Great Wolf Children Book one: New Beginnings

Chapter Eighteen: Faceless Dream

Raven shook a fly off her ear and huffed as she bent down to pick up another bare white bone from underneath the great oak tree.
Boulder and his pups had left a few hours ago and Raven was left to pick up after them as Awan sorted through his herbs.
Raven cursed as her paw slipped into hole one of the pups must have dug the bone went flying from her mouth and landed a few feet away. She lifted her aching paw and glared into the hole, it was filled with pinecones.
She held up her paw and licked it, it tasted of blood. She shook her head and slowly placed her paw down only to wince and pick it back up. 
She looked up and noticed Awan trudging over. He nudged her away from the hole and grunted.
"I'll finish up here. Go get yourself something to eat."
"You sure?"
He looked up at her and nodded, "Go on, I can manage."
Raven slowly nodded and limped over to the rock. There were herbs strewn everywhere, Awan hadn't gotten to finish.
She hopped around to the other side and scraped her nose over the heap of dirt.
Awan had buried the remaining food to keep scavengers away and to make sure the meat didn't spoil. She grabbed whatever was on top which happened to be a trout and recovered the hole before limping back to the other side of the rock.
She slowly eased herself down in her usual spot.  Awan had gotten her a tanned deer hide to sleep on, it was much warmer sleeping on that rather than the cold brown grass.
Winter was on its way, she wondered how long it would be until the first snow. She wouldn't be here much longer, she hoped her paw felt better soon. She had planned on going out and gathering herbs for Awan, once she had finished cleaning up.
She pulled the tail off the fish and gulped it down, the dirt didn't make it taste any better, not to mention it wasn't very fresh.
Hesitantly, she finished off the fish and rolled over on her side, pulling her paw up to her muzzle to wash it.
She rolled over on the deerskin, itching her back, the warm sun beat down on her deep black fur. It wasn't long before she was asleep.
 She dreamt she was snuggled up in her mother's fur, the same endless black as her own. The sweet smell of milk filled her nose, small bodies wiggled next to her. My mother! She thought. I have to see her face.
She reeled back from her mother warm embrace and turned her head up to look at her face, but there was nothing there, just an endless mass of black fur. 
She desperately turned to the pups laying next to her, but they too were just heaps of wriggling fur.
Raven yelped and whirled around, looking for an escape.
Her paw slipped from underneath her as the floor of the den became sleek with wriggling masses of pitch-black fur.
She sunk up to her chest, the masses crawling over her, pulling her down. Something unseen grabbed her paw and she yelped in pain.
 Remembering her injury she startled awake.
Awan jumped backward and herbs flew from his mouth. Raven jerked her paw back and panted, looking around the clearing she could see the sun was kissing the horizon, turning the sky a pale shade of pink. 
Awan slowly stood up and started picking up the herbs he'd dropped. 
"Sorry Raven, I was just trying to put some herbs on your cut. I didn't mean to wake you."
Raven shook her head, "I- I had a bad dream. It's fine, I-"
"Are you okay, Raven?" Awan asked, dropping the herbs onto the deerskin. "You're crying."
She pinned back her ears and rubbed her muzzle under her paw, it came away wet.
"I'm fine." She barked defensively. "Guess its too late to go out and pick herbs now." 
"I already went out. Don't worry about it. Let me put these on your paw now."
Raven nodded and untucked her paw from her chest.
Awan tenderly placed the herbs on her paw, which was bleeding again.
"Do you want to talk about it?" He asked.
"Huh?"
"Your dream."
"Oh...I don't know."
"If it's something important, you might have them again you know." He said matter of factly. "I'm finished with the herbs." He got up and padded over to his own mat and laid down next to Raven. He looked up, the sun had set and the stars were out.
"It was about my mom."
"Were you two close?"
Raven shook her head and placed her chin on her paws so she faced Awan. "I was too young."
"What happened?"
"Cypress never told me, he just said he couldn't get to them quick enough and I happened to be with him at the time so I was safe."
Awan looked at Raven and flicked his ear, "Them? You said he couldn't get to them quick enough. Wasn't it just your mom?"
"My siblings were there too. They all died in the same accident."
"Your dad never told you what killed them?"
She shook her head and looked up at the stars, hoping they would bring her some comfort.
"I wish I could remember what she looked like or her name."
Raven looked down from the stars and noticed Awan was staring at her.
"What?" she scowled at him.
"She must have been beautiful because you sure didn't get it from your dad." He laughed, "Gosh, maybe I should give Fawna a vision test."
Raven hit him with her good paw.
"Hey!" he complained.
"Shut up and go to sleep." She growled.
"Okay, goodnight."
"You better not snore again."
"I don't snore!"
"Shush, go to sleep."