Dragoncrest Cliffs and nimbly, has reminded me now

Erzulie's hummed song piqued Sobo's interest. He focused so intently on her far-off voice and the rising and falling notes that he went slack-jawed. His mother would find no resistance when she pushed the shell away from him, but it effectively broke the spell on Sobo. He flashed his gums at his dam, then dove after the shell.

It would be fortuitous to say that Sobo stopped before ramming those gums right into the shell’s pointed edge, but boys did not learn by merely looking at the object. Sobo grabbed it with the same gusto from before, only to recoil with a whine at the feeling of the studs digging into his sensitive mouth. The look he shot at his mother was full of confusion, and if she looked close enough, she might imagine betrayal.

He was too young to feel such abstract things, so it was only the poignancy of his boyish gaze, and not any real feeling of betrayal, that made Sobo’s eyes shine in that light. Nonetheless, he shied away from the shell with his gaze locked almost expectantly on his mother's face.