Water whirled and rushed around her body and, shaking and stiff, she seemed to sink into the shifting mud beneath her body. Was this life was to end? In a violent storm from which she couldn't escape on her own? She'd only ever known these mossy woods and the hidden ravine where the river ran deep and fast. She'd only ever known the pack that was her father's and her blood relatives. Quil was young, but she was old enough to recognize that there was a bigger world out there to be found─one that she knew she would never see.

When all hope had flowly faded, washed away by the murky currents that seemed to swallow the forest whole, the figure of a stranger emerged from the storm's shadows and the slanted curtain of rain. A low whine thrummed in the girl's throat as she shivered helplessly. Instinct told her this wolf was a danger, but rationality spoke that this was, truly, her only hope. Immediately her amber eyes, wide with fear, fixed upon the dark furred male, and as he neared her another figure came into view. As unfamiliar as the tawny man was, too, the rain hadn't completely washed the scents of her mother and father from his slick fur. She breathed in the faint trace, able to procure a hint of comfort from it, before being hoisted from what would have been her own watery grave.

What came to follow was a blur. Seemingly safe in the care of one of her pack, the Attaya girl tried to push the feel of the cold and rain as it slipped down her trembling body far away. Memories of sunshine and mother's warmth rolled through her mind; Cinder's soft fur; Mace's suave smile; Rowan's earthy scent; father's stunning silver eyes. A lurch of pain and terror shot through her chest and her stomach knotted up. Her eyes opened wide once more, looking out into the chaos but seeing the life she should have, and would have had. Would everyone be alright? What was more─would her family make it out alive, or would they be swept away like she almost had been?

The sharp call of her name tore her back to reality. Maksim. The child looked around, hanging from her tawny savior's mouth, for the guardian. Others had gathered, many of them faces she'd never seen before and none of them members of her family.

She'd grown knowing and loving the rapids and this place─now, they were washing her world away. Finally overcome by the shock of it all, Quil slipped away into the safety of her own mind helplessly, her eyes watching thoughtlessly as the scene around her and the words of Maksim began to fade into numbness.

She heard her name called out distantly – the thrum of heavy rain seemed to drown out the noise, but there it had been. The little princess looked up, her eyes narrowing as she attempted to peer through the rain as it pounded the forest. She had not wandered far from the den – she had not thought she had wandered far, and yet as she peered around, she could find nothing familiar. Whether it was the dark clouds, or the hammering rain that fell from the sky like heavy bullets, she did not know.


She could hear voices, distantly, it seemed. Panic began to arise in her chest as water pushed past her paws.. water that had not been pooling about her only moments before. The scent of fear rose within the air, filling her lungs with desperation. Her eyes darted then, seeking out Kade, Ava.. any familiar face that could promise comfort. There was none.


Swallowing this, she pressed her worry aside, now rising to her full height and loping in the direction of the hollering voices. They were not all familiar, but had she heard her sister’s name? The simple thought of seeing Quil’s face was what propelled her forward with more determination, and as she slipped and slid, hardly able to maintain grasp upon the grounds that had been her home for five months now, the girl moved almost blindly.


She found the group – her eyes blinking rapidly as she looked over them. They moved fast, and as she came to them from the side, her gaze caught upon Quil’s and that was when she lost all sense and false bravo – “Quil!!” The shrill shriek escaped her, and under normal circumstances she would have been embarrassed by such tone, as princesses did not scream, yet she could not consider anything else now except pushing past the others until she was at her dark sister’s side, her smaller frame pushed in to her, her eyes gazing up at her with unspoken fear.