Golden Glade Cock-a-doodle-bleep

Hey @Tack! I thought I'd do a rescue. :)

A lone Bat was meandering rather mindlessly through a shaded wood a few miles northwest of the Redhawks' plateau when it hit her. Suddenly and without warning, she felt as though someone had punched a hole right through her gut, taken a hold of her insides and torn them out to strew on the ground. She ground to a stop and dropped to the forest floor, curling tightly into a ball with a muffled cry of pain.

It wasn't actually a physical sensation. It was an onslaught of emotional anguish brought on by an errant thought of Wildfire, after observing a leaf aflame with color in one of the towering treetops. Bat had come to resent her mother, yet all of a sudden, she missed her so terribly that she ached down to the marrow of her bones. As a matter of course, she was flooded with thoughts of nomi, as well, and her brothers and sisters. The agony moved into her chest, which felt like it might abruptly collapse.

Writhing there on the cool ground among the first of the season's leaf litter, Bat remained utterly unaware of the bird chirping nearby.