Flycatcher Downs i've been everywhere, man

"If they're anything like Day, they're perfect," Shale replied. "He was the golden boy back home, after all." Any trace of resentment that would have once lived in his tone, saying these words, was gone. Shale was older, now, and had carved out a life for himself, removed from his littermate's shadow.

He was excited to see Grayday again, not only from the standpoint that he was family, but also out of the curiosity he'd have to see any old friend once more. What had Grayday done with his life since wandering off so many seasons ago? What was his family like? His wife and children? Was his pack big and strong, the band of wolves he was always destined to inherit?

Or was his life a hollow sham, as Shale's had become over the past moons? Were his children sickly, his wife departed? Had he failed at the challenges that had been thrown at him? Was he a shell of his former self?

Shale knew that nothing was black and white, that Grayday must have both succeeded and struggled, celebrated and suffered. But he was curious, all the same, to see the balance between the two extremes. Which was greater? Which dominated his brother's personality now?