Rain slapped away at the window on the upper floor of the house in the lonely street. Despite the darkness, Vanos found entertainment after he picked out an old card game stuck in the basement, probably intentionally lost years ago.

The flash of lightning only briefly interrupted him from reading instructions. "And that's how the game is played. After putting the right card down, you roll the die, and if you have that number, you place any card of that number down, got that?"

"Or we could play Tower," Kyofi said, giving him a bored look at she sat on the floor.

The family found themselves stuck in their house because of the weather conditions. Mosor had been idly working the book they got from Lhyna, scratching and clawing to open it up, but it wouldn't work.

Vanos hopped onto the couch to give a soliliquoy, his yellow pelt going well with the dark blue couch. "In these times of high distress, where we've been trapped the whole day at either work or home with no great excitement, we must dig deep inside ourselves."

The lights flashed off, and none of them could see anything, except the moonlight itself pouring in. That accentuated their shadows, making them long claws into the hallways of their home.

Kyofi burst out laughing. Mosor and Vanos gave her disgruntled looks. "You can't play your stupid card game, can you?" Kyofi was on the floor now.

Vanos stuck his tongue out at her.

"What happened to the lights!?" Mosor would ease herself down the hallway, and opened up the farthest door on the left.

She hated fighting the doorknob which was clearly meant for bipedals, with opposable thumbs. True, dires had a lot of dexterity, and had a semi-thumb they used to manipulate objects, but it was nowhere near that good.

It eventually opened up, and she saw Ahmond staring out at the window into the endless void of gray clouds which drowned out the color of the street.

Mosor said, "It's simply a power outage, there's not anything to be afraid of." Ahmond wasn't born in Wysdom, and hadn't been used yet to the ideas of electricity. Tamed lightning without the use of magic itself.

"But how are we going to see anything?" she asked as she hopped down from the bed and went over to Mosor.

Vanos came in afterwards, and said, "It's all dark, but we can still make this work. I guess we can all play something else instead."

"We need to light a few candles first," Mosor said.

"Good idea, make the mood all spooky and stuff," Vanos told her with a grin. "Maybe I could tell her a scary story?"

Ahmond growled at her older brother, but Vanos went downstairs to grab a few candles, and a lighter.

The candlelight brought joy back to the upstairs "Entertainment Room" as Vanos called it. It wasn't much more than a smaller living room. Not much more than the creaky sofa and the few old tomes they had.

Kyofi said, "Vanos is right, we do need to find some way to occupy ourselves. I mean, we can't sleep all night."

"Yes we can," Ahmond said, "isn't that how it works?"

Kyofi said, "This is a city with a night life, kid. That means we're all meant to do stuff until we're tired enough we can't even think of doing anything."

Mosor said, "Good thinking, we can pull an all-nighter!"

"Why does everyone think pulling an all-nighter is a fun idea?" Vanos said. "We have work in the morning. Aren't you supposed to be the responsible one, Mosor?"

Mosor said, "No, I'm the one who handles the paperwork, you're the one with family visiting, making you the responsible one, Vanos."

Kyofi said, "Make it into a game too. Last one to fall asleep is the winner of the game, everybody got that?"

Mosor put her paw out to agree on it, as did Ahmond. Vanos hesitated, but put his paw on the pile too.

"One, two, three, go!"

***

One hour in, and the four kept the situation livened by drinking soda and candy. Kyofi fit almost three packs of bubble gum in her mouth. Vanos hadn't had any soda himself, but Mosor was drinking like no tomorrow.

Ahmond said, "This is cool. Can you guys teach me how to play Tower?" Kyofi shrugged and sat down next to her. It was a trading card game, that consisted of growing an army.

Vanos' eyes closed briefly.

"WAKE UP!" Kyofi shouted in his ear, and he jumped up, screaming like he was being bit by her.

Mosor shook her head at Kyofi. "That's not how you're supposed to play the game, and you know it! You're supposed to try to win!"

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Ahmond said, "That was pretty funny. We should do that again."

Kyofi said, "Got it, next time you're about to fall asleep, I'll scream into your ear that you're supposed to wake up."

Mosor said, "There is no more shouting allowed in this house for the rest of the day. Or any other day for that matter."

Kyofi chuckled. "I'm not going to do it again, I swear Ahmond's life on it." Ahmond perked up, wondering why she was involved.

Vanos grumbled and went downstairs to get something to eat presumably. Kyofi asked Mosor, "Odds on, who do you think is the favorite of us?"

Mosor blinked and said, "Usually you're last to fall asleep anyway. But I'm usually first to get up."

"Vanos is usually first to fall asleep," Kyofi said. "Well, actually, it's Ahmond, but that's not her choice, is it?"

Ahmond shook her head. "I don't get why I can't stay up later than Vanos. I'm perfectly old enough to handle myself."

Mosor said, "It's about the fact that he can't let anything bad happen to you. Mostly because your mom will murder him if he did that." Mosor gave her a teasing grin. "If that wasn't the case, he'd probably let the woodsman take you."

"Who's the woodsman?" Ahmond asked, her eyes wide, as she listened. Kyofi got prepared to lunge on her.

"I know I said no scary stories," Mosor said with a serious inflection, and Ahmond tilted her head.

"You know you're going to tell it to me, Mosor," Ahmond said. Mosor giggled and shook her head, but Ahmond waited. After a few seconds, Mosor continued.

