pumping and to put some distance between himself and that roaring waterfall; soon enough his coat would be dry and his muscles sore, but at the very least the plateau would be safe, the two of them watching it like a pair of hawks.