Months later, she finally returned to her senses. Had she really left a baby - a newborn, probably hungry baby - in the river? What had she really expected to happen? That was her baby!
Distraught, she'd ran out once again into the forest. But it betrayed her, rather than welcome her.
Every root was tripped over, every hole was fallen in and every time she leant at a tree to rest, the bark would crumble away from under her. She ended up just sprinting in a wild panic, going round and round in circles.
Her feet no longer remembered how to run in forests - it had been too long. Still, she pushed through, her mind running wild with the sounds of a screaming child, scared and alone. Starving to death.
She knew, deep in her heart, that her baby must have been dead already. It had been months. A baby couldn't survive alone in the forest for that long. But still she searched - she didn't care if it was only a dead body that could be found. As long as she found her baby, her mind might be able to rest.
All over again, her arms and legs became covered in cuts and began to bleed. She wasn't young anymore, and didn't have the speed and stamina that she'd had only a few years ago.
Her mind roared at her that she was pathetic.
Eventually, exhausted, she collapsed to the ground, and quietly began chanting, "My baby, where are you?"
Hours later, she awoke to the sight of the back of her house. Had she really gone around in circles so much that she'd just ended up where she'd started?
No, she distinctly remembered only being able to see trees all around her.
With a heavy sigh, and a rub to her head, she clambered up to her feet and walked back to her house. On the way, she figured she might have woken up again and gone home or someone had helped her, and she just couldn't remember it.
She didnt notice the bite-mark sharped rip on her clothes at all.
That night, and for the next few months, she dreamed of soft, russet fur.
Not saying 25/26 is old. I was just using that as a way to show she wasn't youthfully energetic anymore.