The weight of the earth was crushing. The girl briefly opened her eyes only to shut then tightly, eyes watering from the dirt. She tried breathing only to hack on the dust that encased her body. As she shifted, she tried keeping her breaths short and shallow, and while that lessened her dilemma, she'd still choke on the dust not keeping her breath steady. Lifting her arm, the girl stopped and shifted it. The arm felt wrong somehow, but for the life of her she didn't have time to figure it out there was still the kids to help. The girl froze a moment, then maneuvered her broken body as quickly as possible digging at the dirt around her waist.

Dust flew and the girl hacked and coughed, tears streaming down her face as she felt around for the children. Frantically shoving dirt to the sides. The space made from her panic-induced shoveling resulted in a two second gap in the dirt where she could her their gasps and cries.

The girl quickly hooked one of her arms under both children and started slowly making their way up to the surface, based on how the soil was landing on them. Through every pocket of air, the sounds of gasping cries could be heard. The dirt on her face had quickly turned to mud from her eyes watering and her chest heaved raggedly from the dirt-filled air, exertion, and fear of being crushed.

The girl could feel her body weakening. Lack of air, the weight from the dirt above them, and making sure to hold onto the children. The feeling was akin to being crushed by giants yet being unable to snap for fear of breaking the golden goose's egg. The girl paused in her shoveling, cocked her head and waited.

There! There it was again! The girl's body tensed and she subconsciously dragged the little ones closer. Tension vibrated through her frame and the girl pushed upward with all her might and in a final violent bid for freedom from their earthen tomb.

Rich, black earth exploded upwards as three figures burst through. The girl had enough strength to pull the kids out before she fell. The raspy breaths of the other two were enough to comfort the girl, and even though her eyes were glued shut from the caked mud her one of her arms awkwardly reached towards the unconscious right before she followed them into Hypnos's* realm.

*Hypnos: Greek God of Sleep