Bearclaw Valley Like a rushing waterfall

Nanook remained in tunnel vision, blind to the nailing rain and the storm of feelings tossed about between the bigger wolves. Her pressing concern was staying upright, and seeing anything past the constant stream of water that blurred her newly found vision. Her toes grew mucky and numb from the cold, and violent shivers contorted her tiny nerves, but the little warrior trudged on. Every few seconds she flicked her gaze from the ground to search for Xan, and soon she couldn't even see him anymore, just a tiny blur against the darkening world. But he was still walking, and that was the mantra that kept her walking, too.

But then she wasn't walking anymore, and her bladder zinged. A trickle of warmth ran down her leg before she registered the grip secured around her back, and Nanook rolled her eyes to meet the face of whoever had scooped her from the ground. Dark fur of a lady she vaguely recognized, but the older wolf couldn't hold her attention. Nanook shot her attention back to where Xan had been walking, only to be met by sodden ground and a bundle of white dangling from papa's jaws. A shiver wracked her body and shook the smug grin from her face, but knowing that Xan didn't walk, either, calmed the rise in her.

Walking through the storm had stirred something new in Nanook, but now that a gentle grip secured her, she didn't struggle to be placed on the ground again, especially now that Xan was being carried, too. With every step the dark woman took, Nanook swayed in a gentle rhythm until her eyelids drooped and a buzz filled her body from her paws to her nose. Numb and dirty, Nanook was only half-conscious when the dark woman placed her in the nook of mama's stomach. The warmth of her siblings swarmed around her, and the strong smell of food, but Nanook could stay awake only long enough to nestle against one of her sisters before exhaustion slurred her into a restless sleep.