She paid little attention to direction. Some part of her knew approximately where she was, but only in an abstract way. She knew she’d be able to find her way back once she cared enough to try. But there was no reason to return at the moment, not even the need for shelter later in the day. She’d make it back eventually. Just not now. Perhaps not tonight.
The sheer volume of information her mind was trying to process had her completely overwhelmed. Mentally, it should have been simple, but emotionally, she simply could not function right. She couldn’t sit still, couldn’t take any sort of decisive action. She really couldn’t do anything but walk, and give her mind time to recover. She’d never been this detached, this far off-balance, and she prayed for it to stop.
She was surprised to find herself on a road. She’d been following it for some time, but had only just noticed. The trees on either side spread their branches over her head, but the track was traveled often enough that the undergrowth had given up trying to grow there. She looked up into the trees, and at the sun beyond them, trying to take some comfort in nature. For the first time she could remember, it didn’t work. The sun bit into her eyes, and she turned her head back to the road before her.
She reached a place in the forest road that reminded her of a picture she’d seen somewhere; a giant arched gate, perhaps standing before a castle from another time. But the arch before her now was the intertwined branches of two ancient oak trees, grown together and outward, marking the place where the road left the forest. On the other side was an open field, gently rolling land that had recently been tilled. She stepped out of the forest, into the sun, and felt its heat on her immediately. Behind the hills, she knew a village was set in the midst of the farmland. She continued walking, mindlessly following the road, until she heard voices off to her left. She turned toward the source, then crested a hill on the edge of the tilled field. There was a small buffer zone between the tilled soil and the first of the trees- maybe 6 meters, far enough that on a sunless day, the Turned wouldn’t be able to reach out toward the men and women working the field. Today was sunny, and the sun shown into the feet of the forest on this side, instead of casting it’s shadows outward. The young couple that lay in the tall grass had no fear of being attacked by the dead that lingered in the forest.
They didn’t see her for a long moment. The girl- 16 years, perhaps younger- wrinkled her nose at some unexplained scent. Her companion looked at her, an unspoken question on his face, until he, too, caught the smell. They turned to look back, and noticed their visitor looking down at them.
They weren’t caught undressed, but for a moment they acted like it, scrambling to their feet to face the hill. They didn’t know her, of course, and since they knew everyone in their village, they presumed her to be a traveler. The sun had been up long enough that they didn’t think it strange.
“Need help finding the village?” the boy asked, a nervous grin on his face. The girl could not stop giggling. Their visitor moved toward them, slowly.
“Yes,” she replied. “Which way?”
The couple began to get nervous as she got closer. Before long, she was not much farther away than arm’s length. The boy pointed toward the village.
“The road is right there, but you can cut across the fields easily enough-“ He cut off his own words when she leaped towards the two.
