Redhawk Caldera Leave your name, number and nightmare at the tone.

Towhee twitched awake, the last vestiges of a nightmare circling the drain and vanishing into the either. With a great big yawn, she pushed herself upright, then stood on legs wobbly from sleep. She padded over to a corner of the cave to relieve herself, then returned to the pile of warm bodies. Only one of the bodies wasn't so warm at all.

The child blinked, then poked at Oriole's limp form. The lack of movement and warmth made Towhee instinctively recoil. Her lips peeled back from her teeth, a growl bubbling to her lips. The black and white fur on her shoulders prickled as she glared at her brother's corpse, unaware that her ferocious little snarls were filling the cave like an echo chamber.

Nothing was going right. Nothing was working.

Finley had kept them within the main cavern, hiding in the dark as the hours, days, passed. She wanted to flee, but the only sure exit was blocked. She wanted to stay still and stay safe, but the food wouldn't last much longer. She wanted to scratch and tear and smash and break her way out the front door, even it if it killed her. But the snow and the ice simply would not budge. Unless Spring came upon them in the next few days, there was no hope of getting out the way they had come in.

Not that Finley had accepted that fact yet. But, soon enough.

The alpha listened to her goddaughter's footsteps as they moved away from the main puppy bundle. A recent deposit of pre-chewed meat onto the floor for the pups to share had left a lining of foam on her lips, which she licked up now as she listened to them all squirming about. She kept Towhee on her radar, but still her mind cursed for about the 457th time the fact that this had happened during the ONE TIME Raven had left the cave for an extended length. That was some shit.  This was all shit. They had come so far and endured so much... Was this really necessary?

She heard Towhee's movements cease and frowned as the sound of little growls took residence instead. She blinked into the dark in concerned bewilderment. What was there to be angry with trapped inside of the cave withthem? Finley reached to nose each of her charges who were making tentative nibbles at the regurgitated meat. Had Towhee been less of a distraction, she might have realized that she'd bumped the same pup twice and so was actually missing one more. But no, Finley was unaware as she stood and walked towards the little black and orange pup, chuffing gently.

Her muzzle bumped Towhee's rump first. She ran her nose along the pup's back until she reached the base of her neck, planting a few soothing kisses there before exploring further. There was a scent that tickled her nostrils that her mind would not accept. Her nose knew. Her senses knew. Her heart was likely perfectly aware as well, but it wasn't until she bumped against the cold, still body of her little Mumble that her brain began to translate from what every other piece of her was saying.

Oriole was dead.

Finley moaned in the darkness as the terrible, crushing realization began to engulf her.

This cave thing was really starting to get a little old.

Lagan couldn't wait to get out of the stupid dark hole. He promised himself he'd never go in another cave again. Not even to sleep. He'd decided that caves were the absolute worst, and if he had he power to do so he would physically demolish every cave in existence. Caves were dark, scary, and being stuck in one meant very little food and no light. He was constantly wide eyed, trying to see. He promised himself that he'd never take seeing for granted ever again, because boy did he miss it. 

It seemed to be just another day in the cave, Lagan was sleeping next to Eljay and taking a break from his little siblings. As much as he loved them and wanted to be there for them, they were also pretty tiring.  Constantly playing on top of him and such, so it was nice to nap with someone who didn't try and eat his feet and wiener *cough cough Teehee*. But his nap was interrupted by a soft whining sound, a sad sound. Lagan hated sadness, so he had to get up and investigate. He stood slowly and looked around the cave to the best of his ability, and saw his mom, crying.

Mommy why are you crying? He said with a yawn, walking over to her and rubbing into her pelt. That's when he looked down and saw the limp body of Oriole. His wagging tail dropped like a rock, and tears came to his eyes. He hadn't gotten to play with Oriole as much as he had the other firebirds, but he still loved him just the same. And now he was gone. How many of his family members would die this stupid winter? He pressed himself into his mom's side, sniffling in his tears. 

I'm sorry mommy. He whimpered sadly, sinking into his mom's fur.

Finley's touch surprised Towhee into silence. She turned her head to peer questioningly at her godmother, then shifted her blue eyes back to Oriole's body. There was a sense of utter wrongness that made her hackles prickle uncomfortably. She didn't hear Finley's moan, nor notice as the Alpha female began to break down right beside her, at least not until Lagan approached.

Towhee looked up to watch as the lookalike pair sank against one another. The mere sight of the Omicron made the little girl want to play, though their dejected faces gave her pause. She turned to more fully face the adults, eyes flicking over their mouths, though she noticed her godmother's wasn't moving much.

