At first, she thought it was the sound of an elk as it died. The high, piercing, and screeching tone lifted into the sky and stopped Sagacity in her tracks; for a moment, she was content to hear the sound- it meant that somewhere, a pack of wolves had taken down an elk, and it was a sign that prey was returning to Relic Lore...But after a few moments, the tone changed; for a fleeting moment it became the skree of a bald eagle, or the sound of tree branches being scraped together. But once the pitch lowered slightly, it became the howl of a wolf- a pitiful, horrid howl- but a howl nonetheless and just before the sound stopped completely, it became recognizable. It was weak and ill, but she knew that voice- that voice belonged to her son.

The silver dagger fled through the forest, dodging the sticks and brambles of dried bushes and branches, breath catching in her throat as she leapt over a fallen log. It had to have been her son- there was no denying it. He sounded sick and feeble, but it was him. The closer she got to the borders, the more sure she was- she could smell Evann and Karpos, but with them she knew she could smell her son- and Aponi. They'd come back.

She called out- a loud, albeit short and nearly breathless shout to alert the others in the area. If they'd mistaken her son's call for that of a dying elk, there was no way they would doubt now. She burst through a thicket that was too high for her to jump and shook the dead leaves and twigs from the fur surrounding her face as she finally caught sight of them- Karpos and Evann, both looking exhausted, and the limp, bedragged and painfully thin bodies of Mercy and Aponi. For a moment, she thought she was looking at nothing but corpses and in her pent up grief and frustration she snarled and snapped at both Karpos and Evann to warn them away from the bodies of her son and the girl she considered to be no less than a daughter. She was still growling- more than in anxiety than anything- as she stepped over the two starving youths, and exhaled deeply when she saw that both were still breathing. It pained Sagacity to see them as nothing more than skin, fur and bones, when they should have been blossoming into yearlings. "Find food, now," She said to Evann, though she noted the bit of meat next to Mercy. Neither pup was terribly responsive, but just when she was about to assume they were both unconscious, she saw her son's tongue flick out over his lips.

"Mercy, my Crowchild," She said, as she settled down onto the ground beside him, directly between him and Aponi so that both could share in her warmth. "Aponi, my princess," She said, and smoothed her tongue over Aponi's ears. She wanted nothing more than to hold them both close and to have them nurse from her like they were both pups again. "Karpos; find Naira and Mapplethorpe." She said. She would stay with the starving youths until they were brought food and their parents. For @Couth she called out with a long, loud howl, knowing he was the pack's medic, and he might have some way to revive the pups, to give them a bit of energy or vitamins. It might require the efforts of the entire pack in order to restore life to both pups, but she demanded it. She called out to the entire pack, beckoning them to come with food, anything to help save their princess and their crowchild.

Evann's hesitance sent a spike of electricity through Sagacity's spine and she moved forward brusquely to take the female's place. Had she hesitated a moment longer, or had Mercy and Aponi been in better condition, she would have lashed out at the woman for not heeding her word immediately. There was no way the girl could think that Sagacity would ever, possibly harm the two young ones- one was her own son and the other may as well have been her daughter. She glared and continued to snarl at Evann, whom she intended to punish later for keeping her from her son a moment longer. She'd been disobedient before, and had made some ground in the meantime, but this was unacceptable. Evann had made her way back onto Sagacity's blacklist, and she would not ever dare to do such a thing, so long as Sagacity could help it.

She settled down between the two near-yearlings, and was pleased to see them both react to the warmth of her body. She'd been running and with the fast pace of her heart, her body temperature was warm enough to offer them both a bit of a respite from the cold. Aponi showed signs of being conscious for a moment, but she seemed to relax back into a slumber- willingly so, though, when she realized she was safe. Mercy too struggled for a moment and seemed not to see her- not, at least, until after he had laid his eyes on Aponi for long enough to make sure she was there and that she was alive. His eyes, bleary and tired, held hers for a moment before he laid his head back down again and released the same, relieved sigh that Aponi had, not only moments ago. She wrapped her tail around Aponi and smoothed the hair atop her coarsened head, pulling both young, starving pups closer to her, promising herself that she would never let them wander off again.