…Just as she did that, I heard something taking brisk steps through the river, in our direction. It sounded bigger than a deer, whose movements were quite familiar to me at this point, but I couldn’t see whatever the animal was behind all the willows and alders.

Before she went any further, I grabbed Lu.

I recently had an experience that left me numb for about a week. I only lacked physical feeling for a couple of hours - and actually, I was in so much pain the next day, that I didn't get out of bed for over 24 hours. However, the mental and emotional numbness decided to stick around until I revisited what happened seven days later, at which point it all seemed to flood over me.