Dread crept over her, the sensation unfamiliar to Towhee. Seeking to comfort and be comforted, she reared onto her hind paws, her front feet braced against Finley's shoulder. She thrust her tiny snout questioningly into her godmother's face before placing a gentle lick at the corner of the woman's eye. She tasted salt.

Finley felt the touches of her goddaughter and her son as they tried to comfort her. She heard Lagan's words touching her ears. She felt as though these sensations were far away, as though coming at her though a tunnel. They were muted, dull, incomprehensible. Her vision was perhaps sharper than it ever had been though as she stared, unblinking at little Mumble's body.

A rush of anger surged through her suddenly, splitting apart the sorrow like the parting of the Red Sea. Her lips peeled back as she began to growl, her eyes lifting finally to stare ahead at the caved in entrance. Her limbs were trembling. She was like a dragster, waiting at the starting line, revving its engine with a furious snarl of the engine that echoed her own voice.

That was the only warning Finley gave to her family of the crazy thing she was about to do. She sprang forward down the tunnel suddenly, running at top speed and flinging herself violently against the wall of ice and snow. A shard of ice sliced against her shoulder and she banged her cheek just beneath her eye hard into the wall, but was ignorant of the pain or even the scent of the blood that spilled from both wounds. She tore at he wall with wild abandon, though it had never done her any good the attempts she'd made before, though it tore at the pads of her feet and made her starving muscles scream with hurt.

They had to get out of there.

She had to get her family out of there.

Fuck everything else.

Raven slept fitfully, curled tightly into a ball near the cave's snowed-in entrance. She whimpered and twitched as nightmares afflicted her, then woke with a muffled yelp when she heard a loud thump! She blinked owlishly, head twisting to take in her surroundings and orient herself. She couldn't decide whether the noise had happened in her dream, in the real world or both.

Suddenly, there was the unmistakable sound of scratching. "Uncle El!" Raven screamed, throwing herself at the halfway excavated tunnel they had been digging in the snow. She didn't even turn around to see if @Elwood, @Liffey or @Aaron (or any other outsiders I forgot) were close by. She just began digging frantically, angling toward the scraping coming from somewhere beneath the dreaded white wall.

Though the weather had grown warmer, Liffey didn't feel as though she would ever rid her bones of this frigid ache. She shivered in her little dugout in the snow as she stared out across the territory in silence. Fear and heartache gripped her, more completely than she'd felt ever before in her life. Her eternal optimism had suffered blow after blow by this weather, and now this had been the worst of all, likely because this was the one that had ripped her twin from her side for the first time in her life. She felt like only half of herself without him, and because of this, for once she truly did fear that she might never again see her loved ones. Maybe she had never been optimistic on her own at all. Maybe it had always been his she'd felt.

In the midst of this introspection, Raven's voice cried out for Elwood. Liffey picked up her head in alarm, peering over at her cousin as she stood and began to attack the wall. The girl stood, shaking her coat before trotting swiftly over, panic tightening in her chest.

"What's going on?" she asked fearfully, looking at the wall. Had it fallen in more? Were they screaming inside? Or worse - had the infinitesimal amount of sound they could hear her family making inside ceased? She couldn't hear anything over the sound of the medic's efforts, but still she trusted her cousin enough to be moved to action. Liffey swallowed hard and began to dig alongside Raven.

Raven's scream drew Elwood from around the curve of the mountainside, where he had been searching for another way into the cavern. He knew there were plenty of entrances and exits, but the problem was locating them beneath the layers of snow. In addition, he didn't want to stray too far from Raven and Liffey, for fear that something else would happened to his already-splintered family.

He found Raven and Liffey churning at the powder relentlessly. Judging by their behavior, something had happened -- and before questioning their motives, the Alpha male simply began to dig alongside her. He was rewarded with the sound of scratching from inside the buried cavern, and his spirits soared. Those trapped inside were alive, and they were closer than ever to breaking them out.

Lagan was surprised when his mother suddenly stood and rushed towards the wall, but he didn't question her. He knew what she was doing, and like her, he wanted out more than anything. He bent down and nudged little Towhee, hoping that that might give her some comfort though he knew she probably didn't even comprehend that her brother was dead. After that he stood and trotted sadly towards the snow wall, and stood beside his mom.

