Helena couldn't believe what was happening. Did she really experience conception?
Normally, that was impossible! So then, what happened?
Wherever she was, whatever she was, she still remembered finding Daniel. He was dead. Burned so badly that the only reason she knew it was him was because he was the only one it could be. The only one in her house besides her. The only one left in her life who loved her, and the only one besides her mother that she loved in return. Grief. She had been consumed by grief. She still felt it now, but it was muffled somehow. She was going to commit suicide, by pills and alcohol or the knife. Then she heard a faint whisper in a dream telling her to play the game that Jerry found. Play it, and she would see her son again.
But where was she now?
She remembered getting up. Bathing. Dressing. Wanting to look her best for when the police found her. She made the selections that the game requested, and then, nothingness. Then she had the sense of feeling cramped on all sides, then thrust as she was propelled forward, and then an achingly long travel through darkness. When the sphere appeared she knew then what was happening. She knew that as her little ship penetrated the atmosphere of that colossally large planet it was actually the sperm dissolving as it broke through and cast her genetic material into the cytoplasm. She knew the nucleus for what it was and understood the explosion afterward was life's beginning. Her new beginning.
How did this happen?
It had to be the game. She didn't understand it, but that's all it could be. Somehow it transferred her consciousness to a man's sperm wherever this was. Honestly, she didn't care as long as she found Daniel!
She spent nine months sleeping in the luxuriously warm belly of her mother, but as time went by she woke up more often and needed to stretch. Sometimes she was struck with a sudden desire to play or explore. But more often than not she slept. Then came the day of tightness and birth. Warmth drained away and the dark world was suddenly claustrophobic, hot, and cold all at the same time. It seemed to take forever as all those warm walls seemed to collapse on her and push. Push her down. Push her out.
Light! Bright unbearable light hurt her eyes, and Cold! It was so cold!
Rough cold hands seemed to be bouncing her all over the place as she was roughly cleaned of embryonic fluid. Then a blanket was being woven tightly around her body before she was passed to who she assumed was her mother and felt her mouth pressed to a plump bosom. Without thinking, her mouth latched on and she was suckling.
"Welcome to the world my daughter," A warm voice purred above her, "I am your mother. My name is Alvas. Your father's name is Reas. I will name you Hlina Reas Alvasdottir."
——(!)——
It didn't take long to figure out she was in some other land, some other world than earth. As soon as her eyes cleared up enough to see she saw her mother.
Alvas was as dark brown skinned as some of the tribes women in Africa. Her skin was flawless. Her nose was small but wide, and her mouth was so overly plump and wide she would have fit in with any African woman she had ever seen on National Geographic. Her teeth were pearly white, and the rest of her bone structure was very distinctively black as she knew them from her world. But that was where the similarities ended.
Alvas eyes were burnished gold with flecks of green and blue. Her hair was long, thick enough for two women, and pale corn silk white. Her eyebrows were arched white lines that made her think of Spock from Star Trek, and her ears were long and pointed things that twitched with sounds she tracked, or with her mood. Most often they stuck straight out from her head to hover over her slim shoulders. They would droop when she was sad, quiver and tip up when she was excited, and lay back when she was furious.
She was also much shorter than Hlina's father who was a human, oddly enough. She was head and shoulders shorter. Of slender build in shoulders, chest, and waist. Her breasts were still fat from childbirth but they were shrinking incrementally, and even with them being fuller than usual it was apparent that they were not large to begin with. Everything changed upon reaching her hips, they were broader than her shoulders and her buttocks thicker than almost every other woman in the village, and the thickness continued down to her thighs, calves, and ankles to end with small feet with small stubby toes.
Dokkskogr Village was now comprised of dokkalfar women and human men her mother and grandmother called Afarmenni, or big men. Alvas and her mother were great storytellers. But this story they told only in hushed whispers and never where one of the men folk could overhear. All the while Alvas' older sisters and many of the older wives still of childbearing years, now married to their new human husbands, nodded along. Apparently, the only men in the village were all human now, but before their arrival the tribesmen were dokkalfar.
They were a very aboriginal people living in harmony with nature alongside Animals. It was a responsibility passed down from times immemorial, to maintain order and to balance the populations of the wild Animals. Their men. Their true men. Dokkalfar men during the summer months had worn loincloths and highly decorated ponchos despite the cool climate in the mountain valley they lived in. It was a particular bone of contention since their new husbands would only allow the women and girls to continue wearing their traditional garb. The boys now had to wear the same heavy clothing their fathers wore, and boots instead of sandals or going barefoot. Something had happened though. An accident while all the men were out hunting. The men never returned. Then a few weeks later a group of humans came to their village and told them what they had found.
Worried for their future and the upcoming winter and grieving for their loss, the foremothers accepted the men's offer of marriage to some of their young women in exchange for protection and provisions. A few months later more men arrived, and then still more a few months after that. With each new arrival more of the young women were married to the human men until all the young virgins of marriageable age were married. Then the widows began finding men they could accept as new husbands, and before anyone realized every woman from one-hundred and fifty to seven-hundred years of age was married. Alvas was one of the last of that group to marry. She was only one-hundred and fifty years old.
Hlina arrived only a year later.
