Heron Lake Plateau i'm winning so they had to dump the gatorade
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Ooc — Kat
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#1
All Welcome 
She hadn't actually spent much time near the plateau or with any of the Redhawks. Bat still needed to find Tegan too. She approached the borders from the surrounding wilderness, figuring she should give integration a proper college try. As this thought crossed her mind, she craned her neck to look up at the vast mesa and noticed a red hawk circling. Did they have a pack mascot? "Cool."

A movement much closer by caused the youth's attention to drop. She saw a black figure approaching, orange eyes boring hard into her. Bat instinctively lowered herself, huge ears flicking to the side and tail going limp.

"You're... Rory?" the unfamiliar she-wolf guessed. There was something extremely odd about her voice.

"Yeah, that's me," the juvenile replied, head cocking curiously.

But the stoic looking wolf did not offer a name in turn. She said nothing for a long moment, clearly thinking before speaking again. "Do you know Ceara?" She waited for Bat's nod, then added, "You're a scout and you've been spending a lot of time exploring the surrounding areas." The youngster nodded again, mouth opening to ask how the stranger knew all this about her, only to clap shut as she continued. "Have you seen her while you've been out and about?"

This time, Bat went still, taking her own moment to think. "No," she said eventually. She blinked, still a little perplexed about the stranger's identity and the interrogation. "Why, is she missing or something?"

Instead of answering her, the swarthy she-wolf tipped back her head and howled for @Tegan.
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here the dumb bitch came. 

tegan was in the area doing fuckass shit (napping) when towhee called. fuck, he wanted to be napping so hard rn. SO BADLY. but fine, duty calls-- tegan did say he wanted to start being held accountable... is that what he said? damn he couldn't remember. he just wanted his word to count, is all. maybe this was part of that.

he stumbled a little bit of the way, struggling to properly wake himself up, but by the time he arrived he was upright and alert-- save for a quick yawn, which his jaws parted wildly for after he head butted towhee in greeting. his mouth snapped shut and he did a lil shake. okay, down to business. "sup, tow-- hey rory," he added, nodding to his apprentice with a wave of his tail. and then he waited to be told 'sup.
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Ooc — Kat
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Bat drew in a breath as they waited in mutual silence for Tegan to arrive. It was hell'a awkward, though she did her best to play it cool. Her attention wandered hither and thither, once or twice lifting skyward to watch the hawk as it continued circling overhead.

"I'm Towhee, by the way," that peculiar voice eventually said, causing the youth's attention to drop to her face.

"Oh—"

And then Tegan appeared, casually greeting Towhee. His mere presence greatly relieved the young wolf. Her tail swept the air near the ground as she shot him a grin. She wanted to step forward and greet him more enthusiastically, yet Towhee's presence made her hesitate. And then Bat and Tegan both were looking expectantly at the dark she-wolf.

"Would you two mind sweeping the nearby territories, see if you can find Ceara? She was injured not long ago, now she's missing, and it's doing me a concern." She gave Tegan a thin-lipped smile. -I figured you and your little girlfriend might appreciate a mission,- she signed, a teasing look on her face as she side-eyed Bat.

The youth's lips parted at the weird gestures Towhee made. Bat had no idea what to make of them, though she quickly recovered herself and said, "Yeah, sure, I'm down!" before looking to Tegan.
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tegan nodded along with mild concern for his aunt, gaze lowered as the gears in his still-sleepy brain began to turn. he didn't make any words until he caught sight of towhee signing. and then his face lit up with surprise and agitation -watch yourself-- i do don't that corny shit. don't put thoughts into her head, either.- his brow furrowed, but his lips were still generally traced with a smirk. hell yeah, bitches, was the connotation that it provided.

"yeah," tegan said with a wave of his tail, "bet-- any idea what direction we should head in first?" probably not, but it was a good question to start with. 

quietly, taking a quick look off into the surrounding territory, tegan muttered, "i'm sure she's alright, ceara can handle herself." he hoped. the comment was left unsaid.
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Now Tegan was moving his limbs strangely. Bat stared dumbly at the unspoken exchange, unaware that they were speaking to one another. She had an inkling that they were communicating, somehow, based on their body language and expressions. She was at a loss otherwise. She thought of asking but there was something intimidating about Towhee... and there was something much more pressing at hand.

"Not sure," Towhee admitted to answer Tegan's question. She paused. "How about this: I'll send X north, so why don't you two try to the south?" Right after she spoke, she peered upward and made a strange noise in her throat.

