Bearclaw Valley in june 323 BCE

Slumber was peace, and peace was all she had known. Mother warmed her, kept her fed, all without ever having to ask or beg. Like a little parasite, Periwinkle existed within the tides of her mother’s womb, gently rocked like a fish resting just below the surface where waves crested overhead.

Peace, that is, until she felt herself being squeezed, felt the movement of other bodies near her. She’d never known movement like this, and began to feel something unfamiliar and uncomfortable grow within her. For the first time in her life, Periwinkle began to feel fear. 

She too writhed when her world began to press in. The kicking and struggling of other children had lessened- but the atmosphere became only more inhospitable as she felt herself squeezed through a narrow canal- and then out into the void where pressure ceased to exist. 

For a moment, there was calm again, until her energy began to wane. She felt coldness seep in through the umbilical chord, where once nutrients had supplied her with everything she had needed. She couldn’t feel it any more, and with every moment, her body began to cry out- she needed sustenance, she needed something, she needed-

a gasp! 

Air. 

Her mother freed her from the milky veil, and she drew in one breath after another, uttering small, bearlike cries until she felt herself pulled back toward warmth and softness. She buried her face into her mother’s fur and needled and made sucking noises with her toothless mouth until she found what she was looking for. 

More warmth, more sustenance. Now, it came through her mouth, a part of herself which, until this point, had done very little. Her limbs still weak, eyes still closed and little ears still folded, she knew now only the use of her lips and tongue, the gentle kneading of her paws, and the pleasure of having a belly full of warm milk!