Totoka River You just don't know it yet,

With the birth of her children inching closer by the day, Hokulani felt a pit in her stomach growing - and it wasn't puppies this time, but worries.

The coast was still quiet, and growing colder by the day. She could see her breath in the freezing ocean air. It was abnormal for children to be born before winter passed, and she realized now that this was why. Hokulani herself had been born in the middle of the season, but where she grew up it was warm enough to keep her healthy. What about the pups she was about to have?

Laying in the grass, her claws gripped at it almost obsessively as various scenarios ran through her mind. What if they got sick? What if one walked into the freezing water? What if she couldn't keep them fed? What if, what if what if, what if,

Safe to say the 'what ifs' weren't ending any time soon.

Hokulani bit her lip. She wanted to do things the right way, give birth next to the ocean, but she just wasn't sure if it was worth the risk. There was a lot she was willing to put at stake; relationships, other's lives, her own life, but these pups were different.

She wanted them to live, she needed them to live. They were her's, and they were her. She would have to decide what was more important; her ambitions, or her legacy.