Perhaps it was a harkening back to the days of long ago when Gray Wolf, in her first motherhood, sought refuge at the summit of the Sun Rock which towered high above the forest world of which she and Kazan were a part, and where later she was blinded in her battle with the lynx.
Baree's rock, instead of rising for a hundred feet or more straight up, was possibly as high as a man's head.

It was in the edge of the creek bottom, with the spruce forest close at his back.

For many hours he did not sleep, but lay keenly alert, his ears tuned to catch every sound that came out of the dark world about him.

There was more than curiosity in his alertness tonight.

His education had broadened immensely in one way: he had learned that he was a very small part of all this wonderful earth that lay under the stars and the moon, and he was keenly alive with the desire to become better acquainted with it without any more fighting or hurt.