The Third Breath, page 2 of 12

Pip stands on the pale sand at the bottom of the shallow pool with the folded leaf worn upside down over his head, small and methodical.

The pool let him practise in its shallowest corner.

One breath down, touch the sand, up.

He wrote the numbers on a dry leaf: how long a breath is, how far down is.

© 2026 A.J.Sharpe