Oak Tree Bend the gentle roar

Going to skip @Mako to move this thread along. Since Quentin is no longer active, I think we can PP him as having helped Kino. P.S. Serach would not be a good lifeguard.

Yelling had been the wrong thing to do, he would reflect later. But in the moment, Serach cared next to little and none about Quentin's confusion or Sahalie's warning glance. He had the utmost faith in her, but there was no getting around the fact that this was an emergency and the courtesy of not wanting to crowd Spieden needed to be left by the wayside. There was no time to tell her that, not that he was stupid enough to try, as Spieden partially emerged from the muddy hole that had been her den. Within a moment, the leader was gone and Sahalie had one of the cubs in her mouth.

Careful to watch his step, Serach remained in the water as Sahalie hoisted Mako out. The pup was soaked, there was no denying that, but hopefully with the help of Kino and Quentin, they would be able to keep the boy dry until Spieden could get there. Emerging from the den, the mother herself was there with the second of her litter clenched tightly in her jaws. But wolves could not walk on water, and within a moment, she was falling. With a noise that was half growl and half yelp, Serach awkwardly lurched forward to try and catch her. Her face hit the water, however, and with it went Marina. Shit! he thought as he shoved his shoulder into Spieden's chest to push her back, grabbing her nap with his teeth just like was holding onto Marina's. Pulling upward and back, he tried to pull her up from the water.

If Spieden weren't so shocked by what had just happened, she might have had time to be humiliated. To think, a river-born wolf so easily thwarted in the shallows by a slimy rock! As it was, she sputtered and snorted, clinging to her dear child's scruff as she tried to not let the girl be swept off by the current. Something started to push her considerable bulk upwards, and she felt something ineffectively nipping at her neck. Not thinking, she stepped on whatever it was that had appeared beneath her and thrust her head into the realm of air, hungrily huffing what air she could through the sides of her mouth and nostrils. She still didn't realize her unfortunate stepping stool happened to be poor Serach at first, but she at least managed to gain her footing on the streambed at last.

Spieden awkwardly waddled to the bank with as much haste as she could manage, this time being careful enough that she didn't slip on any more obstacles. Once she made it ashore she quickly set Marina down on dry ground, desperately nosing and licking about the cub's face looking for breath. "@Marina? Marina. Are you okay, little seal?" She whined, ignoring the hubbub that swirled around them.

 

This was the worst. That was probably a concept Marina had not really understood until now – it was possible she didn’t understand even now – but at the very least, the little seal was anything but happy with the situation. Woken up, cold, wet, dunked. Even colder, even wetter… The muddy brown wolf whined pitifully, her ears folded back against her head as baby blue eyes clenched shut as if she might make it all go away.

Unfortunately, her best efforts were for not.

Thankfully, her mother was much better with the entire process of ‘making things better’. The warm tongue did wonders to dry the pup, to remove the shiver from her bones. The girl huffed as she nuzzled up into Speiden’s muzzle, wishing violently that her mother would do something to fix all of this. To blink and send them back in time before any of this happened.

“No,” she huffed angrily, finally peeling her eyes open to glance up at the alpha. She had no idea of what her mother actually meant by the question – nothing was actually wrong with the girl, not outside of discomfort and worry. “Wet. Mama. Mama. Wanna sleep…”

This will be Sahalie's exit. pping kino and q's too basically.

Somehow she, Alastor, and the squirming wet bundle were able to get far enough from the sound of rushing water. Trying to be gentle, but entirely frazzled by the anxiety of the situation, the girl plopped Mako on the ground in front of her. Whining, she looked to her dryer, male friend, willing him to wrap himself around the shivering boy as there was not much of her small body that had been spared from the splashing, still-cool May waters. Taking some steps back, the dark girl tried to shake the moisture out of her otter coat, coming back to stand over the pair and whine and worry like a mother hen. 

Not knowing if it would be helpful, she began to lick the cub, hoping it would stimulate some warmth. At least Mako seemed to be very alive still. That was good. She would hate to have to explain to Spieden how she had taken a perfectly lively cub, filled him full of water, and suddenly he was not breathing anymore. Her head whipped around, trying to get her bearings and hoping that the rest of the party would be along with Mako's sister shortly. Please be okay, she continued to whine, though she knew it was probably getting annoying. She couldn't help it

Serach's exit too!

The water was cold, and @Spieden was heavy. She was big for a female wolf, and weighed down by the water in her fur, it was no easy feat for Serach to try and lift her up. With water splashing and the general chaos, he wasn't sure if he was actually helping and as time slowed to a crawl in his brain, he frantically tried to figure out how he could rescue both his leader and her pup. A second later, his world went black as the woman shifted. Losing his footing, he fell into the water under Spieden. The air in his lungs squeezed out of him in shock, he breathed in and immediately began to choke on the water.

Thankfully, Spieden was quick to move and Serach was able to push himself to the surface. Coughing up water, he stood with his body mostly submerged, blinking rapidly as the others escaped to drier ground. Finished saving his lungs from drowning, he followed his packmates' lead and climbed his way to higher ground. "Everybody okay?" He called, looking around for Sahalie, Kino, and Quentin. They had retreated further away from the water - probably a better idea than sitting by the bank. "Probably time to move them to the pack den," he told Spieden as he began to shake his coat dry. That is certainly where he would be going after this ordeal.

Spieden sighed with relief as Marina answered her back. It wasn't a good answer, but the girl could speak and that was enough for now. "Of course little one, soon enough, you'll be warm and dry," She cooed. Things had settled enough that she finally had a moment to glance around, see how the rest of the pack had fared. She was so glad they had came to her aide, on her own she probably wouldn't have been able to get both the pups out in time. It was a chilling thought, and not one she wanted to linger on. 

Serach mentioned moving to the pack den, and it was a statement she couldn't disagree with in the least. She nodded, indicating to Sahalie to take Mako as Spieden picked up Marina, to take them back to the dry safety of the pack's main den. It wasn't as private, but at least it wasn't currently submerged.

{end}