Silvertip Mountain However long you stay is all that I am

It was just a gentle pressure now. It was calm and reassuring - helpful, safe, protective. Indeed she felt secure knowing that it was there. Just in case she forgot to keep breathing. It was still something she realised she wasn't doing. Every so often she just... forgot. Then she woke up and had to start again. Any type of touch helped. It seemed as long as she was being touched, she didn't forget. Time didn't stand still then. It grounded her to this earth.

The sneeze shocked her into breathing again. It woke her up and she remembered she had to do this thing. It was getting better. Each minute it got easier to breathe and she had to remember less. Each hour the breathing hurt less and was a comfort instead of a chore. It needed to become natural.

The other's breath was warm through her fur, she wriggled a little - squishing further into him instead of away. It pleaded with him to stay near, to keep her here — to help her remember the important things that would keep her in life.