Night was Ephraim's domain. When he settled down to sleep, he always encountered memories of his family in his dreams. Sometimes they were happy to see him and sometimes they were angry that he wasn't with them anymore, but always they made him feel guilty for running from the storm. He awoke often in the night as a result of these dreams. Usually he wasn't able to fall back to sleep for several hours, especially when it was the latter sort of dream, so Ephraim could often be found wandering in the late hours, dog-tired but unable to sleep.

This was one such night. He slipped out of Hougeda's darkness into the bracing wind of outdoors. He slept mostly where he happened to be, and that was usually in the cavern away from the others. It reminded him of the grotto and he favoured it for that reason. The night air was comforting, though, almost enough to lull him back to sleep as he wandered. He yawned, and was about to find somewhere to nest down when he spotted Bat staring up into the sky.

The coywolf crept over to her, dark tail swinging as he threw back his head to follow her gaze. What he noticed wasn't the stars, but the dark web-winged shapes that seemed to flutter in and out of view against the skies. "Didya see that?" he whispered when one flapped lower overhead and snapped up a moth.

"Innit past yours?" he shot back, crinkling up his nose at the darker Goufa. He continued watching the dark shapes flitting overhead, visible only by how their rapid passage blotted out the stars above. He never thought to consider the lights before; they were just a thing that had always been there, like sand and surf and air and sunshine. Bat's wonder at them would have been infectious, though, if only he knew what she was referring to. He assumed that it was the animal he was fixated on, and opened his mouth to speak when one swooped down again.

Bat's exclamation made him duck his head down in a flinch, which he laughed off right after. "Swoopies!" he declared, peering up and trying to catch sight of one of the strange creatures. They were hard to make out in the gloom but he thought they flew differently than birds. They changed direction suddenly and seemed altogether clumsy, not unlike wolf pups. "Let's catch one!" he prompted, although he really had no idea how to do that.

All the while the stars twinkled overhead, catching his attention for just a moment. "Past their bedtime, too?" he laughingly remarked.

"Uhhhh," Ephraim faltered, tail twitching with each flitting black shape that passed them by. Were they birds? "Yeah, some kinda birds," he decided, sounding much more confident than he felt. He was at least sure that only birds flew, and these creatures were definitely flying. There was something weird about them, though, and they didn't have the feathery smell he'd come to associate with the gulls and terns of the coast...

Another swung low over the pair of pups and Ephraim sprang, attempting to clip its leathery wings with his teeth. Unfortunately, the bats were much too high up for even the wiry coywolf to reach and he came down ungracefully, staggering into the side of a tree on the landing. "Too fast," he complained, shooting his gaze back to the more incredulous Bat. "Wha' shoul' we do?"

But then they were interrupted by a tiny voice, from a tinier pup, claiming to be lost. Ephraim gathered his tall ears on his head, trying his best to ignore the whispered snapping of the bats' wings as they wheeled in flight, and peered at the mottled Sequoia. "Well, where'dya come from?"