do you hear the voices

[attr="class","iionawords"]
As the four young pups squirmed at her feet, Iiona was nearly overwhelmed with a sense of foggy nostalgia.
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Pups are the future, her father had informed her once, many moons ago, as they watched a new mother lavish gentle care over her freshly born litter. None of us are immune to the passage of time. One day, everyone we know will have left this earth, but the pack will withstand these losses because the new generation will rise up to take their place. As an alpha, it is your job to lead, but one day you must also have children of your own to raise in your footsteps. Love them, guide them, and teach them the difference between right and wrong, for they will be your legacy.
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She had eagerly absorbed his every word back then, drinking in his lecture like a thirsty boar at a fresh watering hole, but she had never even thought that it would become relevant so soon. One day had always seemed so far off for her, and compared to some of the other issues she had to face, starting a family was never in the forefront of her mind. There was simply too many other things to worry about: making sure the pack was fed, protecting their claim to the land, keeping their dens hidden and safe from the hungry crocodiles that roamed the island. Finding a mate and having children always appeared so juvenile, so insignificant in comparison, so she never bothered to give it much thought; she would address it when the time came. She just never thought it would happen now.
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Iiona had stumbled upon the abandoned den purely by chance. She had been in the midst of hunting, searching for whatever prey she could find in this bizarre world she had been throw into headfirst, when a plaintive wail caught her attention. Following it, she found the pups in the hollowed out roots of a massive tree that stretched into the skies, not unlike the ones back home. They were hungry, squirming weakly over each other in blind search of their mother’s milk, but a quick inspection informed her that no adult wolves had been in the area recently. The pups had been abandoned, either deliberately or as victims of misfortune, and she hurt for them. Every one of their desperate squeaks tugged at her heartstrings. They were poor souls, helpless, without a single friend in this world, and Iiona could not – would not – leave them as their parents had. For she had been left behind once too, her mother succumbing to the effort of Iiona’s birth. But her father had been there to ease the ache, to fill the hole and pass onto her the warmth of her late mother’s love. If he hadn’t been there to do so… Iiona shuddered at the thought.
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Solemnly, she squeezed into the makeshift den and curled up around the pups protectively. Seeking the protection and heat of her pelt, they crowded closer to her, growing silent as they found comfort in her presence. And, though the way they had already come to trust her so brought a faint smile to her lips, she forced herself to remain objective about the circumstances. The younglings would not survive without milk, something only a proper surrogate could provide, and time was quickly running out. The odds were very clearly stacked against them, but, no matter how slim their chance at success was, Iiona would stay with them until the end, no matter when or how it came.
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She had never signed herself up for motherhood, but Iiona had never been one to shy away from her problems.

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