He looked at her sideways, with a sad expression on his chubby face. He'd never seen her so crazy before, he only wished he could start this day over, and somehow stop Oriole from dying. But he knew he couldn't, so all he could do was help her. With a heavy heart, the small silver boy began digging at the dirty snow pile, his small black claws cutting rivets in its surface. Outside the cave he could hear voices, his other family members were helping. Surely they could break out, with everyone's help. Surely they could.

Feel free to PP Sasquatch and skip me if necessary. ^^

In the midst of their grief-stricken milieu, the Redhawks and the Blackthorns had made the collective decision to break down their winter barrier as a unit and Sassafras would have hated to be found far behind. With a grimace of determination the DeMonte-Sarensu stepped alongside Finley and Lagan, gave a supportive nudge of her cold nose to each, and began to carve out her own contributing fissure in the compacted ice and snow.

She hardly doubted that they could escape, but even as she worked she knew their attempt wasn’t altogether safe. It was a far better alternative to waiting for the spring thaw, however, and if it meant being crushed beneath an unstable slab, she knew it was pretty much her duty in order to save the rest of the young lives she was meant to provide for and protect. It was a grim thought, but life in the Caldera had ensured she was no stranger to occasionally unattractive thinking.

She dug, and she dug, and she dug. She paused intermittently to fling herself hard at the wall yet again, determined to break the damn thing down even if she broke her own body doing it. Fin barely noticed Sassafras and Lagan coming to help. She moved to make room for them almost subconsciously. In Finley's mind, it was just her and the wall, and the world it was keeping her from outside.

The alpha should have noticed the sounds coming from the other side. There were six pairs of paws digging now instead of just hers, but she could hardly tell the difference. There were cracks, and stumbles, little grunts pitiful whines as they all worked to tear the mound of snow to pieces. Each sound of cracking spurred Finley on. Each little shift of snow and fall of a rock made her pump her muscles harder. She was so manic about the endeavor that she didn't even notice as the air inside the cave began to grow ever so slightly brighter as the sun outside glowed on thinner and thinner a wall.

When Finley began to growl, Towhee couldn't hear it, though she could feel it vibrating through her own small body. She instinctively dropped down and backed away, ears flattening as she stared fearfully at her godmother's snarling face. She struggled to comprehend what she had done to make Finley so angry, though her wrath didn't seem to be directed at the child. Instead, Finley turned toward the wall of snow—where the light had once poured into the underground crypt—and abruptly charged it. Towhee squeaked minutely, feeling a small shudder ripple through the cave as the she-wolf made impact with the barrier.

Towhee crept further backward, staying out of the way and crowding with her other siblings—Oriole conspicuously missing—against a far wall, curious and afraid in equal measures as the adults scrambled toward the wall of white and began furiously digging at it. Occasionally, the Alpha female would fling herself bodily against it and Towhee felt the subtle quaking in the soles of her feet as the great mound of snow began to shift. She also saw the air brightening ever so gradually. The entire scene was so impromptu and confusing that her young mind was having trouble making sense of it all, though even little Towhee could suddenly taste freedom.

She didn't stop to answer Liffey's question. Spurred on by the thumping and scratching coming from below, Raven just kept digging, ignoring the fatigue in her muscles and refusing to stop even when they began to cramp then seize. She would be sore for days after this but what did it matter? This might literally be the difference between life or death for the puppies, there was no way she was going to slow down unless her body absolutely failed her.

Before that could happen—and it was a lot closer than the Gamma might have suspected, after the preceding days of stress, grief and exertion—there was a shift beneath her feet. Raven didn't even have a chance to try scrambling backward, she immediately tumbled forward into the opening that suddenly gave way beneath her. Her body smacked roughly against something hard and ice cold, knocking the wind out of her, and when Raven's mouth opened in a desperate gasp, it was filled with the snow that collapsed in on top of her.

Shortly after they'd begun, the party expanded once more as Elwood came to join in the digging. Liffey shuffled to make room for him, but didn't stop her efforts. Raven's fervor was contagious and soon enough, though she didn't know what was motivating this burst of energy, the girl was digging with just as much desperation.

They had done this before - multiple times. Every day they worked on chipping away at the wall, bit by bit. It had never seemed to do much of anything, even though the logical part of Liffey's mind knew that it had. Her paws and her arms ached from scraping at the snow, but she kept at it. Something seemed to be moving, and suddenly the girl could hear what it was that had ignited this fire in Raven. The others were digging too. The wall had thinned enough for her to hear them.

