Dreaming of Butterflies has finished her duties for the night for her nocturnal tribe, and bids a good morning to the daywatch, soft and sweet as always while her little troupe of pets trot or bound beside her. From the smallest Tiny Star to the largest Calm Night, they have grown serene and tender with each other as Butterflies has hoped they would. So she has no worries as she retreats to her sleeping space and settles down for the day, all five of them lying far enough to keep cool in the swamp's lingering summer warmth.

When she opens her eyes next, her perspective has shifted. She wonders if she is a filly again, then looks down and finds paws rather than hooves. How strange, to feel the ground so directly beneath her! Another glance, and her tail, now far bushier than ever, wags with confused delight. Oh! A wolf, how delightful! One more glance, and Calm Night is beside her - they must look like twins, and with the strangest bark a wolf has ever borked she gives a wiggling prance that causes her to fall over, into the snow around them. Oh, what a rarity, the snow so rarely ever finds the swamp! MotherFather must be giving her a treat. She finds her wolf nosing at her now with a snuffle, and Butterflies picks herself up. With a quick shake to dislodge the cold from her new, much shaggier coat, she gives a bark in return now, tilting her head. Where would they go? What would they do?

Calm Night turns, beginning to trot off, and Butterflies follows after.

Somewhere along the way they leave the swamp behind, and curiously Butterflies doesn't feel the Ache. Instead she just continues going as Calm Night shifts into a steady, ground-eating lope that leads them far into the plains, past herds of sleeping kiokote, and then from there into foothills that climb up and up into mountains. She doesn't run out of breath or stamina, though the chill of the mountain air stings on her wet nose and tongue, down into her throat where she heaves energizing breaths in and out. They climb up and up as the mountains do until finally they stop together on a peak that seems to overlook... everything. And the night sky stretches out, vast and beautiful, shining stars winking and streaking through the black. She thinks of an impossibly large number of her butterflies up there. How long would it take to reach up there and gather them all into one shimmering, fluttering flock? It would be a task too long and too wearisome.

Calm Night heaves a great big sigh, as if her familiar can't express the true depth of feeling right now, then noses Butterflies. She realizes they must look like twins right now with deep, dark blue fading into paleness along their flanks, silvery eyes ringed and sides softly striped. After a moment more spent gazing at the sky with wonder, she looks to the lands below next and marvels at the vast spread before her. Is that vast and dark flatness on the far horizon the ocean? She's never seen it for herself.

Nosed again, she turns her attention to the wolf who gives a brief head tilt, then begins to move off once more. Onward, their journey goes - Butterflies knows she'll never travel this far in the waking world, and as she runs onwards the dream begins to lose coherence, landscapes blending together and steps stretching impossibly far. She thinks she hears Calm Night say something, almost like... "Dream further than your butterflies."

The doe rouses, her body her own as she opens her eyes to the twilight hours. How pleasant, and strange... and thought-provoking. She'll have to spend tonight thinking on this dream, and what it could mean.