"There's a woodsman, and basically he was known for chopping woods. An old crimson who during a workplace accident, had a tree fall on him. But after the tree fell on him, he came back as a ghost. He haunts the world and tries to find a new soul to inhabit. He hides amongst the trees, or in wooden houses, and when he sees a perfect target he-"

A scream cut them off.

Kyofi said, "Wrong timing for the jumpscare, and wrong wolf." That was definitely a Vanos scream, and the pack headed down.

Vanos batted at his tail which had small curls of smoke coming from it. He was on the kitchen tile, with a knocked over candle nearby.

"You almost fell asleep again, didn't you?" Kyofi asked. "And you ended up touching your tail with the flames, right?"

"I guess, yes," Vanos said. This was the second time he had been saved by the bell. Or this time, burned by the bell.

Mosor figured he might win simply because he kept getting stimulated by something, whether flame or Kyofi. "At least we're not doing turbo hardcore mode on this."

Ahmond asked, "What's turbo hardcore mode?"

Kyofi said, "One week without sleep. Winner is whoever has the least amount of sleep, or hides their sleeping the best."

Vanos said, "It's only ever been done twice, but I'll have you know I was the winner one time, and the other was Kyofi."

Kyofi said, "I've got this down to a science on staying up later than you need to." Vanos shook his head, thinking that wasn't something to be proud of.

Mosor said, "I think we should stay in groups of two. That way one of us can watch the other, and tell if they're asleep."

"Actually, that's an interesting idea, in and of itself, if you ask me," Kyofi said. "Half-sisters versus brother and sister."

Mosor asked, "You're saying instead we should try a team up?" They never had four players, but this could work.

"I think we're on to something right now," Kyofi said, and put her paw out. Once again, all three put their paws in, before Vanos begrudgingly took the final spot.

*

"WAKE UP!"

Kyofi roughly slapped Mosor, causing her to jump in fright from the sudden pain to her bottom.

Mosor groaned and asked her, "Did you have to slap my, my behind?" She turned around to make sure Kyofi couldn't slap her again.

Kyofi gave her a toothy smile and lurked down the hallway to see if the two other two siblings weren't simply taking a siesta without them being aware of it. "We need to sabotage the two," she said as she looked over the bannister, watching Vanos and Ahmond playing Tower.

Vanos hadn't ever learned to play himself, and they awkwardly fumbled around, examining how the rules worked, and practically reciting the rulebook instead of playing the game itself.

Kyofi said, "I think I know exactly what to do. Go and get the sleep medicine, we'll slip it into their drinks."

Mosor shook her head, and said, "I'm not a dirty player. The fact that you are is sickening, and I won't contribute to it." She put her head high in the air.

Kyofi asked her, "You know that I can simply do it myself, right?" She went over to the medicine cabinet, and took a bottle of blue fluid out.

Mosor said, "This is cheating."

"Not technically, all's fair in love and war," Kyofi said as she carried the bottle down in her mouth.

This wasn't any normal sleeping medicine, this was absolute knock-out juice that put people in virtual comas. It was meant to be drank in the bed itself unless someone felt like taking a snooze in front of the medicine cabinet. There was no chance of survival after this.

Kyofi's big frame couldn't avoid being seen. With a wave, Ahmond and Vanos greeted her, but she twisted her head around, that way they wouldn't sight the bottle she had. Only nodding, she went into the kitchen, and poured some of the juice into the bottle of soda.

Mosor watched Kyofi come back up. "By their next drink, they'll be sleeping like they've never slept before, you can count on that."

Mosor shook her head, and said, "You're unbelievable in what you'll do to win a game, but I guess it's only you and I, right?" She didn't like benefitting from cheating, but she sure wasn't going to take herself out over it.

"More like me, considering you're already about to hit the bed," Kyofi pointed out. Mosor nodded.

"I guess you're right, and there's no reason to fight it anymore, I'll go to bed. Good night, Kyofi," she said, and Mosor went to sleep.

One down, and two about to go.

*

How wasn't Vanos downed yet? He had taken a swig, Kyofi had seen it after she gone down to watch the three of them.

Ahmond went down without a fight. But Vanos, while nearly comatose, and blinking a lot, he stayed up and stared at her.

"How are you not down yet?" Kyofi asked him. "I poisoned your drink with sleeping aid, how are you not down?" Kyofi felt the effects of the caffeine she drank getting to her and she was going down.

Vanos muttered, "Takes more than that to keep me down." He felt his eyes fall shut and he slumbered at last.

Someone shouted, and both woke up. Mosor laughed as she was apparently the last wolf standing, despite her being covered in the rain from the storm.

"How are you up?" Kyofi asked her.

"Got this idea from you." She revealed a bottle of red fluid, known as pure on knock in juice which put someone into a hyperdrive state from sleepiness.

"We'll kill you when we can stay up," Vanos said as he fell asleep again.

"Agreed," Kyofi said with a growl as she went down. Ahmond hadn't woken up at any point due to the potion.

Mosor said, "Guess this means that brains beats brawns and even guts, what do you know?" She hummed to herself, but realized, "Now how am I supposed to get any sleep?"

Too bad she had work in the morning. Now she went over to the firefly diary, and wrote in the journal.

"I guess we've been trying to break open the book, but today we decided to have a bit of fun." Purple vines wrapped around her without her noticing them.