Penn pushed herself harder and harder to get back up the forested hillside and back to the Griffin pups. To her great relief she found them still hiding in the gully waiting anxiously for her return. The two oldest had done their best to keep the littlest ones quiet, but they began to wail in earnest the moment they saw Penn bound towards their hiding place.

Of course, Penn couldn't be sure if they were crying because they were hurt or because they were relieved to see her. So, before she transformed into her skin she sniffed each and every one of them over very carefully just to make sure no one was hiding any injuries from her out of fear or a false sense of bravery.

When she was satisfied they were all physically well, despite that they were frightened, cold and hungry, she let out a sigh of relief and changed into her skin to speak with the oldest pups. They had remained in their fur while she had led the bear away. So, they only now transformed themselves and scrambled into their clothes with the embarrassment only teens could feel.

Penn ignored their flushed cheeks as she too climbed into her discarded clothes. The children were not accustomed to nakedness, but Penn did not show them any mercy. In the wilderness they would be required to shift and shift quickly to stay alive. Any thoughts or concerns about modesty would have to be set aside for survival.

No sooner had she turned back to them then Cassidy flung her arms around Penn and squeezed her tightly. Penn almost staggered back from the sheer force of the assault. She wasn't sure what to do. So, she did nothing. It had been a long time since she'd been on the receiving end of a warm embrace. Consequently, Cassidy's hug felt truly foreign to her.

Cassidy looked up at her with wide, wet eyes and cried saying, "Thank the goddess that you are alive!" She then buried her head in Penn's chest and cried all the harder until her brother pulled her away once he realized that Penn was not going to reciprocate the hug.

"Thank you for what you did for us today," he said in a voice that was tight with emotion.

Penn gave him a cool nod.

The whimpering behind them hadn't stopped though and Penn couldn't take the noise much longer. She let out a low growl at the children. She'd been trying to knock it into their heads for weeks that they had to be quiet in the woods at all times. Even in terrifying situations. And they still had trouble remembering. Their inability to be still and quiet for long really grated on her nerves.

The growl did it though. The children stopped their crying and sniffling within a few breaths and all the warm feelings in the camp were squashed. Penn could see the fear return to their eyes. But, she could live with that. It was okay if the pups were more afraid of her than not. She didn't need their affection, their worry, or their tears no matter how genuine. She needed them to be quiet and obedient. Or well, that's what they needed to do at any rate if they wanted to survive.

Penn sighed with relief when the little gully became quiet again. But, she could see that both Cassidy and Jackson weren't exactly happy with her. It looked like they wanted to 'talk' to her again about how she treated the children. Instead of getting another courageous and well-meaning lecture from two teens about the children's needs, Penn spoke up and said, "You guys stay here while I go collect the food I caught earlier."

The children turned hungry and hopeful eyes toward her. She might have laughed at the eager glints she saw there but she wasn't sure the children would appreciate it. So, she just turned on her heel and walked out of their little hideout.

It took a little longer to collect her kills and walk back in her skin then if she'd been in her fur. However, that gave her time to cool her mind and relax her body, which was hyped up on adrenaline after the wrestling match with the brown bear. On the way back she thought about building the children a fire.

Part of her couldn't even believe she was considering it after telling the kids for three weeks straight how dangerous a fire was. But, as she walked and thought and continued to come down from the adrenaline high, she recognized that they weren't in any immediate danger of being found by Codax and his wolves, which meant they could probably get away with a small fire tonight in this isolated part of the mountain.

Codax and his wolves were most likely a few hundred miles or more south or south-east of where Penn and the pups were that evening. When she and the pups made a run for it, she had not taken them straight to Orthos territory knowing she and the orphans would have been quickly overtaken by Codax. Instead, she'd gone north-west, which was a long way from either Orthos or Griffin territory, planning to loop up and over the northern mountain range that separated the two territories. 

She imagined that Codax had already made his way to Orthos by now, discovered the pups weren't there, and was likely back on Griffin pack lands again starting his search from scratch. But now, their trail would be three weeks old and very difficult to follow after some hard rains in the past twenty one days, which would have washed away the pups scents and their trail too. Penn was pretty confident that Codax and his pack would be going in circles for a long while because she was positive no one would expect the pups to use Mourning Cross, an inhospitable and rarely used trail across the mountain range separating Orthos and Griffin territory, to get to the safety of the Orthos pack. By the time Codax figured it out, if he did at all, Penn was hopeful that she and the pups would already be through the pass and heading south to Orthos territory.

She sighed as she reached the hidden gully. One small fire couldn't hurt, she convinced herself.

The fire wasn't for her sake. She certainly didn't need its comforts. But, the children, she thought for a moment as the memory of Cassidy's impulsive hug  came to mind, might feel better if they had one. Plus, it would mean that Penn wouldn't have to listen to them cry and carry on about raw meat. Their inability to adapt to raw cuisine, the only kind available in such circumstances, really irritated Penn. It was another sign of their pampered pack lives - something she never had and couldn't relate to.

She had discovered early on that the littlest ones could not stomach raw meat at all. Apparently, it was an acquired taste. Anyone who spent as much time in wolf form as Penn did, wouldn't think twice about eating fresh kill. Consequently, Penn didn't stop to consider that the children might balk at dead flesh the first time she hunted some up for them.

Penn was shocked and a little insulted when the pups put on a display the night she dropped bloody carcasses in front of them to eat. She was expecting them to be grateful if no more than that. However, the littlest pups broke out into inconsolable sobs while the older ones wretched and vomited from disgust.

