Karina was five weeks old now, and she would proudly tell any adult who listened (as long as he wasn’t a stranger) that she had seen one whole moon. It was an important age; she was now allowed to roam the territory around her family’s little den as long as she was in eyesight of one of her packmates. Though adults told her in the beginning how she had been afraid to venture from the den, she couldn’t ever remember a time when she preferred the dark and the stagnant air to the beauty of the open sky. The pup trotted along a familiar path, smelling her favorite flowers and dirt spots and occasionally barking at a passing insect. She was having so much fun that it was easy to forget that she had an escort, always trailing their princess unobtrusively-- a constant presence in her peripheral vision. Karina didn’t mind adults watching over her though, it made her feel safe. Secure. Carefree.

A deafening crack caused Karina to freeze in her tracks, her blue eyes roaming wildly for the source of the sound. A few more ear-splitting cracks followed, and the pup’s gaze finally landed on a giant, trembling cedar tree a few wolflengths away. The tree gave a lurch, and then it came rushing down toward her in an evil attempt to flatten her. Karina howled in terror and dashed away, running faster than she ever had in her entire life... even faster than when she was racing Orren or Aleksei. She had been warned about strangers, and badgers, and mountain cats, and poison mushrooms.. but how did the grown-ups forget to tell her about falling trees? Speaking of grown-ups, Karina looked over her shoulder for her escort, slowing her pace as she peered through the trees. There was no one following. She was alone. She slowed to a walk, taking in her unfamiliar surroundings through wide, frightened eyes. Was she even in Cut Rock River anymore? The little princess sat down and started to cry pitifully—it was the only way she knew how to solve such a difficult problem.

It was like magic; she cries, and the grown-up comes. Karina couldn’t even remember ever having a problem that crying didn’t solve. The grown-up whined sympathetically, and Karina stopped crying immediately to cooly survey the newcomer. She was a stranger, which under normal circumstances would terrify the pup (she had been warned about strangers) but today attack trees were much more of a concern than any strange wolf. Karina bolted for the crawling female, cuddling herself up between her forelegs directly under her chin. There. This was remotely safe, should another tree decide to come for her. ”Look owt for twees,” she warned. ”They’we evil.” She typically spoke with a clarity that was accelerated for her age, but fear had her slipping into a more babyish dialect. She began to tremble all over as she thought once more about the attack tree. It had been so sudden.

The stranger—Falcon—started asking her questions, but Karina was distracted by a familiar smell that had enveloped her since she crawled into the woman’s embrace. The smell may have been familiar, but it wasn’t comforting… it was a smell she was supposed to fear, she knew that much. Badger, Karina placed it at last. Falcon smelled just like that swatch of badger fur that her family had brought her during that last lesson about the dangers of the forest. She had been warned about badgers. The pup darted out from under Falcon’s chin, stopping just out of reach to turn around, a suspicious expression on her face. ”Awe you a badger?” Falcon looked like a wolf to her, but what did she know? She had never actually seen a badger. She backed up a few more steps, refusing to take her eye off the badger but wanting to get away as quickly as possible.

Karina’s nose wrinkled as she was deciding if she could trust this stranger to her word, but the flattery won out in the end. Her stance relaxed, and she panted as she received the praise. ”It’s better than Owwen an’ Lekki’s!” she boasted, excited that she could do at least one thing—smelling-- better than her littermates. Falcon’s appeal to her pride had worked. She took a step closer, wagging her entire rear end along with her tail. ”I’m Kaweena Bawanski. I’m one moon!” The Cut Rock River princess had taken to informing every wolf she came across of her age, and it was a rare treat to find an adult that didn’t know the information already.

The little one’s brow furrowed when Falcon spoke of her parents. She had forgotten them in all the excitement. She hoped that they were okay.. and she also hoped she wasn’t in trouble. Never, never go off by yourself. It was a rule. Falcon clucked in disapproval, and for a moment Karina thought it was in response to her rule breaking before she realized that it was her parents being clucked. ”They’we fighting the twee!” she insisted in defense of her family. Come on, the evil tree! Didn’t she remember? They had just been over it! Adults could be astonishingly forgetful. They were constantly reminding her to be patient, but then they themselves always expected immediate results. Jeez, her family was fighting the attack tree, and they would get here when it was safe!

