Broken Boulder half-dead

Ioa had been slowing down for some time. Her mother was dead, as were all three of her new baby siblings… Her father had chased her away from their territory. She was alone—alone and starving and now near death. Unfortunately, her time spent with her natal pack had been mostly used for storytelling and keeping the peace between members. She’d never learned to hunt properly, her other siblings taking that job. With the arrival of new pups, however, her siblings had left and she had elected to stay behind to care for the new generation, which would free up her father and mother for hunting. Or it would have. If her mother had not died giving birth.

Ioa had watched as her tiny infant siblings had slowly starved to death, and it had driven her mad. She had internalized the pain, contemplated suicide, and then her father, overcome with his own grief, had chased her away. Now here she was, having smelled the borders of a new pack, far from home and half-dead. Wanting to die but still clinging to life, she collapsed at the boundary line, too weak to howl so anyone would know she was there…

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