Firestone Hot Springs Typhoid and swans

Maybe if she was younger, and maybe if she had known what had happened to the Ridge, she would have smirked like a brat and rubbed in her mother's face Akhlut's failure. All she knew was that the wolf was an absent leader, and for that, Jinx had named him his mother's son. Cruelty had wormed its way into her once-compassionate soul and eaten into it like a cancer. It defined her now in a lot of ways. Maybe she blamed that on her mother, too.

Nanuq spoke, and it was with a fervour that momentarily stilled Jinx's burning hatred. The discomfort of being told it was the Gods' will made her focus waver to the rain that fell on them both, despite the warmth of the steam around them. It instilled curiosity. She wouldn't, couldn't, forgive her mother for what she had done, but Atka's name was enough to at least prevent her from further judgement. There had been times when Jinx had followed the seduction of Sos' power. For doing exactly what Jinx had done when she left Bon Dye, the Alpha could not blame her mother further.

But oh, she wanted to. "If She gave you all those things," the black-footed Kesuk began flatly, "then why would She take them from you, unless She deemed you unworthy?" That had to be it, she bitterly thought. Nanuq had failed in some way, and that was why Atka had taken her away. There could be no just cause for abandonment... And she was desperate to believe that. With little else to say, and no desire to further be proven wrong in all her assumptions (though she would never admit that she was wrong), she quietly added, "Kaskae holds the Bay now."