Blackfeather Woods come lay your bones on the alabaster stones

two daughters - one dark as she was, one tawny grey. she loved them fiercely in a manner she did not think possible, and in the early glow of the morning watched them closely as they inhaled, exhaled, suckled at her stomach. her concentration was fierce and yet not entirely motivated by love. she knew sharply that only a distance away sat twin piles of feces and worms, the stench growing, twisting its way into the sanctity of the whelping den. and yet she'd lost any hope that sanctity could exist here. it took one look at the woman who cooed and fussed over the pestilence to remind her starkly that the Blackfeather she hoped would come out of the new ranks was little more than a fantasy. 

"This is Hell, of course." 

foolish to think it was the wolves that made it that way. Potema had warned her all those months ago, and yet the woman had returned, and brought with her two lived untouched by the world. it was this place, she was convinced, that lay heavy like a blight upon the Wilds, and it broke to pieces all those that settled here, or else otherwise sharpened them and twisted them into something terrible. 

the woman shifted, uncomfortable. she had not left her pups since Maegi had birthed her pestilence and taken her vigil on the edge of the Glen, and her coat lacked its sheen, matted with dust and earth. she could not allow the twisted wood to make its way into the minds and hearts of her children - she would protect them, in that she was resolute.