Shae was slowly getting to know the rapids and the lands surrounding the dangerous waters. She was told that because of how swiftly they were moving they couldn’t freeze where the rest of the waters on the continent were doing just that. The small child was obviously curious about her environment, but she was eager to get out and explore everywhere. Home was the best place to start, and with her momma’s caracal keeping watch over her Shae went out into the snow.

Already her long legs were beginning to stretch, she was still small but she already looked gangly. She and all of her siblings would grow to great heights. The girl would not only almost reach her father’s height but also have his love of song. She quietly sang a soft tune, much like what her father sang to them as they fell asleep. It was a song that helped keep her comfortable. Though she wouldn’t admit how nervous she was without someone right beside her. Poem and Sparhawk both encouraged independence, but they didn’t hide the fact she had to be careful beyond the den.

Dark paws made prints in the snow as she waded through towards the rushing water. The subdued girl liked to sit on the sun warmed rocks and just watch the water as it rushed by her. Shae made herself comfortable, laying in a sphynx-like pose with her head on her paws as blue and lavender eyes got lost in the mystifying waters.

Winter still had its icy grip on the lands. Theory blew out a puff of hot breath that misted immediately on the air and stared up at the grey sky. Everything now was grey, grey, grey. She'd kill for a change of scenery. It was funny - she didn't realize how much she relied on the changing of the seasons until, frighteningly, it just didn't change. She refused to believe the cold would be eternal. Ever the optimist, she knew this too would pass. Today she sought out the company of the pack's newest members: Poem's darling children. From the moment they were born they'd wormed their way into her heart. The love she felt for them was almost overwhelming, as if they were own children. She watched them often from a distance and had spent plenty of time with them all together, but not as much time with each puppy apart. They had spent so much time in her mind as one collective group - it as time to get to know them as the bright little individuals they were becoming.

She heard the soft sound of singing and diverted her path towards the rapids. Shae watched the waters with wide, introspective blue eyes. After hearing their names announced one by one at their birth, she had been unable to stop her throat from clenching. Shae. It was like a small piece of their mother was wandering Abaven again, except her paws were tiny and new. "Hello, Shae," she called out as she approached, her bobbed tail wagging. "What do you think of the water?"

She kind of liked the cold, sometimes it made her feel like she was living in her father’s stories. He was always speaking about the old lands and the far reached of the north. She had deep roots in the cold as well as here in Abaven, and that was no harder to see than the vast family that lived here. Multiple generations, too many aunts and uncles to count, Shae was surrounded by her family. She never felt alone and always had love no matter where she turned. Shae was as content as puppies came.

Silvery features turned to her aunt as she called out her name, naturally a grin formed on her features as she took Theory in. Shae adored her aunt, and she couldn’t have hid the fact if she wanted to. Silver tipped tail wagged excitedly at her hips and her grin beamed up at the dark coated alpha. ”Aunt Theo!” Her song was long over now that she had Theory to concentrate on. ”Oh I love it, it’s so pretty and the sound of its thundering helps me sleep.” Or at least that's what momma said. Shae couldn’t remember a time when she didn’t fall asleep to the sound of the rapids. "What do you think of the water?" She asked cheekily in return.

Oh, her heart melted every time they looked at her. How could it not? Poem had brought such perfect little children into the world. Theory's thoughts darkened briefly as she thought of the siblings she'd lost - Noir in particular. But they had known it even then, hadn't they? He'd been rotten from the beginning. Cruel. Spiteful in a way a child shouldn't be. Sometimes things weren't so clear cut; at least with him they had a warning. Could it happen again? Surely not. These puppies were truly and completely surrounded by love and support, as if they had been born into a soft, safe cocoon. She couldn't account for the chaos Tana had brought into their lives. Maybe that instability had contributed more than she'd credited it.

Shaking grim thoughts of the past, Theory returned Shae's beaming grin and settled down beside her, shoulder-to-shoulder. She tried to commit this moment to memory. Shae would never be this small again. "I like the water well enough, but I prefer the ocean," she grinned. "I used to play here when I was little just like you - but you have to be careful, especially in the winter and the spring." Strange. These puppies had never known spring. Not yet, at least.

The tiny girl grinned and wagged her tail as her aunt carefully moved closer and lay down beside her. Shae easily leaned against the warm shoulder she provided and smiled contentedly there by the rapids. The tiny young girl had no idea the vast amount of history that lay just beyond her little toes. If the rocks could speak they would have endless tales for her to listen to. They couldn’t speak though, and the baby had to rely on her relatives, like her aunty Theo, to tell her stories of what happened here.

”The ocean?” She asked with a tilt of her head before nuzzling into the thick warm fur of Theory’s neck. ”I’m careful, I promise.” She crossed her heart, having made the same promise to her parents. ”I always stay back from the edge.” She explained and gestured at how far back she was positioned. Just like her Momma told her. ”Did you have to be careful when you were little too?” Shae had every intention of growing up to be tall like her mom, dad, and her aunt but for now she felt so little.

"Oh, yes! I had to be very careful," she said, carefully declining to mention any of the times she'd merrily raced along the rocks. That had been during the summer, right? When the water was low? "Adulthood" was coloring all of her memories, making her more honest and good than she may have been. Growing up was a strange thing. There had to be some allowances for misbehavior or all that excess energy led to worse ends. "But maybe in the summer time, at the very, very hottest part of summer - " And yet, they had never known hot. Silently, she wished for spring, " - we can race together on the flat rocks. Once the water gets low, great big ones from near the bottom of the riverbed are visible. Those ones are safe." There were points in the rapids that never became safe, but the stretch before them could sometimes ease to a trickle in the height of summer.

"The ocean is the biggest river ever. It separates our continent from other parts of land, like the islands across the channel, and probably other places much further away." Some land masses could be seen close to the Boreas coast. Theo imagined there must be other places out there, she just couldn't figure out how anyone got from point A to B. Some wolves occasionally pulled up on shore from far away lands, tossed in a storm, but she hadn't met one herself. "Once you're a bit bigger I'll take you to the beach by the ocean. Then we can count seagulls together and go fishing, okay?"