Blackfeather Woods meet me on the battlefield, even on the darkest night

Perhaps she should have learned from the last time sleeping outside the den but she had been alone before, her parents gone from the den. This time, they were a few feet away tucked somewhere nearby that she’d originally felt safe when she plopped down on the ground for a few hours. She’d fallen into a deep sleep, as she often does, and tunes out her surroundings easily so she can get through without much disturbance. Heavy eyelids and twitchy limbs until she wakes up a little while later.

Until a firm nose touches her back and nudging her an inch or two across the dirt.

Qilaq twists and jerks to attention with a gasp that takes her breath away. Sucked into her throat, she struggles to release it while her eyes travel up the dark male that is most definitely not her mother and instead someone she doesn’t even recognize it. Her exposure to other wolves has been minimal since she’d come in and it hasn’t been until recently that her health had picked back up enough to resume her puppyhood. The little, dark puppy lowers to the ground and curls herself into a ball until she can remember how to breath properly again.