Ankyra Sound Once you had a hook and ladder up into the headless night

Raleska's ears turned towards the nameless cub as it mewled; almost mindlessly, she repositioned both of the babes where they could be both comfortable and easily seen. It was more than a week since their birth, and still, she could not bring herself to love them -- but at least she had not yet left them behind.

Her gaze instinctively listened as she heard the crunch of scree underfoot. Sugar's outline cut through the Grotto's tunnel, various herbs held in her jaws. Raleska owed a great deal to these wolves -- she was immensely lucky -- but still, she felt bitterness knife her. Would it have been better if she had just been left alone to die?

She nodded quietly at Sugar Glider's query, realizing if the healer had shared her name she forgot. "Yes. I forgot your name." Her tone was slightly stuffy, slightly ashamed -- for Raleska hated feeling or looking stupid. "Thank you for.." Her voice hitched; "everything. You and everyone else."

Cue everyone else - or, specifically Kaertok. Raleska was tormented by her feelings on the matter. On the one hand, he had left her and left her again (and now he was leaving her again) -- on the other, her life was uniquely balanced on his shoulders and she was not unaware of that.

If she was not so proud, she might have begged Kaertok to stay. Aokkatti or not, his life was implicitly bound to hers -- but Raleska could not endure the grief that would be him rejecting her after she debased herself enough to beg. And so, stupidly, her mouth remained clamped shut from cajoling ministrations. Her brow darkened at the prospect of him going somewhere else: if she ever needed him again, who knew if he would come?

"Goodbye." Her tone was bitterly sad. Not even Raleska, ice queen extraordinaire, could hide the fact that she was a living, breathing thing full of emotion and hurt. Her tone softened as she reiterated: "Good luck."