At first it was all she could do to curl up tighter on her side and try and choke off the ragged sobs, catch her breath, as she grieved the tiny thing that had been with her just an hour ago. She wanted to just lay there, to never move again, so that she wouldn't ever hurt this much again, but she knew that would be entirely counterproductive.
She sat up, a good first step she thought, considering what had happened. Once that simple act stopped making her dizzy, she slowly, carefully tried to stand. It took a good few minutes, but she managed it. Ten minutes later, she was leaning against the wall of the garden and trying to stop shaking, holding her arms around her chest as she took deep, ragged breaths. Digging her fingernails into the flesh of her upper arm, giving her something real to hold onto for now, she slowly shifted forward, her weight resting on her own feet instead of the wall. The sharpness of her nails in her arm contrasted sharply with the empty ache in her belly, distracted her from the sense of something simply being gone, something necessary that she couldn't function without.
Her knees stopped shaking after a minute or two, and she took a step, dizziness washing over her again. She didn't fall, though, luckily, and she took another step and another until she was pacing around the garden, getting a feel for her own body again. It wasn't too long before she felt steady enough to try climbing the garden wall, which she proceeded to do right then.
It wasn't surprising that she didn't succeed on her first attempt, that she fell right back down. She tried again, though, and got over the wall, landing hard on her feet as she scooted over the top of it. She winced, biting hard on her lip so that she wouldn't accidentally cry out and alert her master to her escape, and she started walking towards the nearby town, her body on complete autopilot.
