Blacktail Deer Plateau with heavy heart

Saena managed a tight-lipped smile. If she could've met her mother, she would have urged her to wait. Saena and Pura were nothing very special to waste a life on, and Pied's presence in their lives might have done wonders for their psyches, but it was simply impossible to understand her mother's reasons for going ahead anyway. Saena was only a teenager whose primary concerns were herself and those who were presently living; nothing, not even the desire for children, would have made her go hastily into a decision that could cost her her life, or so she believed.

"I can do that," Saena assured Blue Willow. She wasn't much of a Caretaker, and didn't have great bedside manner, but she would do anything required of her by the pack's Beta female. Not only was it her hierarchical duty, but this was the one wolf who had remained constant in Saena's life. The girl shifted in the snow, her eyes snagging once more on her aunt's distended tummy, before tucking her snout into the crook of one of her own elbows.

"Do you think I can come see them... y'know, when they're born?" Her voice faltered at the end, for she knew as well as any wolf that a whelping mother was far more aggressive than was ordinary, but she just had to ask. It was a momentous occasion that Saena wanted to be a part of, even if it was only a teensy, eensy little part.