We returned to our camp with Joan and to all of our reliefs, George recognised her for who she said she was. She rushed over to Donatello to check on his condition. She told us that she didn't think that he'd last for much longer in his current condition and redressed his wounds with the bandages she had with her. We filled her in about everything that had happened and George mentioned how we were on our way to her brother's house to figure out their next move.
She was a bit surprised that George wasn't planning to immediately leave for Ceres
after leaving Donatello at their house. He said that Nathaniel and I were probably being hunted down by whoever planned the coup. They expected us to go to Ceres. Hearing them talk made me feel so clueless, but I didn't ask for an explanation. It didn't feel like it was my place to do so. Joan joined our group and we continued our journey to a small house on a hill. When we arrived, a man came out and rushed us inside the house.
We ran up the stairs and George hid us in a small, hidden closet with Donatello, while he hid somewhere else. A few minutes later, we heard the sound of soldiers marching to the door. They asked the man who was hiding us where we were, and he said that he hadn't met me nor Nathaniel, and he hadn't seen George since his birthday, two months ago. I heard them come into the room and held Donatello close to my body as I held my breath.
They then turned to leave and I heard Joan ask them what was going on. They said that Donatello and George planned a coup against the royal families of Pasiphae and Ceres and kidnapped me and Nathaniel. She promised to notify them if they heard anything from us before they left. When the coast was clear, a lady came to get us and we helped her put Donatello on a bed. She was the man's wife, a physician named Sarah, and the man? John.
He prepared dinner for us and even gave us new clothes to change into. George asked him what happened in the last three days we were in the woods, and he told us that everyone was being told that George and Donatello supposedly kidnapped me and Nathaniel and killed our parents at the party as well as all the other party guests. The reward on his and Donatello's head was enough to make any poor man live a comfortable life with servants and a mansion.
He offered to let us stay for as long as we needed, and Nathaniel and I went off to bed while they kept talking. Nathaniel stayed with Donatello to keep an eye on him and protect him, while Joan let me sleep with her in her room. I had things like my sore feet or grumbling stomach to keep my mind occupied, but as I closed my eyes, the gravity and weight of reality began to settle in.