Firefly Ravine there in the smoke

Her desire to be free, either within the ravine or beyond it, was so powerful that when Sulukinak made her last reach for that cursed little girl she was certain that she would either grab the little one or the bitch that grappled for her.

In the end, she missed by a hair.

Her reach was great — her passion to keep a family intact, insurmountable — but it wasn't enough.

Her teeth closed and she thought she tasted flesh, maybe blood; she pulled and made herself fall back.

But her teeth had not met the girl child.

The blood was her own.

And as she fell, her eyes went wide with this final betrayal.