Bat's eyes grew rounder and wider as the hawk suddenly swooped down and landed a few feet away. "Whoa! Is that—?" She was speechless as her silver eyes fixed on Towhee.

The she-wolf made a few more of those inexplicable motions and there was a rush of air as the hawk took wing again. "That was X," Towhee confirmed, tone bone dry.

Bat had so many questions! "That's so cool," she began, then abruptly remembered herself. Towhee had, in her mysterious way, sent X the hawk to scout northward. That meant she and Tegan should begin heading south, pronto.

"Wait, what sort of injuries does Ceara have?" the aspiring scout couldn't help but wonder. Bat was curious in general, though she knew this information might prove crucial in the search (and rescue?).
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tegan noticed bat's confusion and had the decency to fill her in. "we're talking shit about you, don't worry about it," he said with a playful smirk, and then focused back to the task at hand.

X swooped, bat flipped shit, and tegan and towhee were unbothered. it was a regular occurrence, no need to get your panties in a twist. well, he supposed it was kinda alarming and exciting at first. "yeah, that's smart," tegan commented, and at bat's question, looked expectantly at towhee. he didn't know the answer lmao.
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Towhee patiently described the natures of Ceara's injuries, then added, "It's called ptero. Tegan can tell you all about it on your mission, I'm sure." And with that, a dip of her snout and a parting flick of her tail, Towhee was gone, moving on further along the borderline.

Finally stepping closer to Tegan, Bat playfully cuffed him on the shoulder. "Were you really talking shit about me? What the heck's ptero?"
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towhee left, and tegan nodded as she did do. aight, time to fuck shit up. 

"absolutely," said tegan, who began to move forwards after bat cuffed him. better not to lie to the girl, he thought. hah. "towhee is deaf-- which is why she sounds like she's chokin on-- uh, choking," he began to explain, saving the crude reference for himself, "ptero is just how we communicate with her, cause sometimes she doesn't read mouths too well." easy stuff.

"if you stay here long enough you'll learn some of it," he told her. and then, with a small smile, tegan added, "my name is tegan-- tegan." he signed the words as he said them, and then motioned to her, still signing while he spoke, "my name is bat-- bat." 

"we'll have to come up with a motion for rory, i doubt towhee has one already."
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The information about the sign language and Towhee's deafness fascinated Bat. She had so many questions! Fortunately, Tegan answered a couple of them, even the ones that hadn't occurred to her, like why she talked so funny.

"Wait, so, she can't hear? Like, at all? But how...?" She reflected back on the conversation, flabbergasted by Towhee's ability to converse despite her disability. Then Tegan distracted her with some signing. When he said her old name out loud, she looked sharply in the direction Towhee had gone, afraid she might have—oh, wait...

Sucking in a flustered breath, Bat kicked out a leg to get Tegan to stop moving. She was having some sensory overload here. "How's that even, like, possible? That's..." Clearly, it was possible, and Bat was deeply impressed. She shook her head as if in disbelief. "And the hawk...!? X?" She didn't even know what to say about that. It was so... beyond.

But she really needed to focus. Giving her head a sound shake and blinking several times, Bat began to move again, trailing south, parallel to the plateau. "So what do you think's up with Ceara?"
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tegan almost stumbled over bat's stuck out foot. "aye," he warned, shaking out his fur to recover from his almost embarrassment. he stared at her as she processed information that he truthfully didn't think was that profound, and then shrugged. "it's always been like this," he told her, then his brow furrowed, "the hawk is some whackass shit but, X is cool. helpful." loyal. all them things. 

and then they continued, and tegan shrugged again. "hopefully nothing-- ceara is my aunt," he replied, filling her in on some quick, important intel, "she might've just gotten tired somewhere and have been resting-- we'll see." 
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Tegan didn't seem to think much of Towhee's sign language or her hawk, though his very words explained why: "It's always been like this." Perhaps one day, Bat would see these things as everyday too. She would go around making words with her forelegs like it ain't no thang. But until then, she would marvel.

He seemed pretty hopeful that nothing in particular had befallen his Aunt Ceara. "Ceara can handle herself," he'd said. Bat weighed these words and his more present ones, then nodded. She hoped they'd find the she-wolf who so resembled her very own mother, unharmed somewhere, maybe lost but nothing worse.

"Ayy," she murmured in agreement, echoing Tegan's own word from a moment ago, albeit in a very different context. Bat then fell silent as the plateau dropped off behind them and they began scouting properly to the south.