Snowstorm's cubs

It was a frost-bitten morning and Moonlight sat still, alone at the edge of the clearing, still looking up at the last Ancient Warriors that remained. All was quiet, and he slowly withdrew his gaze and stood up from where he had been sat all night, thinking. Starlit had long since gone to sleep. The Alphas shared a den on high ground, in a dry large cave in the pine forest, while the rest of the pack slept outside in the clearing in the light of Sister Moon and their Warrior Ancestors so that they could watch over and protect the pack. The cubs den was in the forest, where it was warm, and wolves on cub-sitting duty lay there with them, in a comfortable, cosy low bed of moss and long soft grass, surrounded by bushes and fallen trees and logs, hidden from all except the pack.
    Moonlight stretched and shook himself, yawning. He shouldn’t have stayed awake all night. He was going to have to put Starlit on his duties while he got some sleep. Just as he trotted off into the edge of the clearing, where the pack was sleeping, a sudden drawn-out squeal came from the direction of the cubs den. Moonlight spun round, about to rush to help the cubs and Silver and Rustsnap, the cub-sitters, when one of the cubs came bounding through the trees and gave another squeal. Another one came racing out after it and the two started play fighting. Moonlight relaxed. The cubs were only playing. They must have slipped past Silver while she was asleep. But he would have to tell Rustsnap about letting the cubs’ slip past her too. Silver was getting older now, and slept more often although she’d never admit it, but Rustsnap should have been watching them this morning. The trouble with Rustsnap was that she was too soft with them, she had a soft spot for them, being Greyjaw’s niece, and so was the cubs’ cousin, and they often wriggled their way into being allowed to play unwatched. You had to keep your eyes on them or before you knew they’d vanished into thin air.
    But Moonlight would have to talk with her and the cubs before going to sleep. He sighed. Maybe he’d let this one go. He gave the cubs a look as he walked past them, and they looking guiltily up at him, before hurrying back into the forest, tails and ears down, towards their den.
    ‘It’s not fair.’ whined Stonecub when they were all curled back up in their den, Rustsnap sat just outside looking out into the trees. ‘We were only playing.’
    ‘Yeah.’ put in Terrornip, his older sister. ‘What did we do to old whiny guts?’
    Ice, the oldest of all three of them looked at her and said, ‘Don’t say that. He’s the beta. He was only looking out for you. Everyone was asleep. What if predators had attacked the camp?’
Terrornip narrowed her eyes at her sister. ‘Well you’d have us get eaten wouldn’t you? Staying in here like a good little cub.’ She huffed in annoyance when Ice ignored her.
    ‘You’re no fun anymore.’ Stonecub whined. ‘You used to be fun. Now you just do whatever everyone else says.’ He buried his head in the leaves, and lay quiet for a while, eyes closed. Ice laid with her head on her paws, next to him, and Terrornip on his other side, sitting up, still staring at her, waiting for a response. After more silence, Terrornip too gave up, and came and laid down beside her siblings and all three curled up together snuggled up to Silver, who opened her eyes and rested her head beside them and curled up her tail to keep them warm.