Mudminnow River Call her Miss Mirage 'cause it's over, there's no way to hold her

He saw someone; someone dark of coat and bright of eye, and his heart leapt into his throat. Adrian! He wasn't alone after all, then. Kel's own pace picked up, closer now, until he realized that he was mistaken and his stomach dropped. No. This was a stranger, someone with a missing leg and a hesitancy about him that didn't match Adrian at all.
But this was the first person he'd seen in days. Hi, Kel said breathlessly, his heart still racing from thinking for a wild hopeful moment that one of his packmates had found him. I thought you were ah, someone else. Have you seen anyone else passing this way? From a place called Willowspire? If they were ahead of him, maybe they had met people along the way, and this stranger would have word of them.