They started their slow, methodical decent down the mountain, crisscrossing each other, stopping here and there to have a sniff at holes or to mark the base of a tree with their urine. They had learned to live with the cold and the snow. For a long time they had endured the harsh Sawtooth winters and survived. They learned how to store their food from watching the squirrels and chipmunks. They learned how to shelter themselves efficiently by watching the rabbits and birds. They learned how to be patient and let the food come to them by watching the spiders. And they learned how to cooperate and work together by watching the humans. They knew nothing of fate or providence, but fate and providence were on their side none the less. As advanced as the human creatures might be, their fatal flaw was believing that the universe was there to provide for them and them alone. Nature plays no favorites, and every now and then Darwin is proven wrong and the fittest don't survive.