"Can't we have a fire?" Cassidy asked as she tried to calm the smallest ones down by promising them that they did not have to eat the dead things Penn brought them.

A swift, curt and cold "No" was her response to the girl.

Jackson then offered, "We can do it ourselves. I know how to make a fire."

Penn remembered turning on him at that point and pinning him with her most intimidating glare. It did the trick. He backed down right away.

"A fire will get you all killed," Penn told them directly and without any concern for their feelings. "All of you. Is that what you want? To be dead before morning?"

There was shocked silence in the camp. Penn felt satisfied that she got her point across. Looking down at her discarded kills and hungry herself, she told them, "If you want to live, to honour your parents' memories, then you'll have to get use to raw meat. If you can't get it down, well, you'll have to scavenge for roots, or berries or insects."

No one responded. Seeing none of them were interested, she scooped up her kills.  She was surrounded by pale, downcast and hungry faces but, in the end, she was the only one who ate that night. It was a hard lesson for everyone.

Cassidy and Jackson bravely approached her later the next day and tried to delicately explain to her, without angering her, that the children could not stomach raw meat – they had no experience with it.

"How about fish?" Penn asked, still not understanding that anything raw was out of the question.

The two teens shook their heads 'no' as they looked at the ground. They were afraid to look her in the eye. They were right to be afraid. Penn was frustrated with them, and she didn't have any idea how to make them eat other than force-feeding them, which she knew wouldn't work. The trouble was, they couldn't keep running from Codax on empty stomachs. They desperately needed to eat, but a fire would kill them quicker than their hunger.

In the end, Penn asked the two oldest what they knew about edible and poisonous roots, berries and the like. Penn's discontent deepened when the two teens shook their heads indicating they knew nothing at all about the subject. She could not understand how it was that these kids didn't even know the basics of survival. 

This situation forced her to give the Griffin orphans a crash course on how to survive in the wild. Luckily, for her and the kids, since they were so hungry, were fast learners and it just took a few days to teach them some of the basics. Penn even enjoyed teaching the older ones, whose questions and general curiosity about the things around them made her job, for lack of a better word, fun. 

And now, here she was, three weeks later, about to tell them they could have their first fire. She didn't know whether to laugh at herself or not. She wasn't really sure why she was giving in that night. It could have been the fright the children had that compelled her, or maybe it had been the tears this time. But, she had a feeling it might have more to do with the fact that they were truly happy to see her return after the bear attack - that they'd been genuinely concerned for her well being. That was a first. Penn couldn't remember anyone ever being happy to see her - not even when she was part of a pack and had a real family.

Cassidy and Jackson were standing watch when Penn arrived back at the little gully. She gave a low whistle and they both left their posts to come running back to the group.

"I need volunteers," Penn said as the pups gathered closer to her. "Two of you must go collect dry wood and leaf litter for a fire."

Not a soul batted an eyelash for the span of an entire minute. They just stared wide-eyed at Penn and looked to one another to see if they'd heard her right.

"No one wants a fire?" she asked already knowing the answer. She shrugged a shoulder and said, "Fine, you can all just eat these as they are," and she dropped her kills on the ground in front of the children.

Still, no one moved or made a sound until Cassidy asked, "I thought a fire would kill us?"

"Not tonight," Penn said as she chose a choice bird from among her kills and walked off with it.

She transformed into her fur , but didn't get very far with the bird in her mouth before the kids jumped into action under Cassidy and Jackson's leadership. Penn half watched and half listened as the 14 year old  twins, Ace and Archer, made quick work of a fire. The brothers were energetic and natural born problem solvers. No task was too difficult for them. Then there was 12 year old Olivia, who was rather fastidious about her food, and 15 year old Noah, who thought she was the prettiest girl around, who were delegated the job of skinning, plucking and gutting the evening's meal. 

The rest of the older children were given the task of watching over the four youngest - Oliver, Mason, Lily and Mia. They were between the ages of 2 and 4, and needed constant supervision. It was never hard to get volunteers to look after them. The youngest pups were well loved by everyone in the group. It was sweet to see.

Since the children all understood pack life and the need to pull their own weight, minus the littlest pups who didn't understand these things yet, Penn discovered the children were at their best when they had a job to do and a function to fulfill. If she or Cassidy left them to their own devices they were prone to worry and to be restless, which always got on Penn's nerves. And when Penn was uptight, the children were even worse. It was a vicious cycle that Penn was only just learning how to manage for everyone's sake.

As Penn watched the children settle into their responsibilities and tasks for the night she took another look at Cassidy. In truth, Penn was sure she (and the pups) owed a great deal to Cassidy, who often acted as a buffer between Penn and the rest of the children. The girl had sort of taken on the role of unofficial 'Luna' among the orphans. All the pups, including her brother, looked to her and followed her example.

And this turned out to be a great set-up for Penn who was simply no good with the kids. Every time she spoke to them those first few days, they quaked in fear or burst out in tears. Now, she could skip instructing (or scolding) the little ones, and just stick to telling Cassidy what to do. She would then relay it to the children and this prevented a lot of unnecessary crying. Penn soon found out that the less the children cried the more she liked them.

She didn't have any trouble liking them that evening as everyone settled into a task of some kind. This didn't mean she sat with them, talked with them, or laughed with them. Certainly not. She remained at a distance, as usual.

However, instead of feeling irritated or frustrated whenever she looked at them, she felt calm that evening. It was the most relaxed she'd ever been with the children. It was refreshing for her and a real change of pace. Penn had no idea if the feeling would last beyond the night, but she was prepared just to enjoy the moment - even if just on the periphery.