Dead Empress Backwater hope you got the letter

RE - Rosemary, you slipped and fell into a frozen creek!

It was cold and getting colder, and Rosemary wasn't sure how to feel about it. She found that she really enjoyed the snow, though, and when it was flurrying like it was today, she liked to go out and play in it. The snowfall wasn't heavy by any means, but it drifted through the trees and down past her muzzle and made for a very fun game of trying to catch them in her teeth.

It never worked, of course, but it was more about the game than the winning, anyway.

She was snapping her teeth at some of the flurries floating by and wasn't watching where she was putting her feet, which was a pretty big mistake. Her paws caught on an icy embankment and sent her slipping down the loose rocks, out onto a sheet of ice that covered this portion of the creek. For a moment, things were fine, and she thought she might be able to shuffle her way back to solid ground, but when she moved her paws, there was a cracking sound, and a half a second later, the ice gave way beneath her.

Fortunately, it was not an exceptionally deep part of the creek, just barely enough to submerge her, but it was cold, and once Rosemary popped back up a sharp, surprised yelp escaped her. From there, she managed to paddle enough to keep herself afloat, but her claws slipped on the ice when she tried to pull herself back up, and sent her bobbing back into the water.

With no other options, and starting to panic just a bit, Rosemary managed to get her paws up on the ice and keep her head up long enough to call out a chattery, shaky, "Help!!"

Kalysta stomped along, irritated more than usual today. She was so bored and she couldn't even go out and do the same things as the others. Not only because she was grounded, but because it wasn't safe. Her little stint outside hadn't done anything to reassure her father that she could take care of herself, either. It wasn't fair! She should be able to learn how to do all the things. She should be able to go out now. Hera was off her own grounding now, Kalysta thought, but here she was, still bearing her punishment.

Stupid.

She heard a clattering, then a crack, and a moment later a shaky shout. Kalysta stopped, ear twitching toward the sound. Was that a voice? She thought so. The pup turned and carefully made her way toward where the sound had come from, carefully putting her paws down before putting her full weight on them. She knew the ground would slope somewhere around here- yes, here it was. "Hello?" she called, carefully picking her way down the small embankment and stopping when her paws hit ice.

She knew better than to go out there.

from charming to alarming in seconds

The Valle yearling was primarily just lazing about, considering whether or not he could get away with helping himself to another snack from the cache. He wasn’t even particularly hungry, he just liked the idea of having more than his fair share. It felt like winning somehow, even if he was just doing it in secret, like he was better than everyone else and therefore needed more than them. That’s when he heard a strange creaking sound and then a crack.

It was intriguing enough for him to get to his feet and look towards where the sound had come from but not enough to propel him forward. Until he heard the weird sound that was unmistakingly someone calling for help. Now Khalon was not a particularly charitable wolf, but he knew better than to pretend he didn’t hear a pack member calling for assistance within the borders.

The scene he came on was not the worst, the creek was shallow there and only one of the children had gone through into the freezing water below. Groaning with the realization that the odds of him getting through this without getting wet were slim he begrudgingly approached the bank. Standing next to Kalysta he called, ”Can you touch?” But based on the panic that Rosemary was displaying he doubted he would get an answer so he took a step or two onto the ice, trying to figure out the best way to approach this.

It did not take long before she heard voices, which automatically made her feel better. It was good that she wasn't alone - took the edge off the initial panic. The water was cold and the ice was crumbling, but her head wasn't under the water, so... so that was good.

"H-hi," she chattered automatically, little tremors going through her entire body as the water seeped beneath her fur. She remembered to be polite, though. That was important, even under the circumstances, wasn't it?

Could she touch? It was kind of hard to feel her paws beneath the ice, but if she really focused, she could feel them brushing against the pebbly river bottom.

"Um, yes, a little bit," Rosemary answered, orange eyes widening as the older wolf stepped onto the ice as well. There was a girl her age, too, but she was further off. "W-wait! What... what if it br-breaks?" Panic spiked back up in her chest and she scrabbled at the ice again, fortunate enough that it didn't crumble under her paws.