Sequoia Coast first;

a glimmer of hope cracked ava’s concerned features to see mama eat! oh! her gaze cast around for dinah; did she see?

it is a sorry kind of consumption, just enough to eek out another day — but it is a small success in an endless stream of bludgeons. it will do.

she set aside the hare, seeing heda’s inviting arm. but first she rose, nosing along the brush until a late verbena flower caught her attention. this she plucked, and carried back — head ducking as she crawled under her mother’s embrace and put the flower at heda’s paws.

she wondered if @Seal knew the sign for flower; in silence, she signed seaweed over and over again until suddenly she was crying and the tears could not stop and her breath came in harsh gasps that cut her throat and every exhale sent the petals at heda’s feet fluttering until at last there was no more tear to cry and her reserves were used up and she sat there in the warmth of her mother’s arms as hollow as an empty clamshell cracked over the stones.