Silvertip Mountain Light of a clear blue morning

His heart just about burst when she started sliding down the ice, and Day fixed her with a steely glare that lasted about a second before a reluctant smile split his maw. Still, he picked himself off the ice and moved a little closer, putting himself between Adeline and the downward slope. She could pout all she wanted, too, but he wasn't going to be playing 'slide of the mountain' with her until she had all four of her legs back underneath her.

"Winter with a pack is... well, the weather gets cold, see - I'm sure you knew that. Snow falls and don't stop for days sometimes. My old pack used to dig right into the snowdrifts and sleep together in a big den of ice. The outside is cold, but on the inside, we were all warm and happy.

"Food gets harder to come by, but there's usually something to eat. The littler prey goes underground, but big animals like elk and bison are always around. Sometimes they come to you, and sometimes you follow them - but whatever you hunt, you hunt as a pack. Eat as a pack."

A misty, nostalgic look came into the gray wolf's eyes. "I was born in the winter, you know - me and my brother and sister. We used to play in the snow all day long, and then at night we would go back to the ice den to hear my uncle Canyon tell stories. It was a good time - I never felt closer to my family than in that winter," he sighed, the words happier now than they might've been before Addie, before Amber. "But the next winter, I spent alone," he went on, shooting Addie a quick, surveying look. "Are you sure you want to hear about that? It's not a nice story."