Northstar Vale But try as I might,

Hit by a feeling she knew all too well, Viskani decided it was time to retreat to her den. Months of waiting, but now it was finally time to see if she had gotten lucky. A daughter, that was all she needed. Aching and already tense in preparation for the skin-peeling pain she knew would come, the Matriarche lowered into her carefully crafted nest.

Over the course of what was far too many hours for her to count, two puppies were born to her. The first had been a boy, stillborn and gone cold far too quickly. There was no time to mourn him now. These things happened, it was simply nature taking its course.

When the second came along it was not the sex she noticed first, a daughter after all this time; Instead it was the state of the back left leg: it appeared twisted, wrong. A brow furrowed as she stared down at the little thing, she was unsure of how to feel. In the mother pack a puppy like this would have been ate without hesitation, but glancing over at the first born, dead before he had the chance to take his first breath, something stopped her. The living child was imperfect, but it was still her baby.

Releasing a careful breath, she turned the little thing onto their back. A girl; a swell of joy grew in her throat. Chandra, ma petite. The name slipped from her tongue so easily, set in stone long before the little girl had ever been born. Licking her clean and pulling her close, Viskani decided it was best not to worry about the leg. Not right now.