The medicine den had been filling up faster than the medics could treat the incoming patients. The pack itself was growing smaller and weaker by the second as more and more wolves were falling sick with whatever had gotten into the pack. There were barely enough pack members to safely take the dead to their place of eternal sleep down by the nearby river. It was both a scary and worrisome time for the pack, with the unknown of its survival laying out before them like a grand carpet leading to their demise. 

Just as that thought had crossed young Moondust's mind, her ice blue eyes drifted over and watched two medic wolves drag out a young pup from the medicine den. Following close behind was their Alpha and leader, Raece, followed closely by a grey she wolf at his side. Her head was hung low and ears pressed to her head, sobs could be heard coming out in a wailing cry from all directions. The female wolf's tail was practically dragging on the ground as she walked, it drooping so low it was amazing no one had tripped over it. 

"Looks like we've lost another one?" 

Moondust turned her saddened blue gaze to the owner of the voice speaking to her. An ashy red colored she wolf sat beside her, their black eyes locked on the disappearing procession of mourning wolves. 

"Yeah, I think it might have been one of Dapple's pups." 

Blue eyes moved back towards the group, Moondust's heart aching for her fellow packmate and their lost pup. 

A quiet whimper slipped from Moondust's lips, her ears laying flat upon her head as she hung it in respect to the tiny deceased pack member. Her tail wrapped around her paws at the same time that the fiery furred wolf beside her pressed their shoulder against hers, hoping it would give some comfort to her she assumed. However, comfort didn't seem like a viable thing that would come to anyone, not till this plague was gotten rid of in their pack. 

"Those pups were born only a few short moons ago. They've only just gotten off their wobbly legs and started walking." 

"I know, I fear for he other two pups. I only hope they don't get whatever the rest of the pack has been catching." 

"But what exactly is the pack catching? We haven't changed the way we live, so nothing should have gotten in." 

Moondust looked back towards the red she wolf beside her, desperation to understand what was going on mingled deep within her blue orbs. However, when Timber's black eyes met with her own, she could see the worry and confliction in the female wolf's eyes. She was looking for answers just as much as she had been doing and they were both coming up empty pawed. No answers were coming to the surface to bring them any closer to a final solution. No way to actually bring a cure forward to their pack medics to help save he lives of their packmates. 

"I. . . don't know. I don't have any answers myself."

"We need to find out something and fast. Even the pack medics are fighting to not catch whatever this is, but it's failing because we've lost two of our four medics already." 

Timber was standing now, pacing back and forth in front of Moondust. It was as if the she wolf believed he pacing would get things done quicker, force her into submitting into whatever ideas she was concocting right now. However, the intimidation tactic being used against her wasn't going to work. Timber was not above her in the pack rankings, they were equal and merely pack hunters trying to survive during a time of crisis. She wasn't going to be coerced into something without the Alpha's permission to do so. 

To add to all the fuss, the pack had been put under strict quarantine rules to keep whatever virus or sickness that was spreading throughout their pack, strictly within the pack. They couldn't risk other nearby packs catching it or chance the outside food supply they hunted to become contaminated because they weren't being careful. The risk was far too high and the casualty rate was already too much, none of it needed to be heightened for any reason. 

"Yes, but we don't even know what this is, let alone how to even fight it. We've lost five packmates already and this pup makes six. What do you expect us to do? Go out and search for answers we have no idea as to what we are searching for?" 

Forcing her ears to perk up so she didn't look so depressed despite how she truly felt, Moondust stood up to make her way to some other location within the den's clearing. Maybe she could go see if anyone needed her help with anything. She didn't care what job she could find to help with so long as she could get away from Timber for even just a split second and breath. 

Believing that to be the best plan of action for herself and her sanity, Moondust walked around the fiery red she wolf and started her trek to the nursery. However, Timber's persistence seemed to grow the moment she whipped around to follow after Moondust. She herself was praying to the Moon Goddess that she could keep her composure long enough to get away and wouldn't bite the fiery she wolf following after her. 

"Which is why we need to figure out what it is and see if there is some sort of cure for this sickness taking over out pack. Someone has to know something out there, this couldn't be the first time this has spread through a pack." 

"Timber, we can't do anything without Alpha Raece's say so, you know that just as well as I do. You can beg and whine all you want to me, but I'm not going to bend. You're just going to continue to hear the same thing that I've been telling you the entire time - no." 

Huffing at Timber as she spoke to her, Moondust looked over her shoulder with a warning glare towards the other she wolf. 

As they approached the little den made of nearby wildflowers, sticks, stone, and mud to create a beautiful sturdy den, Moondust stopped the both of them. Her warning glare was ever present as she eyed Timber down, not wanting to go in right yet. 

"Now, we end this conversation right here and now because we are around the little ones and we don't want to scare them. Do you got it?" 

"Yeah, I got-" 

Before Timber could finish her sentence, a round of howls broke out from the direction of the nearby river. hat had been where their alpha had gone off to with the deceased puppy and other pack members. The howls themselves weren't ones in mourning, however, they sounded urgent and in need of immediate help. It shook Moondust to the core and had her fur standing on end as if someone had just thrown a lightning bolt at her and nicked her tail. 

Moondust and Timber quickly looked to one another, sharing a glance of worry and fear. Each emotion rose like a rising stream about to flood, neither of them wanting to know what was happening at the river. However, both knew that there was limited aid in the den and they were both free, which meant they had to go. 

"I think the puppies can wait till another time." 

A quick nod of agreement from Timber was all Moondust needed before both she wolves were racing back across the clearing they had just crossed. Their end goal, back to where Alpha Raece and Dapple had last been seen heading towards the river, praying that everyone was alright. However, something in Moondust's stomach formed a pit of raging worry that gave her an inkling within her mind of knowing what they were going to come across. She just hoped that Timber and herself were ready for what they could possibly be coming upon.