When night came, Shade woke up to the sound of an owl's hooting off in the distance. Sleep was something that his tired out body needed to give him the strength after all that had recently occurred.
His dreams of Goth slowly began to vanish from his mind. Shade felt as if a big amount of weight had been lifted off of him because Goth was dead, and he would stay dead, and would never trouble him again. Life had seemed to make a major turn for Shade. However, new worried thoughts began to take control of his mind. Worry usually wasn't something Shade had usually felt. He had a dangerous curiosity that often led him into many rule breaking times, and many of those times not once did he think about hanging back. Impulsive, that's what he was all about.
The whole mating situation with him and Marina wouldn't leave his thoughts. Only two other bats knew about it, Marina and his father, and it seemed that both of them made it sound like he was worried about something that he didn't need to worry about at all.
Shade wanted to get out and stretch his wings, but it seemed like he was the only one in Tree Haven awake at the moment, and thought it may be a little inappropriate to leave Marina after their first night together being mates. To try and pass the time away, Shade strayed on to other thoughts. He looked at his fur, half of it being burned off. Shade really never found himself to be a very attractive male to most females, and the burnt fur didn't make him look anymore appealing than what he once looked like. Not that looks really mattered, because he already had himself a mate. However, he did want himself be as great as possible for Marina.
Suddenly he thought he heard a bat's wings fluttering outside of Tree Haven, and he finally thought someone was awake that he could talk to. He slowly unfurled himself from Marina, and flew outside and into the night.
Using his echo vision he sought out the other bat flying around, but it seemed no one was around besides other nocturnal creatures exploring the night.
"Hello," Shade called out hoping to find the bat. No reply.
"Hello," Shade called out again, "Someone their?" Still no reply. For a moment Shade thought it was just his imagination and decided to head back to Tree Haven, only to be startled by a bat right in front of him.
"Whoa," Shade exclaimed, "Where'd you come from?"
"Who are you?" the bat demanded
"What do you mean who am I, it's me, Shade…oh..wait, your not a Silverwing.
"No, and your name please!" The bat demanded once again.
"Shade, what about you?" Shade replied. Shade had never seen a bat like this one before. The bat was a female about Shade's age. She had sharp ears and a perfectly smooth nose. Her eyes were brightly colored and stared hard at Shade. But what Shade noticed best about her, was how much her fur made her whole body shine in the moon's light, making her bright enough to blind a bird.
"My name's Ataria." She replied.
"What kind of bat are you?" Shade asked.
"I'm a Moonwing." She replied.
"Is your colony roosting nearby?" Shade asked.
"I don't have a colony."
"Don't have a colony, what do you mean?"
"I used to have a colony, but… never mind, I should get going."
"Wait; tell me, did your colony banish you or something?"
"Really, I don't want to talk about it!" Ataria replied a little too loudly.
"So you're all alone then?" Shade asked.
"Yeah, I really think I should…
Why don't you just stay with my colony for awhile?"
"That's very kind, but…
"I insist," Shade said, "Come on."
End of Chapter 3