Redsand Canyon did he go on down the mountainside, and leave you all alone?

Riley's logic came in absolutes. There were no shades of gray in Riley's world: things were black, or they were white. They were good, or they were bad. Empty, or full of promise.. Intelligent, or incredibly stupid..

His ear flicked back as a summer squall clawed its way through the canyon. Somewhere distantly a dirt devil spun into existence, fanning out in grating screams in some far-away gorge.

"Are you lonely?" It is perhaps the first inkling of some observation in the ophidic boy: he cocked his head to the side, birdlike in his curious studying of Colin's face.