Clarisse awoke the next morning to a serene world. The sun shined brightly, the air was crisp and warm, and the animals called and sang contently. Clarisse couldn't help but feel as if she were being mocked by the day itself, as if it wanted to show how happy it was compared to her. Rolling over, she did her best to ignore the beauty that surrounded her, and began to play with the damp grass between her long fingers. "What do I do now?" she thought to herself. "People will probably be looking for me after all that. But what do I do? Where do I go? Where the hell am I now?" Closing her eyes, she tried to focus her thoughts and ignore the horrible memories the smell of the smoke that stuck to her clothes urged to bring up. She could feel a lump forming in her throat again.

"No!" she thought. "Now's not the time. I have to focus. Just relax. Relax. Relax..." she repeated the word in her mind, forcing herself to calm her aching mind and body. "Okay, I'm sure you didn't run that far. I'll bet your still pretty close to the city. But you'd probably be in trouble if you went back. I'm sure someone saw me fleeing the scene of the crime. Yet I need supplies, I don't know how far away I am from the next civilization, and what about Elaine?... What am I saying? She's crazy, I wish I had known sooner, but I can't change that now...I guess my best bet would be to just do my best to survive until I find another town. I'll also have to hide my spirit energy, people may already be after me." Clarisse rose from her spot on the ground, doing her best to ignore the beautiful day and focus on finding water and food.

Touching its handle, she found comfort in the fact that she at least always had her weapon nearby. Like a dear pet, it was rarely far from her person. Crafted in her homeland, it was a double-sided spear, built for both speed and strength. Though it was common among her people, outside it was seen by others as somewhat of a rarity of a weapon, due to its high standards of control and dexterity that took years to master. However, despite the fact that she had grown up with the weapon, Clarisse was still not as skilled as many as of her fellow clan members, yet, at least powerful enough to get by.

"What shall I look for first?" she thought to herself. Almost in reply, her stomach let out a low grumble. "Well I guess that answers it," she gently laughed, heading towards a small thicket of brush.

...

The day continued to draw on and, making sure to cover her tracks as best she could, Clarisse made her way farther and farther east. However, despite her sense of progress, she had failed to find water. The root she had been chewing on now beginning to dry out, she realized she needed to find a more suitable source. "But where do I begin to look?" she thought to herself. Thankfully, no sooner had the thought passed through her mind when a river tern flew overhead. "What luck! I must not be far," she thought as she began to follow the bird.

Despite the underbrush that scraped against her legs and made it difficult to run, she managed to keep up with the small bird, and after running for what felt like hours, she finally made it to a long sparkling river. "Oh water, you've never looked so good," she thought as the root slipped from her open mouth. The river tern let out a small call from above, and before Clarisse could even walk five feet, a blunt object had struck her head, causing a harsh pain to rush through her body and knocking her out cold.