The gray sky flashed with life; lightning streaking across clouds like shattering glass falling to the floor, thunder piercing and loud. The sun, being enveloped by the dripping clouds, was nowhere to be seen. Wind howled like the wild wolf, just as untamed and wreckless, dancing with the precipitation and fog, looping and diving throughout the forest.

Animals ran to cover, hooves and paws stampeding past the swaying trees and shivering leaves. Younglings called for lost mothers, mewling as they were temporarily reunited, only to be seperated once again by the heavy rain and newly-arrived hail.

A whimpering wolf cub was reprimanded by its impatient mother, quieting with a single flash of fangs. Her wise eyes rushed over unfamiliar trees and boulders, and it was too wet to get a good scent on anything. Snatching up her shuddering cub, who responded with an indignant rasping growl, she trotted under a small overhang to wait it out, her obidient cub immediately trailing after her, panting playfully to its sibling.

Another strike of lightning made the walking cub jump with a yelp, racing past her as quickly as possible, the older cub letting loose a queer wheezing chortle, squirming in her grasp. She responded by tightening her grip, which earned her a high-pitched yelp and an angry pup.

Finally releasing him, she watched as he hurtled himself at his younger sibling, who was happy to distract himself with a play-fight. Laying down, she let out a sigh of content. In favor of her side rather than her belly, she rolled over, stretching out languidly as her pups tumbled and wrestled, panting tiredly as she closed her eyes. Soon enough, her tireless pups followed suit, shrowded in shadow, obscuring any vision of them.

Diving into the black abyss of sleep, she hardly heard the loud yowl of the mountain lion as it pounced upon her...