A/N: I almost have the newest chapter of A Wolf's Cry finished, I promise! I was actually debating posting this. In all actuality, I had two prologues drafted to set the scene for part two of AWC, but I couldn't decide wich one to post, so I declined to use either of them.

Still, they are pretty good reads, so I figured I'd post them separately. Prologue A is titled Promise and Prologue B is titled Hunt, which I will post either late tonight, or sometime tomorrow;)

Yes, its short. It's a prologue, not a chapter.

Disclaimer: I do not own Ice Age. I do own my OCs.

Promise

The air froze her lungs the longer she sat there. Out in the open, exposed, but uncaring. What was sure to be the final snow of winter was drifting lazily down, sticking to, and melting against her dark fur. She didn't feel it. Didn't care. Lapis irises stared forward, but saw nothing.

In truth, the she-wolf had journeyed far, far away. Back in time, to warmer seasons and kinder hearts, when her family was whole. Four squirming cubs, and a mate who loved her. How had it all gone so wrong?

With savagery only known to wolf packs, it was all ripped away from her.

Never in all her years had she considered she'd have to face a mother's worst nightmare; to say goodbye to her children, and to one of them so permanently in his short life. Cut off so abruptly by the sharp teeth of-

Lapis eyes closed tightly against the coming tears.

She'd taken too long, her naïve heart thinking she could sway him, but no. She should have fled the moment she saw the shock in his eyes when she told him of their coming children, but was it not right for fathers to be surprised? How could she have known his own flesh and blood would change him so?

Her remaining three children were scattered, for their own safety. Her two daughters and remaining son were forced to grow up, knowing nothing of her, or each other. It was a cruel twist of fate, and torture unimaginable to go on without them. Hoping one day, she might be able to see them again.

Imagine her surprise, when she did.

Her youngest boy, Theo, and her younger daughter, Wren. Both returned to her, their circumstances vastly different, but both of them welcomed her back in with forgiving hearts.

Now, she was left to wonder about only one pup. Her daughter, Keeva. Her only Alpha pup, and almost-heir to the Druid clan. She'd left Keeva in the care of her sister, Xena. The Alpha had just had a daughter, and while Keeva was some months older, she resembled her cousin enough to fit in to the little family.

It was a calculated risk, leaving her so close to Luca, but she knew Xena would be more than capable of protecting her pup, she only regretted that she could not do so herself.

When she heard of Luca's downfall to their daughter's teeth, she could not feel more justified, more proud, nor more worried. Customarily, Keeva should have taken head of the pack right there, but…her oldest daughter had vanished.

Kygo's reign began.

When her scouts reported that the Head Alpha was in search of Keeva. She knew she must be the one to find her first. She rallied the small numbers of her pack and they set out to find her lost daughter.

So, here she sat, in the dead of night, the stale trail of her daughter ahead of her. Her children and friends slept in the safety of a nearby cave behind her. They needed their rest, in truth, she did too, but worry had made her restless. So, she'd keep watch. She'd wait for the pack to rise, an then she'd find her daughter.

"I will find you, Keeva." She breathed into the night. "I promise."