Duskfire Glacier This broken jaw of our lost kingdoms.

Hope you don't mind me joining in, too :o

Four days had passed since Malachi had stepped up as leader of the Glacier pack. Four long and trying days. It took him his all not to focus his worries on Tuwawi and Njal, and not to worry that the lynx would return and strike the dwindled family that remained. But still the anxiety came, not while he tended to the pack by day, but when he settled into fitful sleeps at night. The youth felt at his breaking point, but he couldn't afford to let his weariness take him, not with a pack now delicately placed within his paws.

Sleep had come, but not long enough. Now, in the faint glow of the rising sun, he roamed the lower steps of their Glacial home, in search of peace or stillness or something more than the worry he couldn't shake. The dawn air wove icy spikes through his skin and only served to warn him of the winter that quickly approached. He pushed along and prayed a silent prayer the Sveijarns would return to them before the snow set in - not just one, but all who had been lost.

The youth emerged through the sparse trees to find himself on the edge of a stretching field. He prepared to turn away, but silhouettes on the near horizon caught his eyes - and he let loose a staggered breath. With a sudden burst he sprang forward until he drew up to where his packmates gathered, ears shooting forward at Danica's exclamation. Njal! Elation rushed through the youth, but he found himself rendered speechless in disbelief, not entirely certain if this was really happening. Njal's cutting figure stood crumbled in frailty, and he stood alone - save for the skull of a cat at his paws. Trepidation pricked the youth's paws, but he drew up in silence to stand beside Danica and pricked his ears to listen, trying not to expect the worst.