it seemed a mistake was forsworn to happen, and today it did so due to mireille's longer-than-usual nap. when chani and astera had come to visit not so long ago, their aunt had welcomed them, and little sobeille had met them then.
perhaps thereafter, astera had gotten it in her mind that she too was to tend the littlest, for when the obsidian awoke, sobeille was nowhere to be found.
"miette? sobeille!" she scolded, slipping from the mossy hollow into the tangle.
a trail, not old, but too old for how young sobeille was. she called for her older sisters to watch the other children, and dashed down the track when astera's frantic calling began to echo through sapphique.
etienne had gone, had gone, or else she would have asked for him first. no time to think as her daughter's trajectory headed for the ocean. "no!"
astera, on the sand; chacal, calling out; mireille saw her niece's muzzle just clearing the waves, and dread crushed down upon her. there were very few reasons a child of these cliffs would leap into the sea, and it would almost always be for another.
panic blurred the young mother, and she leapt smoothly into the current, there beside suzu as the baby sobeille and her savior came to shore. 
horrified, terror-stricken, mireille gently parted them, seeking confirmation that her niece still breathed before she turned tear-stained face to sobeille. "listen, listen to me, breathe! move!" she pleaded, cradling the tiny child — the bear — her mother — sobo; her heart, cracking.