Heron Lake Plateau guiding light

Owen was feeling more and more miserable as he sat there shaking, but obediently though with drooped head got up on his feet and started moving again along with his sibs and Eljay. It did help...a little. Owen took a deep breath though and tried to reassure himself that Eljay too had said it didn't work like that, just as Owen himself had said although the younger boy thought the puppysitter more experienced and worldly and therefore rightly more confident in voicing such an opinion. Except that then a few minutes later Owen's ears pricked alertly as they heard Eljay asking Kite just what she'd meant, anyway... which meant that Owen couldn't trust that the puppysitter had known what he was talking about just before, after all. Crap! Really?! Owen's heart fluttered in his chest again with the revived wish to panic. ...On the plus side, this newly refound fear did warm him up a little more as it got his blood pumping.

What helped most though was when they all piled under the familiar overhang, out of the weather where their environment was less snowy and cold and all of them could huddle in a heap not too far away from walls of dirt and stone. Owen distracted himself again for a bit in busying himself making the warmest possible little nest in the far corner away from the open entry. It took him a second to remember the word Kite meant, anyway. Yeah, what if it is contagious? he blurted, turning big scared eyes on their sitter. Have you ever seen another pup who had Kite's shakies? Owen's eyes widened further, as his mind invented an even bigger potential disaster—Or even a grownup!

His heart was definitely pounding now, as he jerkily kicked an errant twig out of his way and curled gratefully up with his brethren. They seemed so deliciously warm and dry compared to him...Owen hesitated for a bit, but cuddled up close to Kite as well as Eljay, deeply hoping that his shivering form was going to reassure Kite more than it'd further scare her. And he did feel like his shaking was diminishing now, if still more slowly than he'd like. I'm glad you didn't fall in, he whispered to Kite with a nervous little hiccup of a giggle. Or else you'd be extra-super-duper shaky right now, wouldn't you! His concern for his smallest sister did not however extend itself so far that he wouldn't make sure she stayed firmly sandwiched in-between him and his other sisters as he tucked himself in. Especially Phoebe—Pheebs might have gotten distracted for right now and be chewing absentmindedly on Vasa's ear instead, but eventually she was bound to remember that mud glob again.