Bearclaw Valley you will never get to heaven.

There was a sliver of awareness. Something idling in the back of her mind, telling her that she was not alone, but she did not heed the sensation. There were other feelings awakening across her body that served to overwhelm her in the moment: the flavor of the dirt in her mouth, for instance.

How had it gotten there? She tongued at her teeth, gathered the detritus there, spat mud. A shaking breath rattled through her.

Dirt crusted over her eyes. Her belly pinched where it folded, and she realized before she could correct her vision she had to get out of the makeshift grave within which she had slept. As she lunged forth and rose her forequarter from the soil bits and pieces fell away.

The earth moaned as it released her. It sagged in to the void where her body had been; she sagged too, unable to keep to her feet.