”I can,” she claimed when Falcon asked her if she could howl. If there was something she could do well, it was calling for adults! Karina joined in the call with high-pitched puppy whines, but her contribution was drowned out by Falcon’s beautiful howl. Karina carried on with vigor, imagining that the music was emerging solely from her. They didn’t have to call long—soon after they began, Karina heard someone very large crashing through the woods. There was only one wolf who made a sound like that when he moved. ”Daddy!” the pup cried happily as the largest, most powerful wolf in Cut Rock River emerged from the undergrowth. Before she could move from her seat he was looming over her, canines bared at the stranger.

She wasn’t afraid exactly—he was her father after all—but the expression that Maksim was wearing certainly wasn’t one of her favorites. She shrank in toward his chest, curled under his throat where she wouldn’t see his snarl. ”Falcon’s nice. She finded me. She said I sniffed good,” Karina told her father from her spot below his chin. Perhaps he had heard her, because the threatening rumbles in his throat stopped and he began sniffing her all over. She giggled as his snuffling nose roved across her body, tickling her as he checked her over for injury. His tongue flicked out in a sweet kiss, as she licked him back on his nose before he pulled away to address Falcon.

When he looked back at her, Karina thought it would be to admonish her for running off. She flattened her ears in guilt, and her bright blue eyes widened with worry. Instead he apologized, and Karina blinked in surprise. He started talking about beavers, and Karina wrinkled her nose in confusion. Tree? Beaver? She didn’t understand. Did beavers look just like ordinary trees, except when they attacked you? That must be it. It wasn’t an evil tree after all—it was something entirely different. A beaver! ”It attackted me! The beaver! The Bah-so-an-so! I thinked it got you and it chased me! Did you kill it?” The pup was babbling almost incoherently, and she only stopped when she ran out of breath. She gasped a few times, clearly having more to say but too wound up to actually get the words out. After a moment, she calmed enough to speak again.

”Falcon is a Cut Rock River wolf.” The phrase would probably confuse Falcon herself, as she was certainly a loner and in no way affiliated with their pack. Maksim would know what she meant, though. As long as she could remember, her father had worked to instil a sense of pride and identity in his pups. He often spoke to them of what a Cut Rock River wolf was—A Cut Rock River wolf is strong, a Cut Rock River wolf is loyal, she always does her best, tries her hardest.. She never gives up… If you do not fight, you cannot win. Her father would know that by calling Falcon a Cut Rock River wolf, Karina was paying her the highest compliment. It was her way of calling Falcon a hero.

Karina was spitting out questions and exclamations just as fast as she could think of them, and it was clear that she had been overstimulated by the recent series of events. Her father’s affectionate touch grounded her somewhat, and she fell silent as he explained the Beaver to her. The child’s cloudy blue eyes widened, especially at the part about eating trees. She had never tried eating a tree—they didn’t really smell that appealing, you know—but maybe she would give it a shot. Better yet, she would tell Orren about it, and he would try it for her! Once she described the Beaver to her brother she knew that curiosity would devour him until he had a chance to take a bite of tree.

Now that she had settled down, her head was starting to feel very heavy. She slid onto her belly with a soft thump as her father finished speaking to her. ”Towards home,” she repeated, closing her eyes just in time for her father’s tongue to swipe across her head. The pup blinked her eyes back open wearily as Falcon addressed her, clearly confused at being called a Cut Rock River wolf. Karina found that she didn’t have the energy to try to find the words to explain, so instead she looked up at Maksim for help. Thankfully her father took over for her, and Karina laid her head between her paws as the grown-ups talked. She let their voices drift over her head as her mind wandered; she simply didn’t have the energy or the attention to try to follow their conversation. Her gaze fell on the massive foreleg of her father, and she started nibbling around his ankle. Yum, yumm.. I’m a beaver!” Every now and then her ears flicked forward as her name was mentioned, but her attention remained on flea-biting her father’s leg.