Liffey dug harder until it finally it happened. The snow began to collapse in on itself as the wall came down before them. Unlike Raven, Liffey was able to leap backwards out of the way before tumbling head on into the cave. She barely paused however before reaching forward again, her eyes searching as she called, "Mom!!"

With so many wolves digging at once, their paws plowing into the half-melted snow, their progress was much quicker than Elwood anticipated. He slowed down and backed off a bit, stepping away to judge how much they had accomplished, when Raven suddenly disappeared from view. The powder shifted around her and Elwood briefly felt alarm, until he realized she had fallen into the cave.

Liffey dodged the mini-avalanche and then surged forward, calling out for her mother as she moved into the cavern. Elwood followed her swiftly, stepping over the collapsed wall of snow. His gaze swept over those gathered near the cleared entrance: Finley, Sassafras, and Lagan were all there, and beyond them were Eljay and the puppies -- all alive and well. "Thank goodness," he breathed, feeling almost numb with relief.

Lagan kept digging, and digging, and didn't stop until the snow begun to collapse into a heap, but collapsed enough so that Lagan could see real light again. And not the faint damp light that his dilated pupils conjured up. Real light, and to his eyes so used to darkness, he had to squint to see anything other than white. But soon he saw figures, wolves, rushing in to him and his family. It was his papa, and his twin. How good it was to see them again, his beloved family.

Papa! He shouted, rushing forwards, not minding all the snow that still drifted from the entrance. He leaped practically into his dad, smothering Elwood with nuzzles and affectionate kisses. He'd missed him so much. Liffey had run to their mother, and after seeing his dad Lagan ran to the female Blackthorns to hug them as well. They'd done it, broken the wall and freed themselves. Hey where's Raven? He asked, wondering where the baby firebird's older sister was. They really needed her, and Lagan had missed her a lot too.

It fell.

Finley gasped as the wall crumbled and sunlight poured into the cave. Everything seemed to happen in slow motion then - the snow spilling past her paws, wolves rushing past, voices crying out. The alpha saw it all as if from far away as she fell the the ground right along with the wall.

There was a rushing sound in her ears as everything happened, but she paid little attention to it. There was a sob in her throat when freedom finally came, and though she had no idea who was near or what was happening, she tiredly voiced a command to whoever would listen - which damn well had better be every one of them. "The puppies," she cried, "Feed them. Get them. The puppies."

Oriole is dead.

She could hear the muffled cries of reunion, pealing like bells in her head as Raven struggled to catch her breath and simultaneously reorient herself. Fortunately, she managed to right herself and push up onto all fours, causing the snow to cascade off her. She broke through with a gasp, then attempted to leap clear of the powdery pile. It took a few tries to fully escape the mound of snow, though soon she was shaking the dust off her pelt and squinting around the familiar space of the cavern.

"The puppies," she heard her godmother cry and Raven steeled her jaw as she tried to locate them in the darkness. "I'm here!" she called out to them, stepping off to the left to avoid the snow still slowly cascading into the cave. She wanted to wait for them to come to her, yet the caretaker couldn't wait; she moved until she found the gaggle of youngsters, nosing each of them in turn and flopping down to provide both food and comfort.

But as the pups swarmed toward her underside, Raven felt wave of panic when she counted only four. "Where's To—Oriole?" she shouted, nearly mistaking Towhee for her "twin" brother even as she frantically cast her electric yellow eyes around the cave.

A startled gasp escaped her when a great heap of snow cascaded into the cave, letting in the cool winter sunlight for the first time in days. Towhee squinted automatically, watching as several lupine silhouettes tumbled into view. She felt a lightness in her chest when her eyes adjusted and she could make out her loved ones' features. She hadn't really realized she'd been missing them this entire time. A little whimper clawed up her throat as she began to pad in their direction.

But then Raven rushed over to where Towhee and her siblings were gathered, motioning for them to feed. She was like a sailor lured by a siren song; there was no such thing as resistance. When the Gamma flopped down to the cold cave floor, Towhee sank down beside her, nosing her way along Raven's underside until she latched onto a teat. She ignored the continued hustle and bustle on every side.

Warm milk flooded her mouth even as a sense of comfort washed over her, from the tops of her ineffectual ears to the tip of her tail. Without any audio input, it was easy for her to ignore the continued hullabaloo and Towhee succumbed to the much-needed nourishment and consolation, eyes fluttering shut as she curled tightly against the wet nurse and drank deeply.

