Just throw it back, for one more night

Ephemeral was on his own. It wasn't an entirely foreign concept for him. But this time it was different, his mother wasn't there and waiting for him to get back from his explorations. There wasn't the call of 'Ephy' ringing through the air. The young male was out on his very own for the first time in his life. But his mother was never far from his mind. He didn't fully realize that she had died but simply assumed her to be sleeping. Should he be able to make a friend and bring then back to her then she would wake up and they could go on as they had been. That is what drove the yearling out into the wider world without his mother. He had made a promise and he would keep it. He would find a friend and his mother would be happy and wake up and then said friend could travel with them and all would be right with the world.

But even though he had a quest to undertake didn't mean that he wouldn't end up distracted along the way. Now, it was him following about a firefly. The odd, drifting light entranced the youth. His tongue lulled out the side of his mouth as he bounced after the floating light. He wasn't so intent upon catching the insect as he was on just following it to see what he was doing. Could glow bugs be friends? This sudden thought had him picking up his pace to try and get closer to the lightning bug.

"Wait!" He called after the insect as it continued to drift further and further on without him. The dark male ended up losing track of his new insect friend through a cluster of trees. "Wait me!" He called out again, a whine having bubbled up in his throat with the proclamation.

But it wasn't the firefly that he stumbled into but some other wolf instead. And that was more of a literal stumbling into as Ephy hadn't even noticed the dark male upon the ground for his gaze had been pinned skywards instead in search of his new "friend".