Sunbeam Lair In the mirror, you're brushing over

Although he didn't try too hard to find holes in Etienne's words, he assumed immediately that he was lying about his level of loneliness. Acknowledging that it existed at all was damning enough to convince Dusty Rose that it must be painful. Wolves (and coyotes!) weren't meant to be alone, and he wondered at the true circumstances of Etienne's living arrangements.

"Oh, don't worry about it," he was quick to brush off Etienne's apology. His tail swung reassuringly. "One of these days, someone'll have seen her. I expect it'll happen one of these days."

The cavern was still begging to be explored, but Dusty Rose had taken in everything in the immediate vicinity, and could go no further for as long as Etienne stood where he did. It was a little like Age of Empires, where there's a circle of visibility around your units and the rest is in shadow. Dusty Rose was afraid of that kind of dark.

"So... do you have a big family over there?" he wondered. He could not let this go!!