Blacktail Deer Plateau backyard at night

The pups were nearly six weeks old and although summer wouldn't start officially for another month or more, the temperatures had been pleasantly warm lately. As the sun dipped low into the sky on this particular evening and the air darkened, the temperature remained comfortable. Fireflies began to wink in the woods, a few dozen of them wafting around the Alpha pair's den site.

The children were rowdy tonight, despite a large supper. Osprey Jr. was particularly noisy and willful. Realizing that attempting to put the kids to bed would only result in disaster, the three adults mutually agreed to try wearing them out instead. They started a game of tag in the clearing beyond the den, their shadows flitting back and forth amid the lazily drifting fireflies.

Eventually, some members of the party grew tired and relaxed on the sidelines. Osprey, still humming with energy, ran to the outer edges of the dooryard and began to snap at those insects dumb enough to hover this low to the ground. Of course, as soon as she caught one, Osprey nearly vomited from the awful taste in her mouth. She ran up to the nearest wolf and stuck out her tongue, which contained the last pulsing, glowing remnants of her poor victim.