The Tangle sedna.

panik.

the word means 'daughter' in her mother's tongue — a voice she will never hear. for as her life begins, sulukinak's ends, and the circle of life continues anew,

albeit abruptly.

children should outlive their parents, yes, but not at this juncture. not at this cost.

the dark girl slips from the womb, slick and silent. she would die, too, were it not for the stranger come to pierce the veil between the old world and the new, freeing panik's lungs to 

b r e a t h e                

yet, even after that first wet gasp, no sound comes. no reassurance of life beyond the slight rise and fall of a tiny ribcage.

instinct shuffles the babe toward a row of teats, but it's just that — instinct. a mindless churning of little legs; a helpless, gaping maw seeking sustenance.

instinct — the genes and means to survive, at least . . . if not the will.