With pregnancy, came pain. Meleys could not remember it being as much so in the four previous years she had carried pups. A year had gone missed, but one since her turning of two. Had in the time between her body had forgotten how to act?

Her ankles felt swollen, so much so her toes felt numb. Back hurt. Feet hurt. Legs hurt, tail - it felt fine. Maybe it was just the cold. At least in this endless dark one might not quite notice just how big the black wolf really had become. Meleys refused to think it was all because she was getting old yet alas, it was.

It was also the first time she had been pregnant not by her (former) husband. The Darkfang refused to ask either of her brother's assistance in building the birthing den. She had yet fully come to care for Yaalk'ali. He seemed too alike the red-fox as the fur he wore for her liking. And Cen? Five new pups filled the den of his newly wife.

In this forest when they had first ventured through it when traveling north the first go around, they had found odd structures here. Meleys considered denning in one of them, but stubbornness to relent in her people's ways made her refuse. A shelter would be made of snow.

She began to dig and did not get far. The strain in her muscles was too much. Tiny puppy paws pressed against her ribs and bladder. Then she had to pee. Her prior litters were one or two pups - how much could they possibly be squabbling and pushing in there??

A grit of her teeth in frustration, she calls out for Aiman in howl. Slave! Her sharp demand rang through the forest.