I pant and look around. I still see some torches and hear the villagers yelling: ‘Where is she?!’ ‘There! Catch her!’ I take a deep breath and start to run again. I sprint through the forest and branches hit my face and body. But then my right foot gets stuck behind a trump, I almost trip but just in time I lift my foot and hop on for a few seconds. The villagers are coming closer and closer and I start to get more exhausted. I make a final sprint and jump to the left and then to the right, hoping to lose them.
Using my arms as a sort of shield against the branches I rush through the forest. I don’t even know where I am, so far have I been running. I used to go in the forest with my dad a lot, hunting animals, looking for eatable berries and making tree houses. He taught me everything I know now, but he died. Nobody knows how and when. But he ran into the forest because the villagers were chasing him. They accused him of murder, but he wasn’t the person who did it. He would never do that. So he ran and ran. After a few hours the villagers came back, telling they didn’t catch him. He stayed away for years. He never came back.
My eyes start to water a bit and my speed decreases. A shock goes through my vein and I realize I’m being chased too. I look backwards and luckily enough see no more torches. I could stop running, but I don’t know why but I run further. Branches hit my face again and I start to feel cold. I stop and hide behind a tree. Rubbing my hand over my head I feel something wet, I look at my hand all covered in blood. I gasp, now I feel how exhausted I am. ‘I have to find a shelter.’ I mumble while I wipe the blood at a plant next to me. I rip a piece of white cotton of my, now really dirty, dress and start to wipe off all the blood of my forehead. I must have ran through giant torn bushes or something.
I check for more wounds on my body. Finding one big cut on my right arm, which bleeds and some tiny cuts on my right arm and legs. My dress is also totally ruined, but I didn’t want to have it after all. ‘My mom just makes those things and I have to wear them.’ I mumble. I sigh and rip another piece off my dress and start to bind it around my left arm.
When I’m finally done I sit down and lean against the tree. I look up at the sky, counting the stars and letting my arm rest. ‘Tomorrow I’ll look if there’s a cave or something around here. Where no one can ever find me again.’ I mumble. I don’t even know why I'm mumbling like this… I'm all alone. All by myself. My mom and little sister are probably worried now. Oh well, my mom won’t even notice I was chased by all the people from our village and that I’m now lying somewhere in this dangerous forest, all alone and wounded. But Larue will probably be all worried and can’t sleep this night.
'Larue..' I whisper looking at the stars. With my finger I follow the stars of the Big Dipper. I sigh and say her name again. Poor little girl, now lonely in the hard world, without me.
I start thinking. Why did the villagers chase me? Because I'm just being myself? No. Because I'm a daughter of my father, probably. But I'll never know, I'll never turn back to that village ever again. I take a last look at the Big Dipper and then close my eyes. Thinking of everything I must do, I slowly fall asleep.
