Hushed Willows Don't be long, for the end is nigh

Not much had changed for Dusty Rose in the wake of Boone's disappearance. He'd never actually met the guy, and he figured they were doing just fine without him — so good riddance, really. It did leave the coywolf wondering just who was in charge here. Reverie, of course. She was a parent, and a parent was the ultimate authority figure. Dusty Rose had never quite learned to respect authority that wasn't one of his fathers — and, even there, he'd outgrown at least one of them.

He wondered if, had he still been alive, Dad's word would have been impotent to him now as well. The thought made him unusually melancholy, which was, in his opinion, a huge waste of his time.

So he went looking for Reverie, hoping to compensate by spending time with the only one who didn't seem like a waste of time. Reverie and her little Muppet creatures, which had proved a little more fascinating than Dusty Rose has expected.

"Hey, sunshine," he said as he came nearer to the den. He was distracted, his ears flickering and his nose twitching. He dared not draw too close without invitation, but damned if he wasn't looking for the weird little pipsqueak he'd met before. Did it talk more, now? Would it remember him?

"Where's all the rugrats at?"

He didn't know any of their names. He assumed that they didn't have them yet, since he'd been hey you or love or baby well into his earliest memories — and he thought he'd been quite a bit bigger than hers were.