Wheeling Gull Isle by the light of a burning donkey

Mou barely managed to rise up to half height by the time Vesper had found the den mouth, and he spun hastily, lurching after her like a bull in a china shop; taking more care not to trample the rest of the sleeping children in the process, and emerging in to the light where he could shield the girl with the length of his body overhead.

There came the sound again but sharper, as it was closer and they were both no longer held within the den and its muffling walls. It was a tap-tap--taptap! It came from further ahead, and some ways up, at the crook of thick branches reaching from a nearby tree.

He looked around as best he could with his one eye, and only managed to spot the flicker at the last moment, as it began to tap again. Seeing as the creature was not a threat to them, Mou ducked his head back down and snuffled over Vesper's dark shoulders.