Bearclaw Valley Play with me, I wanna go find you

One minute, mama's warmth surrounded them. The next, the warmth disappeared, and Nanook cracked open one eye in time to see the white shape of her mother leave the den.

No one to watch them now.

A smile twitched across her maw. Easing herself to stand, Nanook tiptoed around her sleeping siblings, breaking into a trot once she cleared their napping place. She eyed the strange pup as she passed him and gave him a hard stare. When mama wasn't watching, someone else was. With one final look, she pulled her gaze away from Leo and set it on the far wall of the den. Her stomach fluttered as she neared the branching tunnels - off limits when mama was watching. But as she began to slink around the bend, a familiar voice echoed through the den, and she would have ignored him if she had not heard him say her name.

Nanook scowled at her missed opportunity, but turned in time to see her siblings stir. Her eyes dashed across their movements, but it was Xan's prompt obedience that made something rise in her. Mystery tunnels could wait: Nanook brought herself around and chased after her kin, slowing only when she neared Sesi. She was the last, and Nanook nosed her sister as a beckon to join them. Then she was off again, and disappearing through the tunnel she'd seen mama pass through earlier. Nanook burst into the outside world and slowed at the sudden rush of daylight. She narrowed her eyes to shield them from the brightness and blinked in an effort to adjust.

The others gathered a few paces off, and once the daylight became her norm, Nanook trotted to join them. Though her gaze roamed over her siblings, she settled her attention on papa and approached him slower than before. For a fleeting second she thought of raising her voice to rival the cries of Leo and Desna, but then her eyes fell on quiet Xan, and she remembered the day the river had swelled. She hadn't made a noise, and the adults hadn't helped her then. But they had given her something better. They let her walk when her sisters were carried - she'd walked, as Xan had walked. So Nanook stayed quiet now and turned her bright eyes to papa. Maybe being silent would bring her that satisfaction again.