to find your worth

Compared to the other four, once the contractions began again the fifth pup seemed to take very little time to slip into the world. Little wonder, too, as the pup was easily the smallest among them, hardly more than half the size of her firstborn daughter. The pup was unusually quiet, and Katja had bring her between her forepaws to inspect her carefully to see that she did indeed breath. That close inspection also revealed a misshapen twist to the girl-pup's mouth, a cleft in her lip and palate. She hesitated a moment as she stared at the pup between her paws. It seemed unlikely the pup would survive, let alone thrive. Traditionally such a pup would be brought far from the den and left exposed to the elements, trusting that the gods would take her or spare her as they saw fit, so that a weak pup did not drain resources from the healthy. Coolly she weighed that option, without the emotions and maternal instincts that might cloud another's judgement. In a world as harsh as theirs the tradition made sense. But surely Odin would not have fathered these pups only to have that effort wasted in a small sickly thing - there must be some plan for this. She would give it time, she decided. She had until the pups' eyes opened to decide - at that time they would be accepted into the family, and named. If the pup even survived until then... she would have until the ceremony to decide her fate. Very well - she would treat it as she did the others, and if it improved she would be welcomed beside them. She set to cleaning the gray fur that so resembled her own, nudging the bright red marked pup at her side to encourage her to nurse as she did so.

OOC: I'm pretty much done with this thread - feel free to reply or not as you want, I just wanted to fit in the last pup.