Redsand Canyon Nightcrawler.

Night devils? Was that some sort of fancy term for a nightmare, Towhee wondered? But she forgot to ask when Reyson inquired about her puppies and why she wasn’t with them.

My partner’s, she answered, pausing ever so slightly, with them.

Glancing away, she frowned. “Partner” didn’t feel right in her mouth. Maxim had become so much more to her. She’d tried to repress it, though in the wake of her conversation with Fennec, Towhee realized she was rapidly approaching a critical crossroads in her relationship.

Time to shit or get off the pot, she mused darkly, leaning heavily toward the latter right at the moment, her daughter’s grief and misery fresh on her mind.