Sunbeam Lair In the mirror, you're brushing over

The coywolf pulled a face. "They're just creepy," he replied. "Always waiting for you to look away so they can swoop down and steal a kid. Not that it ever happened on my watch — but I had an aunt and a cousin snatched up that way."

He was big enough now he didn't have to worry about such things, and he had not, to date, been bothered by any eagles. It was only their similarity to night birds that made him wary.

In Etienne's scent, he detected at least one other individual — one that smelled familiar, maybe. He wasn't sure. Either way, he'd gotten what he needed from his sniffing and ceded the shared space back to the other wolf — he found Etienne's paw prints and sniffed them instead.

"What's your home like?" he wondered aloud, and then he sank down nose-first to scrape his cheek against the ground. "Smells foxy. That must be fun."