It's really not so good to have time. Rush, scramble, desperation, this missed, that left behind, those others too big to fit into such a small space — that's the way life was meant to be. You're supposed to be too late for some things. Don't worry about it.

If he had even blinked, she would have been gone; but he did not blink, and he held her, as he had learned to hold griffins and chimeras motionless with his steady gaze. Her bare feet wounded him deeper than any tusk or riving talon ever had, but he was a true hero.