Heron Lake Plateau so long

His legs were already kinda tired today, but when he heard the familiar voice rise above the trees Owen pricked his ers and gamely trotted toward it. It didn't matter if his feet grew sore or threatened to fall off if he kept making them walk places (the horror!)—this was much more important. @Phoebe still seemed to have more energy than her brother today, and the boy increased his pace a little as he glimpsed her galloping off into the brush ahead of him, but with a weary little wagging of his tail like a flag of surrender Owen figured this was one race he was just going to have to lose.

He didn't see any of his sisters among the wolves that had gathered, however, as he trotted within sight, so maybe Phoebe had gotten distracted by a shiny rock or a tempting stick or a squirrel along the way, who knew. Owen didn't fret about it too much as he threaded his way over to the one who'd summoned him. Eljay! The youngster managed to summon up some real enthusiasm when he saw his old puppysitter, for all that it had already been a long day. Where've you been? I haven't seen you in ages! Not wanting to seem rude, Owen also nodded a quick but silent greeting to Cinder before the young boy went to wrap an affectionate paw around Eljay's nearest forelimb for a moment. You wouldn't believe all the hijinks these dumb sisters keep getting up to, Owen added, since none of the girls nor any Overly-Responsible Supervising Adults were around to hear, while he also wondered if Eljay was coming back to keep a closer eye on them all again—if maybe Eljay might even have been himself straight-up summoned to do so, possibly? Owen could't think of anything too terrible he'd been up to of late that would necessitate a recalling of a puppysitter to be keeping a sharper eye on him, but who knew... and he also didn't know the full list of what any of the girls might have been getting up to, either.