Sequoia Coast first;

a moment shared between survivors of grief that seemed it might last forever —

at last ava’s shaking breaths steadied against the rise and fall of heda’s sides. her mama, sentinel — standing while around them everything crumbled to ruin. 

ava would not lose sight of that. 

while her mama’s unborn cry did not rent the air, its passion lingered between the two of them. 

ava worried the little flower between her paws, head slumped against heda’s shoulders as a desperate and lonely tiredness took her.