Redhawk Caldera Than lying at the sharp end of this knife

With a savage growl, Niamh startled awake, lunging to a crouched position with her teeth bared. When she slept, she slept very heavily and could be difficult to awaken without risking some sort of injury. No one was within reach, fortunately, and she sheathed her teeth as soon as she realized that she was no longer in a sunny, flowery field with an entire deer carcass to herself. No, she was awake, and the winds- and apparently her step-daughter- were howling outside. She grunted softly, but she wouldn't keep Fennec waiting; Bronco and Alyx both were within reach of death's doorstep, and were both in Fennec's care so she stepped outside, squinting against the glare of sunlight on snow. 

-"Fennec! What's wrong?"- She called out, forgetting in that moment that she needn't sign. She wasn't completely awake yet, and there was stress in her tone; she'd had some trouble getting to sleep (unusual for her) as she worried for Alyx and Bronco, and still felt there might be some possibility that something could go wrong. She knew the keen danger of infection all too well- and was terrified it might steal one of her loved ones away again.