Urgh. I'm kind of dissatisfied with the last chapter. I had to keep repeating myself, and I hate doing that. But I simply could not find better words for what I wanted to say. -_- Stupid thesaurus.
Anyway, in response to Alex Warlorn's review: yes, she could have done that, but I think the idea is that by now she feels useless. She thinks that nothing she does will make any difference, but she goes on trying to protect those she loves because . . . well, because she loves them. (I guess I should have explained that a little better, huh?)
Also, I think I may have been channeling "The Vision of Escaflowne" back there. Sorry.
I apologize, as well, for this horrendously short chapter, but it doesn't seem to want to combine with any of the others. I give you fair warning, the next three chapters are nearly as short as this one.
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Now, I wander, avoiding all life but the trees and plants. In fact, I head in the opposite direction from the one that the curse seems to wish me to go. This is often difficult, as there suddenly seems to be many directions that call to me. But by weaving an erratic path through forests and over fields, and by never staying in one place for more than a single night, I have so far avoided others.
Because I see no one, the visions have at last stopped, but this brings no relief. A heaviness seems to weigh on me in all that I do, and it even feels a little odd without the dreams forever poking at my mind, demanding my attention.
Every day I wake with the fear that I will meet another creature and the visions will return. Each day I grow a little lonelier, and a little thinner, as I, who am naturally a carnivore, attempt to survive on nothing but fruits and vegetables. Soon, I think, I may waste away to nothing at all, as Echo did in an old story my mother once told me.
It is only right, I tell myself. You have been a curse since the day you were born. It is best that you simply fade away . . .