She hung in the air for a while. Then she fell. She fell, unseeing, unhearing, feeling but the tug of gravity. Then she felt the touch of cold air upon her skin; she heard the sharp sound of wind. She fell – without a thought in her mind.

She hit the ground. There was a dull thud, a sharp pain in her side, and a sharper pain shooting through her head. Then there was nothing at all.

---

She woke to the gentle pitter-patter of rain. She lay motionless for a while, eyes shut. She felt numb, dazed, cold. Pain spread dully through her flank; she rolled aside, away from the sharp stone upon which she had fallen, and which still bit into her ribs. The earth was damp beneath her; wetness was seeping through her clothes.

She sat up dizzily and opened her eyes. About her trees grew sparsely on a rocky hillside; a fine drizzle fell steadily and a cool breeze blew, whistling through the branches, snatching away dead leaves. She could not remember from where she had come. She felt feverish. She stood up shakily. Every forest must come to an end. There must be someone, somewhere. She began to walk downhill.

---

For how long had she been walking ? Hills rose gently after hills, and there were mist-clad mountains in the distance; trees gave way to heath and heath gave way to trees and still it rained. Her damp, cold clothes clung to her body. She felt ravenously hungry. She had come across a small brook some time before, and had not hesitated long. She had fallen on her knees beside it; the water had been chilly but she had quenched her thirst, drinking avidly, clumsily.

Night had begun to fall. She felt tired but she did not dare stop; and she did not dare call for help, for once as she walked she thought she had seen some trail – earth and rocks beaten, branches broken by some inhuman, mineral force that cut its way dumbly through the forest. Once also she had started in fright as in the shade some monster grinned wickedly at her; but then as it did not move she had looked closer, and seen that it was but a strangely shaped rock in the likeness of some huge, crudely hewn man with a rough eroded face.

---

Her resolve left her suddenly, like a candle snuffed out by the cold autumn wind that blew upon the hills. She leant upon a tree and crumpled against its side. When she tried to rise again, gripping its trunk to steady herself, her legs folded under her. She closed her eyes, wrapped her arms around herself; and then, in spite of cold, hunger and discomfort, she fell asleep instantly.

---

Her own shaking woke her as she lay curled on her side upon the damp, rocky earth. The rain seemed to have abated; it was still night but when she raised her eyes she saw that above the hill the sky was lightening, and that against it in the pale, grey light of dawn she could begin to make out the darker shapes of trees.

She felt stiff, her cold fingers ached as she uncurled them, and she did not feel much less exhausted than before she had fallen asleep, but she did not feel so hungry now. Her scalp throbbed dully; she raised her hand to her head and brought back sticky blood clots. Then she pushed her messy hair out of her face with dirty fingers and rose, gritting her teeth against the sharp pain that shot briefly into her numb legs.

When she began walking again she felt slightly light-headed. Walking downhill felt like falling. She walked on, stumbling, her body stiff yet loose and perhaps not quite hers; she walked on, strangely unafraid.

---

Day and night and day and again and she walked. Sometimes she knew she was walking on her own tracks, going to places she had already seen before, but she could not seem to find the way; each hill resembled the next, and the twisted trees seemed to shift before her; and still the sky was grey and hid even the sun from her sight.

At night she cast herself upon the ground where she was and slept like a wild animal; in the end she did eat herbs and roots, not caring for poison, eating clumsily and voraciously although it never quite soothed the ache in her stomach. Her clothes were wet and muddy; her body bathed in rain and sweat; her hands and face dirty.

And still she stumbled on.

---

One night as she lay upon the ground in exhaustion it occurred to her that although she did not know this place, and did not know from where she had come, and could not even have said who she herself was, she might very well die here, a lonely and nameless creature; and for the first time since she had woken in this land that was not her own, she cried out. It was a hoarse, animal cry, let out in spite of herself. She stifled it and strove to flee from she knew not what, first on all fours and then rising shakily, walking on wobbly legs, falling and rising again. She ran into darkness and branches lashed at her.

At dawn she collapsed. Then she heard the sound of hooves.