As Lagan hit him like a battering ram, Elwood pulled his son close to him. His family had endured so much over the last few months, and this separation had only reminded him just how dear they were to him. There was a flurry of movement around him, shouts and hugs from all sides, but time seemed to slow down. Elwood watched as if from a distance, at least until Raven began feeding the puppies and asked after Oriole.

His paws moved him towards Finley even as he looked at the babies clustered at Raven's stomach, counting them once, twice, three times. There were only four. He pressed himself against his mate, enjoying a brief moment of intimacy before giving her a questioning glance. Had they lost another one?

Just one post for Orca!

She wasn't sure what happened, but all of a sudden there was a breath of fresh air and a whole lot of commotion around her. Orca blinked up at Elwood and the others that had just entered the shelter. She looked at them sleepily until she smelled and saw Raven, and then, when her big sister positioned herself on the ground, she took to her paws and beelined towards her.

The hungry pup began feeding greedily, filling her belly until she felt like she would pop. She then promptly fell asleep, oblivious to the bittersweet reunion going on around her.

Everything got chaotic after the wall came down. Liffey moved to rush forward, but there were already so many gathering in the small entrance, she was forced to hold back and peer over shoulders and around legs. Her eyes were looking for Finley and she gasped when she saw her crumpled on the floor with snow and something red upon her pelt. Blood, Liffey realized in a second and in the next, she was squeezing in to get to the alpha.

At Finley's side, Liffey began to worry her mother with prods and licks and endless whining. There was snow all over her, but she was doing little to free herself of it and so Liffey began to brush the snow and ice away. Her father came forward and Liffey looked at him with fearful eyes. So much was happening, but the girl cared little about anything but the blood she saw smeared across Finley's gray fur. "Daddy, mom's hurt!" Liffey barked without looking to see where he was or what he was doing. She reached to begin cleaning the blood away, her heart hammering still.

The sound of her packmates reuniting was muffled inside of her head. It took a few seconds for her to become aware of anything more than the fact that Oriole was dead. Then it was the fact that Liffey was there, whimpering and nudging and crying for help. Everything came to her then and Finley finally began to help herself. She lifted her head and looked around to see everyone moving around her. Most important to Fin was Raven in the back with the puppies racing to her side. She felt a short-lived relief fall upon her.

"Liffey, shh..." Fin said tiredly, reaching to nudge her daughter away, "I'm okay.. It's okay." She stood into Elwood's embrace and searched for his eyes, but instead they found Oriole again. Her expression fell to emptiness and she moved as if in slow motion, standing and sweeping past them all as grief reclaimed her and everyone else disappeared. She slid down onto her belly and pulled her little Mumble's cold body up against her chest. She tucked her muzzle over him protectively, her eyes falling closed.

djskndks shadowposted

There was so much movement, wild footsteps and crying around him. Lagan hated it, he wanted everything to be fine. They'd broken the wall hadn't they? Why were things still going wrong? He was looking around for Raven, knowing how much they needed her. He saw her emerge from the snow and he ran to her side. He was so glad to see her, he wanted to give her a big hug as well, when he heard his mom's voice again, strained as if in pain. He turned his head away from his cousin, now desperately seeking out his mother and leaving Raven to start feeding the kids.

When he finally found his mom, she was covered in snow, and wet blood. His eyes widened, as worry began to flood his mind. He couldn't lose both Oriole and his mom in the same day, not after they'd finally regained their freedom. He scrambled to her side at lightning speed, Liffey was already there. He glanced at his twin for a moment, the look on his face said enough about how scared he was. He started to help her by licking away the blood that stained her grey fur, but she began to move on her own.

She stood to find Elwood, embracing him and the small dead puppy. Lagan trotted towards them and snuggled up next to them too, and for the first time in a long time he began to cry. He cried not only because his time trapped on the dreadful cave had come to an end, but also because Oriole's life had too.

Towhee was nearly asleep when she felt a great shudder pass through Raven's body. Her eyes slowly opened, rolling upward in the direction of the Gamma's face. She did not hear the quiet cry that tumbled from her older sister's lips when she saw Finley clutching Oriole's limp body. But she certainly saw the tears glistening in her yellow eyes and felt the sobs that caused her flank to twitch and jerk spasmodically. It was enough to cause the pup to release her grip; there was no way she could sleep or even hold down her lunch with all that shaking.

Still deaf and largely oblivious to the emotional hullabaloo all around her, Towhee shut her eyes again, curled into a milk-satiated ball and fell fast asleep.