10/9/2025, 9:40 PM
ama,moaned pup.
oba.he could hear his own voice echoing inside the bones of his skull. they felt thin, like the papergrass that sister brought into the den to wrap around him when it was just the two.
his body offered no instinctual tension to the shadow which suddenly hovered over him. his nostrils twitched. not like ama. like oba.
fading thoughts found it funny to watch the ground lurch away. pup blinked sleepily at the space of air where the crab had been. it was not like sister carrying him. her run had been smoothed, her scent filled with the racket of panic which held the boy in tenseness as well.
eena?not sister, pup told himself.
the sky was blackening. he scarcely felt the dry stone under his body but he did know that the familiarity of wolf was near. wolf nor not quite wolf. pup mouthed blindly at the fur where milk should be, where he could smell none.
slowly the boy's body regained some of its heat. he pumped frantic paws against the milkless belly, the physical memory of sister's terror filling him again. he found warm skin, latched to it immediately with babyish verve.
