Heron Lake Plateau Letting all the shadows free.

Towhee's teeth began to chatter as the icy cold water slipped up and over her shoulders. Perhaps more emphatically than was strictly necessary, she began to kick her feet, moving away from the shore and toward the little island she called The Roost. She hadn't been there since before her trip to the caldera, fearing she wouldn't be able to make the swim with her bum leg. But as she glided through the water, she found it was really no problem. She swore she could even feel the tingling cold in that limb, though it wasn't long before everything was more or less numb.

She clambered onto the little archipelago, relief and triumph mingling. Quickly, Towhee shook the frigid moisture from her coat, then padded into the trees. She came to rest beside Orca's grave. After taking ten minutes to lick herself even dryer, Towhee slumped onto her belly and began to doze, happy to be home (and worn out from a patrol just prior to her swim).

She woke to a cold raindrop on the bridge of her muzzle. Judging by how stiff she felt, she'd been asleep for hours. Groaning, Towhee stretched and rose onto all fours. She stood there, blinking the sleep from her eyes and idly observing the dark October sky, when her orange gaze suddenly dropped to her left hind leg. The instant she realized she was putting weight on it, it began to quake wildly. Towhee eased off it. The feeling that shot through her when she realized she could sense the shift in weight was indescribable.

Tywyll had really meant to say hello to Towhee when she got back, he had heard about her being hurt and was really worried. He really did have the intention to check in just....he was scared of seeing his big sister hurt. His only experience with injury had been his own and he had almost died. What if Towhee was dying? So he hadn't checked in and he pushed her to the back of his mind.


Today he caught her scent and realised she was up and moving and began to follow it. It took forever because he wasn't used to tracking yet and every single scent distracted him. When he finally did arrive, it took him another good few minutes to process why her scent disappeared at the shoreline of the lake. Did she drown? After a moment of panicking he spotted the little island thing a swimming distance across just in time to see Towhee stand up and stretch. He paced back and forth and barked excitedly before jumping in. Big mistake. He had never swam before. For a few long moments he thrashed and began to sink, before he figured out how to kick his legs together to move forward. With obvious struggle he slowly made it toward land.


Heaving himself up he flopped over, gasping and wheezing before looking up at Towhee with a comical and cute expression of shock "That was scary! How do fish do it?" he said between gasps before his tail started wagging and he rolled into an upright position. "Towhee, is your leg any better?" he asked. He had missed her placing weight on it during his struggle not to drown.

She dropped suddenly into a sit, her whole skeleton having turned to jelly. Even while she reposed upon her sister's grave, Towhee remained oblivious to her little brother's struggle close by. She kept staring down at her leg in disbelief that was quickly metamorphosing into a feeling of pure joy. This was a very, very good sign.

Towhee jumped (and yelped) in surprise when a dripping wet Tywyll suddenly flopped at her feet. It took a moment to coax her heart down from her throat into its usual position. By the time she recovered, he had rolled over and sat up a little, allowing her to read his lips. His question took her by surprise, if only because his abrupt appearance and waterlogged state was momentarily worrying.

But Tywyll appeared fine now, so after a blink, Towhee replied, "It's improving." She felt another blast of hope shoot from the tip of her nose to the tip of her tail she couldn't suppress a smile. "I was just able to put some weight on it, actually."