VIII

Her foot with the shoe on it had sunk under a pile of dirt without her noticing. But as she freed it, the ground swallowed her bare foot. After a few more steps, she resigned herself to walking ankle-deep in the treacherous soil. This made it rather difficult to remain upright; and more so because the balancing aid of windmilling the arms was for Tsvetka definitely lopsided. The little cheetah padded along next to her, looking anxious. But even in his preoccupied state, he didn't stumble over the object directly in his path.

He caught it up in his mouth. Tsvetka stared. Samson bared his canines. Then they both looked back and up... Far up.

VII

The horizon which had, by imperceptible intervals, grown considerably lighter.

"So what do we do now?" Tsvetka wondered, half to herself and half to her companion.She pushed him off and struggled to her feet, glad to discover that although her joints were stiff, her legs seemed to have suffered no lasting damage.

By contrast, her arm was growing more painful with each moment that passed. It was probably light enough to see what was wrong with it, but she found herself averting her gaze to stare determinedly at the distant, growing light.

VI

'Hullo, you,' she said, and spat out more dust. She desperately needed some water. Samson slunk closer, his non-retractable claws making crunch-crunch noises. He licked her face, and she could see his eyes glinting in some left-over light that was hiding where only the cheetah cub could see. He raised his front paws to place them on her chest, and nuzzled her jaw, eventually succeeding in turning her face towards the horizon.

V

The girl who called herself Tsvetka was not a coward. But her heart still skipped a few beats, and she raised her good arm in an instinctive attempt to protect herself. Then, as the little creature's rough tongue rasped across her bare shin, another memory danced across her mind.

She breathed out. It was Samson.

IV

Now was one of those times she regretted being a member of the most visually dependent species the world had to offer. It seemed unfair that although humans relied mostly on sight, they had distressingly poor night vision. She explored her immediate surroundings with her left hand. Soil, little stones, bigger little stones, what felt like torn up plant roots, more soil, and one of her missing shoes. She emptied it, and pulled it on. As she shifted, her bare foot touched something soft and possibly furry. It moved.

III

Tsvetka.Yes, that sounded right. She said it again, this time softly, and nodded in satisfaction.

As she did so, she winced in unexpected pain. Her neck ached. Now the memory of pain started to seep into her brain, and she realised that her right arm was no longer numb. Instead, it burned.

Gathering her wits about her, she commanded the joints and muscles in her back and legs, and managed to sit up, dragging the useless arm with her.

II

Experimentally, she flexed her left arm. Tiny cascades of soil tickled as they were dislodged by her movement. Interesting, she thought, and tried the rest of her limbs. The same thing happened, except on her right arm, which she couldn't feel below the elbow. Not good. Something nibbled at the edge of her mind. Spitting out as much of the dust as possible that had gotten into her mouth, she said quite loudly,

'Tsvetka. I'm pretty sure that's my name. Yes. Tsvetka, right?'

I

She opened her eyes. The darkness was lifting a little, though it was still so dark that she blinked a few times to be sure that her lids had really lifted. But there was definitely a smudge in the general direction of where she seemed to remember the horizon had been.