Suspended there over the ice cold water, my yelps reverberated across the pack lands. Surely someone would hear me! My brows popped up at the realization – what if it was Los or Mum or even the Alpha that heard my pleas for help? The momentary possibility that I might be shamed by this little mistake of mine almost choked a bark in my throat. But just then a wave pushed the water higher and my hindquarters felt the sting of the icy liquid, and the yip was force out just as loud and clear as the last. I did my best to curl my tail up and my hindquarters underneath myself, paws scrabbling at the rock. I managed to kick against the cliff and struggle forward slightly, but I just wasn’t strong enough to fully pull myself back up.

When I spotted her form running towards me, I did not stop my struggle. I wiggled my bodice, trying so very hard to prove to her that I wasn’t the type that would simply give up! And then Mum’s jaws where clasped around my neck and I was drug forward. Mum lifted me up and carried me away from the edge, dumping me on the ground in a heap. As much as I just wanted to lay there and catch my breath, I forced myself to sit up and shake out my fur. Though I tried to steady myself against the cold that was penetrating me from the wetness of my hindquarters, I trembled. Mum’s words were met with folded back ears, ashamed of my clumsiness. Despite my ever present desire to prove myself to my mothers, I silently allowed myself to be lectured and groomed, accepting the warm – although coarse – licks from my Mum.

She questioned if someone had pushed me in, and I looked up at her, ears pricking forward. I could lie, I could tell her some bully had pushed me in. Then she wouldn’t think I was clumsy or weak. But lying wasn’t something I was good at, not that I’d ever really had any reason to speak falsely to my mothers. But in that moment I knew that if I lied to her, she would know. “Winter! This dumb cold pushed me in, Mum. I could have jumped out to that rock if the stupid winter wind hadn’t pushed me around.” I huffed quietly, continuing to stare up at my Mum, ready and waiting to be further scolded.

A single ear flicked backward at the sound of another wolf, and my attention was stolen from Mum. I glanced over my shoulder, still trembling slightly from the cold. The wolf that approached was slightly older than myself. Well, Mum had already rescued me so it was really too late for this girl to do any good. She could have come a little sooner and saved me from the embarrassment of Mum discovering her daughter dangling from a cliff, but no, she had to come after. My brows furrowed at her question and I looked back at Mum before turning to face her. “I’m fine,” I said, with young feminine determination, a complete one-eighty from a moment prior when I had been whinging about the cold.