Everyone in the pack seemed to be having different reactions to one of their yearlings going missing. The majority seemed worried and doing their best to find her at least, though there was a minority that seemed indifferent or borderline happy. The Valle child swung very far in the other direction and felt as if her sense of purpose was yanked out from under her, gone just as quickly as she had found it. Torianna had just begun giving her sparring lessons only weeks before her disappearance, and the older wolf was good at fighting.

It filled Hera with a deep sense of unease. If her fighting instructor could be taken at a moment's notice, what chance did she have to survive out there in the world? In response she had been hanging out closer to home than she typically had, memories of her own trip away from her family turning sinister and dark the more she ruminated on them. How many moments had she been seconds away from being stolen away forever? Had something been lurking behind her, following her pawsteps, waiting for her to let her guard down so she could be snatched?

The outside world seemed deeply scary now, and she had to force herself to cross the borders in short bursts to keep the panic at bay. She could work through this, and nobody needed to know. She stood just feet away on the other side of their markers, counting in her head, one, two, three. At 100 she could go back, she could be done.

Suddenly a deep cracking sound broke her concentration, the earth trembling beneath her - or maybe that was just her knees threatening to give out under her weight. What was that? The fear crept up her throat, making it hard to swallow.