Sun Mote Copse breakfast, lunch and dinner's for beginners

The silly word had the effect she'd hoped for, eliciting a boyish giggle from Cinder. Bat grinned at him, then nodded in agreement with his assessment. Only time would tell the youths how each of the remaining seasons changed the landscape and what those changes meant for the wilderness's inhabitants.

For a few moments, Bat simply took in the autumnal changes already laid out before them. Then she abruptly noticed a distant sound above the whisper of the wind in the trees and the rustling of dead leaves at their feet. "Shhhhh," she said to Cinder, flailing a foreleg at him to get him to be still and stop crunching the leaves.

She had to rotate her head and pivot her ears, yet Bat finally picked up on it again. It was water! The barely discernible noise reminded her of the pounding of surf, which made her heart tremble momentarily. But she further suppressed her homesickness and latched onto the feeling of excitement water still engendered in her.

"Cinder, c'mon!" Bat exclaimed, suddenly making a mad dash southeast.