Snorting Breath

For as long as she could remember, her mother and father whispered softly around her. She may have been blind when her eyes were closed, but she wasnt deaf. She could feel the emotions coming off her mother's fur in waves, and for the longest time, it confused her. When she opened her slightly bulging eyes, she didnt realize she was different. She only saw her mother, father, brothers and sister. They were as they should be, in her young mind. Even the one who looked as different from the others as she did, he was as he should be. She didnt know the affliction they had been born with. She had no idea why she wheezed or snorter so often, or why just a puff of wind could make her eyes stream and sting, as if sand had been kicked into them. As she grew older, she grew weaker. Unable to catch her breath, she merely sat beside her brother as they watched the other two pups from the litter play.
"Why cant i play like that?" She had innocently asked her mother, the tan wolf had looked away, her eyes filling with guilt and pain.
"You just need more rest, my darling." She answered every time. Soon, the pup didnt even have the strength to watch the other pups play. She no longer heard the jeering whispers of the other pups in the nursery as they called her "wheezy" or "flat-face". She no longer heard the fights her siblings got into to protect her and her brother. She no longer noticed any of it. Her breath was shallow and each gasp was a struggle of mucus and her too-long tongue. She could feel things, her ear twitching or her legs peddling weakly. She could feel the sunlight on her back as her mother brought her and her brother out, hoping fresh air would be easier for their lungs to accept.
Too soon, she could no longer feel these things. Her mind was all she had, and within the darkness the lack of oxygen locked her in, she lived a life all within herself. She grew up, had healthy pups of her own with a loving mate. She hunted with friends, and trained adolecents, and told stories and legends to the pups within the nursery. She even led her pack for a few short moons before she was too old.
The last breath of her life as leader caused her to fade back into the dark space that held her captive, and suddenly she could feel a cold chill rippling through her soft pup-fur. The feeling wormed its way around her, soaking into her fur and driving the warmth from her body. Suddenly her pelt felt as if it caught on fire, and it seeped deeply into her bones. She tried to yelp, but her breathing was complicated enough without the sharp inhale. Ultimately, for an unknown amount of time, she lay paralyzed and mute as it felt like molten rock flowed through her veins and crushed her bones before suddenly the burn was gone, and she finally took her first deep breath. It was shocking, and filled a deep need she didnt notice before; the need for oxygen. She opened her eyes for a split second, seeing her father's paws and experiencing a total shock and confusion. Why was she so small? What happened to her own pups that had been sitting around her as they saw her into the spirit lands? Was that life even real?
Dispair and grief clutched her, causing her newly opened airways to close in her throat as she let out a soft keening. Her pups were no more? She would never see her precious mate in the spirit lands? Her future and her past never happened?
Sleep curled around her small, exhausted body like a mother around her pups... as she had once curled around her own... or did she ever? She still remembered, she still thought as she did as the old, wise leader. Pups were never this mature... were they? Her questioning mind was quieted by sleep, and she welcomed the numbing of her emotions.