Astrid

Chapter 4

It seemed like we were running for days. I was thirsty, starving, and well beyond the point of exhaustion. Glen had split up from us days ago to try and draw the guards in a different direction. He did, however, tell us where to go to find safety and he made us rub some kind of herb he found all over ourselves so they couldn't track us with the dogs. I think he called it wolfsbane.

It was just sophia and I. We knew it would be a long travel but we had no other choice.

We were headed to a little village just outside of some yet to be determined place. Glen had family there who would protect us until we found somewhere else to go. It was several days travel on horseback so who knows how long it would take us to get there on foot. It was far too much for the four year old version of myself so sophia had to carry me quite a bit, she couldn't do this all the time however so I did a fair share of walking myself.

By the time we reached the village of Amark, several days had passed. We had no supplies, we were starving, dehydrated, and we had both reached the point of exhaustion long ago. At this point I was walking alongside sophia, my hand in hers. We didn't get very far down the village main street before Sophia suddenly collapsed right there in the middle of the street.

Everyone in the village stopped and immediately came rushing to her side. It was chaos, everyone was talking and trying to help but really just making it worse. Suddenly an older woman came barreling through the crowd yelling "Back the glitch off of the poor girl!" Without hesitation the crowd listened to her, each taking a few large steps backward.

"Oh my!" the woman exclaimed as we came into her view through the crowd. She immediately reached down and picked me up. Then pointing to a couple of young men on the other side of the crowd she said "You boys, lift up this young woman and bring her to my house, I will help her there." She turned and started walking away, when she looked back and realized the boys hadn't started moving yet she said "Well, what are you waiting for we haven't got all day." immediately the boys scurried to pick up sophia off the ground and then they started to follow right behind the woman carrying me.

I must have fallen asleep in the woman arms because next thing I know I was waking up in a strange house, on a strange table, with a strange woman standing over me.

"You're awake." the unfamiliar woman said. "You have been asleep for quite a few days, you must have been pretty tired."

At this point I was still in shock about the events of the past few days. Or had it been longer? anyways it didn't matter, I was starting to freak out little and as you know a child's best form of communication is to cry, and that's exactly what I did. I just started balling my eyes out. The woman hovering over me just started laughing. I was all alone, Every person I knew and loved is dead and this woman was laughing. I just lost it. I jumped up off of the table I was laying on and just booked it out of the room. Just as I bursted through the doorway I slammed into Sophia's legs and got knocked to the ground. She plucked me up from the ground and carried me back over to the table I took off from.

"Don't worry you're safe here" she said calmly. "This woman is gonna keep us safe."

"My name is Delma. I understand you knew my son pretty well. Glen is a good boy. He told me all about you the last time he visited me." Delma was a larger woman, not incredibly obese but enough that it had a small effect to her gate. She was a friendly looking woman, very caring and motherly, it was actually very calming. "Don't worry you'll be safe here, as long as we keep that red hair of yours covered." she said smiling at me.

****

Thats where we stayed for a few years. That is the last place where I ever remember being truly safe. Delma and Sophia took really good care of me there. I didn't go outside much and when I did I had to make sure that my hair was completely covered. Apparently it was a tell all signal as to whom I was, I was only girl in the kingdom with flaming red hair and just about everyone was looking for me. There was a huge bounty on my head.

The rebels came through Amark every few months and ransacked all of the houses in town. They made all of the women and children stand in lines outside their homes as they inspected each one of them closely, looking for any sort of disguise. They were looking for me and sophia. Delma did a good job of making sure we were well hidden. There was a false wall hidden in the guest room closet that led to a small gap just wide enough for us to sit down but not tall enough for us to stand. we used to hide in there whenever they came. We were always careful about keeping extra canned food and an empty bucket in there just in case we had to spend a few days in there. We didn't want to take any risks.

Even though I didn't get to go in town very often, the back house butted right up against the edge of the forest which allowed me some space to explore. At first Sophia and I always went out there together but when I turned seven they started letting me out there on my own. I would go out and explore the paths, climb the trees and collect fresh berries to bring back to the house, although I usually ate most of them before I made it home.

There was one day in particular that I remember venturing much deeper into the woods than ever before. I had grown distract by a patch of raspberries that extended far beyond my usual path. It wasn't long before I had no idea where I was. It wasn't the first time I had gotten a little lost in these woods so I didn't really start to get concerned until it started to get dark. Usually if I was gone for this long someone would have come looking for me but no one did. I ended up spending the night in a tree at the edge of a little clearing I found.

I wandered around most of the day looking for something familiar and finally just before dusk I found a path I recognized. It wasn't long I reached our backyard.

What I saw there stopped me dead in my tracks. The entire town was burnt to a crisp. Many of the houses were still smoldering. Delmas house was the least destroyed, only the roof seemed to have been burnt off. I opened up what was left of the back door and as soon as I stepped inside my stomach twisted into a knot. There was blood smeared everywhere, along the walls, across the floor, and even splattered on the ceiling. Something terrible had happened here. That's when I saw it, at the end of the hall. there were two figures, one large and one small. I knew immediately who they were. There bodies were so mutilated that there faces were unrecognizable but i didn't need to see their faces to know I had gotten the only two people who cared about me killed, along with everyone else in this village.

The rebel soldiers must have come through while I was out lost in the woods but they weren't here anymore. when they didn't find me they must have thought that they already killed me in the fires or that i just simply wasn't there. Either way I knew I couldn't stay here anymore. I would get my revenge for them but not here, not now. I grabbed an old backpack from the closet that wasn't damaged from the fire and filled it with a water jug, some canned food, a bit of venison jerky, and a few rolls of bread I found left over in the kitchen. I had no idea what I was doing. I also grabbed a large hunting knife Delma kept hidden in the back of a draw in the kitchen. Then I headed back out into the woods.