A/N: I am SOOOOOOOOOOO sorry that I took so long in updating this story! I got caught up in a little personal drama at school that I finally have worked out, then I remembered I didn't finish this story, so okay, here's chapter 4! Sorry for the extremely long wait!

Winter's Rising

Chapter Four: Do You Remember?

Copper was unable to sleep that night. He couldn't get the image of that baby deer out of his mind. What was he doing right now? Was he wondering what had happened to his mother out there in the woods? Was he out there calling for her and trying to find her?

For some reason, these questions about the deer led the pup to wonder what had happened to his mother. Strange, he had never wondered about her before. The last time he had seen her, he wasn't even able to talk yet. All he remembered about her was that she was loving, warm, and supplied food. This scared Copper a little. Would he forget everything about his mother entirely after a few years?

Copper eased up from his sleeping position and tiptoed his way over to where Chief was asleep. He clumsily balanced himself on his hind legs and grabbed a hold of the older dog's ear with his teeth and tugged on it, hoping to wake him up.

He woke up.

"Copper," Chief yawned as he realized who it was that was interrupting his sleep. "Honestly, do you realize that you're starting to make a bad habit in waking me up every night? What is it this time?"

The puppy sort of looked down at his front paws and slowly moved his tail back and forth. "Chief? Do you remember your mother?"

The question came as a sudden shock. Remember his mother? He had forgotten that she existed. It had been so long since he had seen her, he literally couldn't remember a thing about her.

A little hesitantly, he asked, "Uh, why do you want to know that?"

"Because I can't remember much about mine."

"Oh. Well, um . . . this wouldn't have anything to do with what happened today in the woods with that deer, would it?"

Copper gave a guilty look and wagged his tail even slower. "Kinda."

"Oh boy. Listen, sonny, here's a little lesson in life that everybody should know. Sooner or later, it is mandatory that you leave your mother. Otherwise you'll never grow up. She's responsible for helping you grow up enough so that you can go out and make it on your own, and that's it. Now, some dogs do stay with their mothers all their lives, but that's only them high-class breeding dogs that do that. I don't agree with that, but that's my opinion. Anyways, the same thing applies to that baby deer out there. He don't have a mother anymore, so he's going to have to make it alone unless he's lucky enough to find . . . I don't know, a relative or something. But sooner or later, he's going to forget about his mother because she isn't around to take care of him anymore. Right now, you're starting to forget about yours because you haven't seen her in several months. I haven't thought about mine since I was your age myself. I don't remember a blasted thing."

He patted the little pup on the head with a front paw. "Don't stress yourself, kid, you don't have much farther to go before you're old enough to deal with life yourself. Until then, just try not to think too much about your mom and get some sleep."

Copper turned around real slow and walked back to his spot by the woodpile with his nose almost touching the floor in drowsiness. Chief watched him for a couple of seconds, sighed, then said,

"Hey, Copper?" The puppy perked his ears up and looked back at him. "If you want to, you can spend the night with me . . . but only for tonight. Okay?"

Copper wagged his tail happily and bounded back over to where his friend was and curled up next to him. He fell asleep so fast, he didn't get a chance to say "Good-night."

Okay, bore-snore, I'm trying to lead up to some action in this, which should come sooner or later, I haven't decided yet. I don't even know when I'll update this story again. But I'm sure it won't be another 2 to 3 months before I do so! Sorry again about that, but please review!