Winter had hit the pack full force, it already seemed as if fall was far in the past and spring seemed so far in the future. It happened to Minka every winter, the first snowfall made her speculate in the beauty of nature and the awe on children's faces when they saw their first snow. Then weeks bleed on, day after day, snowfall after snowfall and quickly the novelty wears off and the Lagina woman longs for summer months again. Winter was easily her least favourite season and sometimes she wondered about looking for a place farther south where she had heard there was no snow. Still, she would day dream about the warmer weather and adventures far away but she knew her life was here, and she was happy where she was, even if that meant dealing with the harshness of winter.

Truly she knew she had nothing to complain about, their numbers were strong as they entered the winter and it seemed that it wouldn't be as deadly as the last. It was Black Thorn Downs' first winter as a pack and they were pulling through with relative ease, at least for now. When Inali's call echoed across their territory Minka had been in the middle of teaching her cubs a necessary survival skill; creating a den in the snow. After the last winter with so many disappearances the mother had been paranoid and had been doing her best to fill her children's head with knowledge of what to do if they got lost. So today she had taken @Kova and @Noble into the surrounding fields and taught them how to create dens out of ice and snow. She had shown them how to dig with the ice instead of try to fight against it and to make sure they always had an air hole so they wouldn't accidently suffocate.

Looking up from her place within the drifts the tawny ears cocked towards the sound and her head tilted slightly to the right. Ushering the pups back within the territory the best she could it took much longer than she would have wanted to answer her friends call. Still chuckling at the thought of Kova and Noble racing to see who could finish their den first she finally entered the clearing where their den was located. As soon as Minka's golden eyes fell on her friend's form the laughter died in her throat, Inali never paced unless something was wrong. Stopping in her tracks she did her best to hold her voice steady, "Inali?" The very thought of what could have gone wrong could nearly stop the alpha's heart, had something happened to one of her subordinates?