Believe - Chapter 2: First snow

Imya did not notice how her mother got into the den and curled around the pup to keep her warm. She slept the whole day dreaming from adventures and running free like the ancient wolfs. When her mother got up and the cold evening air brushed over the white pelt of Imya she woke up.

"Wake up little Imya. The night is starting." Her mother called out to her and her nose nudged the head of the pup. Imya groaned but opened her eyes. The wind crawled into the den and sent freezing shivers down her spine. She opened her mouth wide for a heavy yawn and then showed a cute smile for her mother.

"It is cold mom." She complained and got up to move close to her bother and feel the warm fur brushing over her back when she crawled under her. Her mother laughed. "You should get used to it Imya. It will get much colder soon." With these words her mother moved towards the den entrance and Imya ran under her to not leave the warmth of her mother. When they stepped outside her mother stopped and Imya looked up to the sky. Only a bit of light of the day was still there and she saw a lot of grey clouds over them hiding any trace of the moon and the stars. Something white swirled around and it also seemed to cover the ground starting a few steps away from the den.

"What is that mom?" she asked and risked to leave the warmth under her mother to take a step forward to the white cover in front of the den. Some of the white stuff that was falling from the sky hit her nose and it felt cold and directly became water. Imya sneezed but more of these flakes ran down and she started to snap for them while her mother watched her smiling.

"This my little pup is snow." She explained. "It is becoming winter and soon we will have much more of it. Imya only listened half to the words of her mother. She was so into her game with the snowflakes, that she only took in the name of the white stuff. She jumped into the cover and rolled around. It was cold but soft and now that she was running around her body got warm and she did not mind the cold snow.

The other pups her age also played in the snow and even if they normally kept away from her Imya soon ran around with them, rolled in the snow, tried to catch the snow flakes and laughed and howled from the fun of playing with this new thing called snow. For once she was the same as any other pup. Only that they were not so pure white like Imya and when Imya lay down in the piles of white skydrops only her blue eyes were visible between the snow.

After an hour of energic playing in the snow the little pup was exhausted and after a few minutes of search she found her mother, who was watching the pups from a rock that she cleaned from all snow. Imya rolled into a ball at the belly of her mother and felt the warmth of her mother's body spread to her own small self. It warmed her inside and out and her mother started to groom her fur with a smile until all the wet snow was out of her pelt and Imya lay next to her mother with a happy smile while her blue eyes looked into the matching ones of her mother.

"Was it fun to play in the snow with all the others?" she asked and Imya nodded. "It was super fun. Mom, what is this snow?" Her mother pondered for a while how to explain it to her. "You remember that it sometimes rains when the clouds are big and dark in the sky, right?" she asked. Imya did not know, why her mother now started with rain but nodded. "You see if the weather is very cold like now, the rain becomes snow. It will soon snow even more and the whole land will be covered with a white blanket."

Imya followed another pup with her eyes that was still playing in the snow and even one of the older pups joined in for a while and played catch with him. "So will there be more snow?" she asked and her mother sighed. "I am afraid that there will be, my sweety." Imya looked up to her mother. "But snow is so much fun. I hope there will be lots and lots more of it." She said in surprise for the discouraging way her mother said her last words. "Oh, Imya! If you would know the dangers and cold fears of the snow you would not say that. For you the snow still might be fun but in the snow, we will not find so much prey and it is more dangerous to stay out to long. If you are too far away from the den while there is heavy snow you might not find your way back because it will erase any track or scent.

"What do you do, if you are outside the den and you do not see where you came from because of the snow?" Imya asked and her mother looked down to her first born.

"You pray to the moon to guide you home and if you held him deer to your heart he will lead you home." Her mother said but Imya wrinkled her nose and groaned. 'Not again from the moon.' She thought. She knew that the moon, as beautiful as he was, could never lead her. But Imya did not say anything. She knew that it would hurt her mother if she were to contest the believes of the moon again and so she listened to the story of her mother with one ear while she put her head on her forelegs and dozed off while watching the other pups play or rest on the lower ground. Her mother was on watching duty today to make sure that the pups were save. She was not the only she-wolf. Imya noticed three other mothers around the playground watching all cubs intensely. Sometimes one of them growled or helped a pup out of a pile of snow. Imya was too exhausted still to join them but she watched them rolling around in the snow. A few times this night she left her mother's side to play with the other pups. They were friendlier to her. The happiness over the snow made them forget that she was the rebellious bad pup that the head of the pack often scolded and they did not want to play with. Even her father Polar, when he came home from the hunt with fresh meat, was friendly to her today and did not once complain about something Imya did.