Sunset Valley backbone

The portentous call at the border had affected Redd in a deep way, one he did not have the tools or knowledge to describe.

But he had not been able to ask her, in fear of overstepping. Besides, it felt complicated -- the intertwining of politics with family matters, maybe -- a tapestry with no room for him.

And politics by itself scared him. Like plate tectonics, they were by large imperceptible until they weren't, telegraphing jagged lines along the seismograph of his life. The unrest infected him; suddenly the Rise felt stifling, and he left their borders at a hurried clip.

He had not seen the pair, Riley and Masquerade, with his own eyes, and so he approached this wolf as he would any other stranger, curious as to their proximity to the Rise and unable to fully smooth the instinctual prickling of his hackles.