10/9/2025, 7:43 PM
ama. ama. oba. eena. he remembered those things too.
rudimentary babble, the speech of a baby only now tottering on his legs. half-dreams, not formed and without sense. they bobbed like colorful mirage in the boy's mind as he slept, too close to the water to retain his body's warmth.
the sleep that had first been welcome now sunk him down. it felt as if he were watching sister's legs climb again. if he thought hard, the child could still see the shale sliding down between her claws, over the instep of one forepaw.
his eyelids weighed a thousand pounds. a shorebird scuttled near, pecked at the sand under his paw. but pup felt as though he had never moved before. he felt like a stone, like the one lying still not far, crusted in lichen. a crab slowly picked its way across the pitted surface.
pup shut his eyes. he had never been so thirsty, but he had no word for thirst. not yet. only a deep and insistent need, one his exhausted body simply would not move to fulfill.
rudimentary babble, the speech of a baby only now tottering on his legs. half-dreams, not formed and without sense. they bobbed like colorful mirage in the boy's mind as he slept, too close to the water to retain his body's warmth.
the sleep that had first been welcome now sunk him down. it felt as if he were watching sister's legs climb again. if he thought hard, the child could still see the shale sliding down between her claws, over the instep of one forepaw.
his eyelids weighed a thousand pounds. a shorebird scuttled near, pecked at the sand under his paw. but pup felt as though he had never moved before. he felt like a stone, like the one lying still not far, crusted in lichen. a crab slowly picked its way across the pitted surface.
pup shut his eyes. he had never been so thirsty, but he had no word for thirst. not yet. only a deep and insistent need, one his exhausted body simply would not move to fulfill.
