We have something a little different today. A couple of times through the manuscript, we left the point of view of our main characters and supporting characters and saw things through the perspective of other residents: animals. In this case, a coyote making his rounds in the vicinity of the home of Chloe's mother. Here he sees the arrival of Chloe and Gabriel on the farm.
He considered the land his own, crossing the farm periodically
as part of his wanderings. He had come through the orchards often, knew the
voices of the people in the area, preferred to avoid them. Instead he moved
quickly, quietly, in the shadows, always on the hunt. Rabbits were the
preferred prey in his diet, and he knew well enough to avoid the farms in the
area that had livestock. While that kind of prey might be easy to hunt, doing
so brought other problems.
The coyote had seen the car pull up at the farmhouse
from a distance, had seen the younger couple step out. The female was related,
in some way, to the woman who lived there.
Her cub, he thought. The male
was a newcomer, had only shown up recently. I
wonder if they’ve mated yet, the coyote thought.
