Porcupine Ridge nature's motion pictures presents

Someone was above her. She could barely hear who it was, but she could feel the hold of the snow loosening as her packmate shoveled back the snow against her struggling. After about half a minute more of squirming, Diane popped out of the snow, covered in slushy white and as wide-eyed as the first time a child gets bowled over by an ocean wave. She looked absolutely enthralled, her fur standing on end— coated in shining flakes— her legs splayed and tongue lolling as she gulped in the air she had been momentarily deprived of. "Jhala!" she cried, coming to her senses enough to finally zero in on who had freed her. "Oh gosh, Jhala, you have to come see this!" she trilled, completely forgetting that she had just been trapped and the thanks she should have given the Beta.

Instead, she turned swiftly, dashing for the base of the trail that would lead them back up to The Hole. "Come! Come, hurry!" she laughed breathlessly, clamoring back up the ledge, hopefully with Jhala on her heels. Upon reaching the desired cliff, Diane slowed, coming up more carefully on the spot she had fallen through, testing the ground first with a tentative paw before stepping fully up on the platform. Because she had broken the seal of the opening, it was now a gaping hole with a sloping lane of snow that resembled a lumpy slide. A few passes down it and it would be completely smoothed. "Scared?" she grinned at her partner, before ducking and crawling headlong into the opening.

The snow shifted and she slid down fast. It was a more controlled descent this time— no flips or strangled grappling involved. She laughed all the way to the bottom, crashing into the mound of snow she'd been buried in just minutes ago. "You have to try it Jhala!" she called, hoping to see the she-wolf slide down any moment now.