Ocean's Breath Plateau The sound of little feet

The sleepy girl took a little time to get started, but once she understood what was happening, she was eager as any of them. She rushed out ahead, fascinated to cross through the Bright Light that she'd so often seen her parents and visitors pass in and out of. The other side was shocking both in its newness and its sameness. The area immediately outside the den was almost like the inside, only brighter and surrounded by green. She spotted sticks, like the ones that Daddy brought her sometimes, and she smelled the sea air that Mama always smelled like.

But it was all so big, and she felt smaller than she ever had before. Angel Oak crawled toward her mother and hid beneath her, afraid most of all of the blue above them.

"Mama," she called, trying to steal the attention from her sisters, "Whassat?"

She pointed her nose at the sky.