One dayβor something like a dayβsomething interrupted her.
Not a sound. Not a force.
A pause.
It was so subtle she almost missed it. The faintest hesitation, like a breath taken without knowing why.
Her jaw loosened.
Her tail slipped, just slightly, from her mouth.
And in that small, impossible space between what had always been connectedβ¦
something new entered.
Air.
It was strange. Cold, almost. Undefined. It did not taste like her.
She recoiled instinctively, pulling back into the only shape she knew.
Mouth to tail. Seal the loop. Continue.
But something had changed.
The next time she closed the circle, she noticed it.
A pressure in her mouth. A resistance she had never questioned before.
She paused again.
Slowly, uncertainly, she opened her jaw.
And for the first time, she saw them.
Teeth.
Small. Sharp. Lined with purpose.
They had always been there.
She had just never needed to notice.
β