Frozen (Acceptance)

Fallon smiled brightly as the female woke up. "Hey, there," she said softly, trying not to startle the female but also needed to make sure she really was doing as well as she looked. There could be something internally wrong that was invisible from the outside...who knew? So far, things were looking good.

Inferno had since quick shaking completely. He was so big, about the same size as Blitz, that it had been a great help to have Fallon's back on the other side of him. With a few slow blinks, the male opened his eyes and looked up at Blitz for a second before lifting his head and looking around. "Thanks, Blitz," said the wolf with a slight groan as he woke up more fully. "How is she?" he inquired, referring to the female this had all been about.

Tessa blinked up at Fallon in confusion. "Where am I?" She asked, staring up at the female that was curled around her. She had no idea where she was, or how she had gotten there. Then all of the scents rushed into her at once. There were so many wolves here, surrounding her. She panicked, her eyes confused and frightened at the same time. What was going on? What happened to her? Where was she? She wanted to run, to get away from all of these wolves, wolves she didn't know, wolves that had intentions that she didn't know about. But then she heard the male's voice, the male that had pulled her from the water. She lifted her head, looking over at him. Yes, it was him, the male that had saved her. She relaxed when she saw him, but the questions of what had happened and where she was still whirled around in her mind.

Blitz looked down at Inferno as he woke and spoke. "She'll be fine. Chaos and Fallon are taking care of her." He said, but his words were useless, since he now spotted the female looking over Fallon's side and right at Inferno. Her eyes had seemed so frightened before she spotted the beta, but the moment she saw him, she seemed to relax slightly. "You saved her life, Inferno." He added, remaining beside the beta male, making sure he didn't try to get up or move quite yet.

Fallon explained to Tessa that she was in Silverlight and the pack here was taking care of her. She decided that was all the female needed to know right now until she was better. It was obvious that the strange wolves and situation was frightening her. "What's your name?" she asked, even though she knew there was a good possibility that the new wolfess wasn't listening as she looked around and tried to put together the pieces of what had happened.

Inferno looked over at the female and pricked his ears forward as he looked her over as much as he could from where he was. Fortunately, it seemed like she was going to make it out of this ok. For a while there, Inferno thought she would be lost.
He lowered his head onto his paws and responded to Blitz in a low voice only for their conversation, "I don't know about that. Did you see Chaos's face? She can wait to get her paws on a new underling."

Tessa's eyes weren't torn from Inferno that easily, even as Fallon spoke to her. "Tessa." She said softly in response, but kept her eyes on Inferno. The male seemed like he had suffered from the ordeal almost as much as she had. But he was talking to the white male, so she didn't bother her. Finally she looked at Fallon again, her ears pinned back. "I'm so tired...." She muttered, sighing softly and yawning as her exhaustion from fighting to keep her head above water kicked in.

Blitz tilted his head to the side as Inferno spoke about Chaos. He looked over at the black female, chuckling slightly as Inferno's words kicked in. "Well, then we'll just have to keep her from falling under Chaos's oh-so-charming spell, huh?" He said, nudging Inferno calmly, not wanting the male to be uptight and worrying right now. He needed to focus on being healthy, not on how Chaos viewed the newcomer.

Fallon nodded as the female obviously wanted to go to sleep. "We'll watch out for you, Tessa," said the she-wolf gently, "You can go back to sleep." She was pretty sure the other wolfess didn't need her permission to fall back asleep.

Blitz's comment got a smile out of Inferno, who tilted his head to look up at his friend, commenting on Blitz's patronizing statement, "You know what I mean." Still smiling and understanding Blitz's silent message to chill out, Inferno closed his eyes. He was still awake, though. "You going to offer this one a place in the pack, too?" asked the red wolf, his eyes still closed. He knew what Blitz was going to say, but he wanted to hear it anyway. It was comforting to know the answers to questions, and he loved to laugh at the difference between Blitz and he. There was no way he'd have it any differently.

At Fallon's words of protection, Tessa lowered her head onto her paws, falling asleep almost instantly. She was soon relaxed and calm, breathing slowly as her body rested limp against Fallon's side while she slept.

Blitz smiled as Inferno seemed obviously amused by his comment, and sighed softly as he asked whether or not he was going to offer Tessa a position in the pack. "Let's just focus on keeping her alive and getting her healthy. Then we'll worry about her position." He said softly, resting his head on Inferno's shoulders and watching the circle of females as Tessa slowly fell asleep.

Inferno sighed in defeat as it sunk in once and for all that Blitz was not going to budge on his position that Inferno quit asking stupid questions that didn't deal with the healing process. Succumbing, willingly toward the end, to the decision, the male finally let himself fall asleep. His body welcomed it with open arms.

Fallon had ended up able to catch the last part of the two males' conversation, though. "Are you really thinking of asking her to stay?" she asked excitedly, her tail beginning to wag. Of course Fallon couldn't help but feel excited at the mention of anyone new hanging around. This pack was finally getting big, just like the kind of pack she was used to.

Blitz smiled as Inferno fell asleep, and when Fallon turned to him, he chuckled slightly. "I'm not sure yet, Fallon. I haven't even spoken to her yet. Let's let them both rest and we'll deal with whether or not to invite her into the pack later." He said, knowing that Fallon would be more than excited to welcome a new female into the pack. But he didn't want to throw everything on her at once, so he decided to let everything play out as it would for now. They would deal with the pack later, that wasn't important right now.

Fallon smiled sheepishly and gave Blitz a tiny nod. He was right, there were more important issues to deal with first. Sometimes she got way ahead of herself.
The red and black wolfess turned her already loving gaze back to Tessa and attentively licked at the cut on her forehead. These wounds all had to be kept as clean as possible until Tessa woke up again and they got Molly.

Blitz couldn't help but smile at Fallon's eagerness and enthusiasm. But they did need to take things one step at a time. Right now wasn't the right time to deal with whether or not to let this new female in the pack. Right now was the time to make sure she survived. He only wished that he could have been there to help Inferno pull her from the rapids, since the beta's coat was so short and his was longer and better protected him from the cold, icy water. But what was done was done, and Inferno had likely saved this wolf's life.

Tessa slept curled up against Fallon, relishing in the warmth of both the females around her. By morning she would be sick, but not so much that it was life threatening. She didn't dream, but instead rested in darkness, her body cold, but not freezing like it had been before. The care of the females was also saving her life, and she wasn't sure how she would ever repay the kindness of this pack.

((Tessa continued: https://incendio.rpg-board.net/t65-all-together-jenn-roar#829 ))