Blacktail Deer Plateau Mistaken Identity

He laughed, both at pleasure at getting her name correct and at the jest she threw his way. "Not too often, actually," he said lightly. "It's nothing new. You should have seen us as pups. Indistinguishable gray blobs."

Shale cocked his head, smiling at the young woman. "So you're one of the leaders, here, with Day and Dawn. So, he's not practicing nepotism! How did you come to run into my crazy brother and his family?"

He wondered where Sunny, Day's oldest son, had wandered off to. The Sameth family was known to be tight-knit--well, save for the time when he and his two littermates had, er, left home. Even so, Shale did wonder why the boy hadn't chosen to stay, when the girl, clearly an adventurous and independent spirit, had.