Blacktail Deer Plateau Your journey has only begun

What started as a black dot soon grew larger and took on details, materializing into the familiar figure of her Uncle Peregrine. Soon enough, he joined her beneath the misshapen oak. Pied bowed her head as the Alpha situation himself alongside her, unable to tone down her smile. Unbelievably, it grew a little when he commented on it.

"I have a baby bump," she said simply, her paw still resting on her belly. "It just makes it all seem more—" Pied began to say when she saw something on the ground just beyond Peregrine. Her voice died in her throat.

Five little bodies lay sprawled just beyond his haunch. They appeared to be asleep but Pied knew, with certainty and dread, that they were dead. Several of them didn't look quite right. A thin cry began to crawl up her throat as her eyes fastened upon the dead puppies, wondering at the purpose of this vision. Her paw clenched over her bump. Were these her unborn children? Were her pups dead?

"No..." The word rasped out between dry, pinched lips. She'd forgotten all about Peregrine's presence right beside her, her eyes still fixed on the tiny, innocent corpses.