Discomfort had reached the reddish child in the form of severe hunger. She had napped for a considerable amount of time before being roused by the feeling of emptiness that could only mean she hadn’t fed in some time. Piper – being the only girl – was the cutest of her siblings, so it was obvious she should have been closest to their mother’s teat for optimal milk reception. The opposite was true on that day. Piper had been scooted a few inches further from her brothers than she had been before falling asleep. She could not see or hear them, but every so often she had waved a wild limb and struck either Wyatt or Lucas. All in the name of a full stomach.
 
Opening her mouth, the young pup began to mewl for someone to assist her in being fed. Blindly, the firecracker scrambled about in the same four inches of space before she struck one of her siblings in the butt with her nose. Surprised at the feeling, Piper attempted to move toward them again and found that there was a roadblock. Another mewl, this time out of frustration, and the whelp began to nurse against one of her siblings’ rear paws, growing increasingly frustrated with the lack of milk.

Life was already cruel, as the further she inched from her mother’s side, the colder it became. Piper squawked once or twice and then whimpered. Everything just had to be so dark; but darkness was all that she had ever known. Everything felt so looming. The rusty little girl piped up once more before she stopped her squeaking and moving and stretched her stubby limbs out in front of her body, splaying her rear legs behind her in a similar fashion. Piper was tired… she didn’t want to move any more, and she was cold, and hungry, and – GOD – the world just sucked so badly. When she thought it could not get any worse, a cold wet nose pressed into her small frame and nudged her (rude) in the direction of its choosing. Her silent state was broken by a high-pitched yip that echoed through their mother’s den. First of all, how dare you, she seemed to say.

Piper was fixing herself to be a trouble maker. Already, she had begun to worry her aunt with her small cries and fragile limbs that circled endlessly in an attempt to move somewhere away from where she was. If she were stronger, she would have possibly just jetted herself outside of the den and into the valley to accept her fate with the wilds. It would have been a fitting end to the fiery young thing. She was fortunate, though, that she was surrounded by love and devotion. Of course, the Redleaf girl was far too young to know it, but she would grow to realize the astounding support that had been granted to her in the form of Indra and Laurel. Feeling the nudge from her aunt, Piper squawked loudly and shuddered in her place before she inched forward and found a moist foot once more. Her little mouth opened, and she began to suckle against Wyatt with a content sigh. The rusty little whelp was not even upset that his limbs weren’t producing milk for her. She was only pleased that she had returned to her nesting spot.