She

TW: animal death mention (just in case)

She was born a runt, sickly, first pup in a litter of 6. They were planned - they were supposed to come in the first days of spring - but they could not wait. She came into this world alongside the first gusts of the worst blizzard her pack had ever seen.

She comes from a pack that believes in the power of names. Speaking a pup’s name for the first time manifests something, tethers their soul to their body. A wolf without a name is not yet alive. She was from the first litter of the new matriarch of her pack - such important pups got the full attention and protection of each pack member, they were named within their first hours. She wasn’t. It’s simply practical - pups who will die before ever opening their eyes aren’t named, it dulls the heartbreak.

But She survived. The blizzard raged on and her mother caught ill, one littermate passed away quietly. The blizzard died out but snow piled high around the den, one hunter caught ill and another caught a hoof to the shoulder, two littermates weakened from hunger. The herbalist caught ill and so did two of her littermates. Her mother‘s condition worsened. She survived.

By summer She stood alone - firmly in the physical world, but surrounded by such tragedy that no one thought to name her. That’s the mother’s job - that’s the matriarch’s job - and they had none.

She set out by autumn. No one followed.

She hopes it stays that way.

—————

They had to stop walking someday. Everyone who followed her was a fool... but they were her fools. She protected them. When no safe route to continue her travels appeared she stopped. Found someplace safe for them. Began to build something.

She would always claim that she stopped to take a break - she’d been walking for 3 years straight ever since turning 2 seasons old, after all. Breeze claimed that they had to stop - you can only go so far north before you start going south, inevitably. Pollen agreed. She never quite understood that reasoning, but she was never much to argue.

She never adopted a name. Her mates never quite understood why, be it because none ever felt right, She was too used to her way of being called (...and perhaps a little fond of the early memories with Songbird that led to it), or just out of habit, but they let it be.

Her Unnamed pack followed the same principle. It was never intended to be anything, never meant to last through the lean season, and yet it did. It persisted. They made it work. Never putting quite enough energy into finding something that fit, the members of the pack viewed its nameless status almost as something of a tribute to their founder. 

Even at their destination - especially in such a cold, unforgiving destination - not all pups make it. But She can give them a fighting chance. Until they, too, can cast off their past and head out on some stupid half-baked pup’s dream of a journey. 

It worked out pretty well for her.