Nene gave a mighty yawn as she stretched her spine out completely, flexing her toes into the soft earth under her paws before shaking out her fur. The weather was starting to turn, leaves losing their brilliant green hue for shades of red, orange, and gold before falling to carpet the ground. Soon, the icy winds and snow would come, but unlike the year before, Nene was looking forward to the changes in the seasons. Sure, food became a little harder to find, but her pack was together again, and no one would go hungry. Winter was a time for bonding as they retreated to their dens, the entertainers would sing and dance, the lorekeepers would share tales of times long ago, and the young would....
Her thoughts trailed off as she heard a faint whimpering. It sounded like a pup, but she knew all of the pack's pups were in lessons with their teachers or trainers at this time. Which meant if this was a pup, it wasn't one of theirs.
Hurrying towards the whimpers, Nene nearly tripped over the small figure when the little one stumbled into her path. A high-pitched, frightened yelp spilled from the puppy as the little brown and white figure cringed to the ground.
Nene's eyes widened in shock as she quickly backed up, " Whoa! Easy there, little one, I'm not gonna hurt you! Are you ok?"
"I'm lost! I lost my siblings, and I can't find them!" The little pup all but wailed, shivering and sniffling. She was small, too small to Nene's well-trained eye. She definitely shouldn't be away from her mother yet, and unless Nene was mistaken, she was rather underweight, too.
"Alright, well, just calm down. I'll help ya look. How many of ya are out here?"
"Six plus me."
Nene's jaw dropped, seven?! Someone just left seven pups in the woods?! Oh she was gonna tear them limb to limb! Or even better, she'd set Big Bad on the hunt but for now, there were pups to find!
