Eventually, my mother senses that I want to continue. We walk for a bit. Well, I walk. She leaps and twirls and skips and prances like a baby deer. There is wonder and amazement and joy in her expression, and looking at her it is hard for me to control my child inside. I skip and dance with her. She rolls down every hill that we come across. I roll with her. We climb an apple tree and stare about. We pelt apples at those who pass, laughing and hiding among the leaves. We nearly fly through the sunlight and we are free, we are free! As the day grows to a close, we sit in the soft grass at the edge of a village and watch the sunset. It is a particularly beautiful one tonight, with scarlet red and orange and soft gold and pinks. It has been a long time since I have watched the sun setting. Probably a third of a year. I have been gone for a longer time than I realized. My mother leans into me and places her arm around my shoulders.
"This is beautiful, isn't it, Lore?"
I smile, and it is a true smile. I always loved it when my mother called me Lore. "Yes, Mother. I think that I have never seen anything as beautiful as this before."
She laughs warmly, and reaches to rub my back. "The only thing that I have ever seen more beautiful than this sunset is you, my dear. I love you."
"I love you too, Mother." I lay down in my bedroll and fall asleep almost instantly. The warmth of my mother's words are like a little fire in my soul, fighting away chill winds.

Everett looms over me, laughing. His laugh is cruel and horrid and grating and I hate it. I look around for Mother, but I am alone. I try to scream, but my mouth will not open. I swing at him, but his hands clamp down over my arms. He lifts me up and slings me over his shoulder again, and I see the mouth of a sack heading towards my face. I open my mouth, and this time I can scream, so I scream loud enough that I probably shattered his eardrums. He forces the sack over my head. I scream again and again, even though my mouth is getting dry from screaming, and my throat has grown hoarse. I know that if I stop screaming he will be able to take me away, but if I keep screaming surely someone will hear me. I wrench my arms from his grasp and beat on his back. I kick him, and I am at the perfect height to inflict severe pain in a sensitive area. He doesn't even falter in his steps. He puts me down and ties my arms to my sides and my legs together with a long piece of rope and then mutters something and throws a powder onto my limbs. It smells like pond scum and muddy feet and it renders me stiff as a board. I cannot move, I cannot see, I can barely even think. So all that I can do is scream. I am hurting my own ears and the rough cloth of the sack is becoming tangled in my tongue and the powder has made my legs frozen and numb. There must have been something foul like fish skins in this sack before, because it reeks of salt and sweat and fish. The sweat is probably mine, and my tears have most likely created the salt smell as well. Terror dances in my stomach like a wild beast. What will Everett do to me when we get wherever he is going? My body feels heavy and cold, and my consciousness is fading, but I manage to fit in one last scream.