Whitefish River and the bargain must be made

she slips into memories again, and then the question that makes its appearance in growing frequency since that night on the mountains. why do you deserve to live? she had nothing to her name save mistakes and failures; she'd lost those she'd only just begun to love more fiercely than she'd thought possible, their father, too, who she was beginning to finally allow herself to grow close too. had it been one day, or three, in which she'd failed so thoroughly as a mother as to lose her entire family? 

footsteps on the bank, and she's torn away from those thoughts. her gaze finds the shape of another wolf, distorted through the reeds, having missed entirely the first disturbance. she chuffs softly before straightening, extending the top of her head above the reeds to see him more clearly.