Cloud

Name

Refers to her white coat and pale grey markings, and also her easygoing personality. 

Personality

Laidback; friendly; eloquent; maternal; often lost in thought 

Lore

0 months old: Born alongside her sister to an aging pair of wolves who had recently moved into the mountains. 

1 year, 1 month old: Cloud's sister finds a mate and leaves the mountains to be with him. Their pack now consists only of Cloud and her parents, who are too old to produce more pups. While they don't admit it, she can tell that this saddens them greatly, and they worry about the pack's future. 

1 year, 3 months old: Cloud begins wanting her own pups, and seeks out a male wolf who is willing to sire a litter without becoming mates. After wandering neighbouring territories for a few days, she finds a suitable male and becomes pregnant. 

1 year, 3 ½ months old: Cloud's parents are delighted at the prospect of more pups being born into the pack, and ensure that Cloud is well cared for during her pregnancy. They insist on her spending as much time as possible in the den where she had been born: a deep cliffside alcove sheltered by an overhanging slab of rock. 

1 year, 4 months: Cloud is resting in the alcove, away from the stifling summer air, when she hears the howls of her parents, ascending the mountainside as they return from a midday hunt. As she stands to greet them, a nearby rumbling makes her crouch in alarm. As the rumbling grows closer, Cloud hears yelps of fear from her parents. She can only watch as a flood of meltwater cascades down the mountainside, harmlessly passing by the den thanks to the overhanging rock. 

After a minute, the flood passes, and Cloud peers outside. Fragments of rock and shrubbery have been scattered across the mountainside; the path her parents would have used to bring back their prey is covered in rubble. Moving as quickly as she can despite her ungainly weight, she descends through the wreckage, howling desperately. She searches for an hour, howling until her voice is hoarse, but finds no sign of her parents. 

Unbeknownst to Cloud, the Ashen Pack's hunting party had been pursuing a scent trail nearby, and are alarmed by her howling. Following the sound, they find her nosing through fallen branches - muddy, heavily pregnant, and clearly terrified. After a tense few minutes wherein Pine and Stream, the party's most non-threatening members, convince Cloud that they're here to help, she explains the situation. Stream, Comet and Dune set to work searching for Cloud's parents, while Pine and Brontide bring her back to their Den. 

Cloud spends several hours lying listlessly near the Den's entrance, while Pine tries fruitlessly to distract her. At some point Ashen returns from patrolling with a quail carcass in his jaws, and immediately spots the exhausted-looking stranger. Before anyone can explain the situation to him, he wordlessly places the carcass before Cloud, licks her forehead, then trots off to the Nursery to greet his pups.

Night falls, and the rest of the hunting party comes home. Cloud excitedly stands to greet them, but they bear bad news: despite searching for hours, howling the whole time, they neither saw, smelled nor heard any trace of Cloud's parents. This confirms her worst fear: if her parents were alive, they would have made themselves known - being swept away must have been too much for the old wolves.

After conferring briefly with Ashen, Brontide informs their pups that they are now old enough to sleep in the Den with the adults. Since the Nursery will now be unoccupied, he offers Cloud the use of the smaller den for as long as she wishes. Of course, Cloud and the pack know it isn't a coincidence that the leaders decide their pups are old enough to leave the Nursery as soon as another wolf has need of it; but the pups' joy is infectious, and even manages to lighten Cloud's mood a little. Despite the fact that everything she knows has just been ripped away from her, she thanks every diety she knows that a new pack has so quickly taken her under their wing. 

1 year, 4 ½ months: Cloud's pups are born. Both are weak and don't move much - the pack's Herbalist, Flurry, guesses that this is due to the traumatic events towards the end of Cloud's pregnancy. One pup, a grey male, dies within a few days; the other begins to grow stronger, and is named Silt. 

The leaders' pups, Mistral and Mullein, take an interest in Cloud and her pup; they are eager to play with the little one when the pup is old enough, but in the meantime, the pair keep Cloud company while the rest of the pack is busy. Cloud appreciates this, and happily regales the youngsters with stories - some told to her by her own parents, and others straight from her imagination.