The Third Breath, page 7 of 12

Pip sits soaked in the warm shallows with one limb up at his nose mid-sneeze and laughing, the water running off him, while Dawn lies low and close with her snout along the surface and her eye on him, the folded leaf bell over on the wet sand nearby.

He was laughing before the coughing finished, which is a thing the saved do.

What would you give, said Dawn, still close enough to catch him, to breathe where I breathe?

Everything, obviously, said Pip, and sneezed, and laughed again.

Ready enough, she said, and he grinned, and took it for a verdict on the state of him.

© 2026 A.J.Sharpe