Sunspire Mountains Back in my hometown

His own dandruff made Dusty sneeze hard enough that he stumbled, but he made an effort to maintain a buoyant attitude.

"About a week," he replied, shaking out his pelt once more and then romping forward to crash into his playmate. He leaned his shoulder hard into the other male's, not quite up to a full attack but disguising an attempt to shove him off-balance in a lupine hug. "My dad still thinks he can carry me. He tried to drag me back home when he caught up the other day."

Saying so made Dusty feel just a hair more guilty than he had thus far. Here was a guy who'd been banished from home, forced to grow up without the support of a loving family, and here was Dusty trying to escape his own — and throwing it in the other wolf's face.

"But hey — look at you now," he said, picking up in the middle of a conversation they hadn't actually been having. "You're a pretty big guy. And you survived all on your own. I bet your folks'd feel pretty stupid if they could see you now."

That didn't feel like the right thing to say, but Dusty had never had to talk to someone with such a sad story before. So his sire had eaten his brother. Big deal. At least he'd had them!

"D'ya ever think of trying to find them?" he wondered, unable to help himself. It was just that he couldn't imagine life without a family, even if it was the kind one wanted some distance from. And maybe there was a chance! Maybe they would accept him back into the fold! Dusty couldn't imagine his own parents ever turning him away, even though he'd spurned them both terribly by leaving the way he had.