Cassiopeia's View Popcorn tin

Up, up, up! That was the way Draper went. He wanted to get a good look at the land around here, and going up was the best way to do it. The chill grew stronger as he gained elevation, but that didn't stop him. Squinting against the cold winds, he put one foot in front of the other until he reached his destination: a nice little flat piece of rock that overlooked everything to the east. To the west was more mountains, but he wasn't really interested in that direction (yet).

The narrow-muzzled canine gave a little yowl of glee at the sheer vastness of it all laid out before him. He was no conqueror, but he thought he could make a home for himself somewhere around here. Even better if he could put together a rag-tag team of fellow coyotes to keep themselves defended against larger predators. And that was something he really did think he could do. They wouldn't need to be large in numbers. Just big enough to fend off the worst of them. They could be mobile if they stayed small, moving as much as needed until the whelps were born.