Another thing that arrived were more men. Unscrupulous men that took the young unmarried virgins below the age of one-hundred and fifty as wives by force when unwilling. The foremothers complained greatly at the insult, but it continued on and the most adamant opposers among the grandmothers started disappearing. Now there wasn't an unmarried virgin below the age of fifteen, and no one dared confront the men over the perversity of it.
Dokkalfar women wore even less than their dokkalfar men had worn in the summer months. Grandmothers wore multitudes of waist chains and sarongs that fell to their knees or ankles. Young mothers, usually wives or widows but not always, wore a few waist chains and then short wraps that barely covered their bottoms and sex, and was tied on the left hip so that that entire buttock and thigh was exposed. Unmarried and childless women wore no waist chains and only small loincloths that really didn't cover their sex in the front much at all, and was tied in the back exposing their buttocks completely.
As a baby, and then a toddler, Hlina was completely naked. All children were, she noticed. The change from naked child to just almost completely naked unmarried young adult girl seemed to be somewhere around the ages of ten to fifteen. It seemed to have more to do with the changes of the body rather than anything to do with a fixed age.
Two and half years passed as Hlina learned the language and relearned enough muscle control to speak. Her parents were astounded. She didn't baby talk much. Once she had the hang of it again she spoke in complete sentences.
"Where's daddy today?" She asked her mother as they walked through the forest, their eyes on the ground looking for herbs and fungi.
"He's hunting wild animals up north," Alvas answered, "Why do you ask? Do you miss your father?"
Reas was a good dad, loving and affectionate. Thinking of him, missing him when he was gone, always made her think of her dad back on earth. She missed him too, and then thinking of him made her think of her mom and wonder what happened to her and if she was still alive. Then thinking of her mother and father always, inevitably reminded her of Daniel. Her son. Grief would well up and then Alvas was comforting her with hugs and kisses and telling her how much she loved her.
Her eyes teared up instantly at the thought of Daniel, and she fought them back with sniffles.
"Oh honey!" Alvas purred as she walked over and picked her up, "What's wrong? What's gotten you upset again?"
Hlina had been too fearful to tell her mother and father that she was a different person inside. That she had come from a different world. That she had a son that might have come here before her, and she missed him, and wanted to find him. Even by two she had seen how superstitious her mothers people were, and how ruthless they could be. Especially the men, the human men.
They were all human men, tall and broad shouldered. Her father was the nicest of them. He was also the only one that was almost as dark as her mother. His hair was black and kinky curly, and his eyes were as dark as polished onyx. He was a black man as she knew from her earth.
All of the women were the dokkalfar as her mother called them and she was one of three wives her father possessed. It didn't take long for Hlina to figure out that all of the women were possessions and children too.
Away from the village, away from her father, she felt safe enough to try talking to her mother. Stopping by a tree she looked up at her mother and followed her sure movements as she scraped several mushrooms off the bark.
"Mama, don't be scared okay," Hlina said in a small child's voice.
Alvas gave her a curious look and smirked as she replied, "Honey, I'm not scared. You can talk to me about anything!"
Hlina almost stopped right there. She knew better than anyone that sometimes a child could scare a parent to near hysteria, and what she had to say, well it broke all the laws of nature she knew!
Taking a deep breath, she started, "Mama, I am a different person inside than what you see me as now!"
"Oh!" Alvas exclaimed as her golden eyes opened wider in surprise and then gave a little chuckle as she shook her head and continued, "I think everyone has a different self inside than what people see on the outside. I for one felt that way too, but then, I was twelve maybe fifteen when I really started feeling that way. My body was changing every day. My mind was changing. Everyday I felt different from the day before…"
"That's not what I mean mama," Hlina said with a shake of her head.
"Oh?" Alvas answered as she sat down on the ground, not carrying in the least that dirt and pine needles were going to stick to her bottom. She held her hands out and Hlina stepped in and sat on her mothers lap, before Alvas said, "Explain it to me then."
Hlina looked up into her mothers golden eyes and was comforted by her broad smile, and then she told Alvas everything. Being a grown woman from another world. Having had other parents. Having been married, divorced, and having a child. Daniel. How she raised him up to be a good man, and of how he died. She shared her grief, and how she had played a game that had somehow transferred her consciousness into her fathers sperm. Of what if felt like to be an embryo, and grow into a complete human being inside Alvas' belly.
When she was done Alvas looked stunned. Her dark skin would never blanch like it would if lighter in color, but her expression was enough to know Alvas was scared. She looked at Hlina now like she didn't know what she was. Never mind the fact that she had given birth to her.
Alvas stood up then and they continued picking herbs and fungi.
Hlina couldn't help the sickly knot of fear in her belly. Alvas was not reacting well at all. As a matter of fact she remembered a few times when she had reacted the same way. She may not have yelled or screamed at Daniel out loud, but her freak out was still just as bad even if internalized.
She tried to talk to her mother more but Alvas wouldn't respond. When she moved toward Alvas her mother moved away from her. Only when she grew too tired to walk anymore on her short two year old legs, and she plopped down in the dirt to cry, did Alvas pick her up before taking her home.
——(!)——
When Reas came home Hlina watched Alvas take him aside and talk to him in lower fearful tones. Reas looked at her and she knew they were talking about her. Their gestures grew more adamant, their voices rising in time and tempo with their body language and gestures. Then Reas reared back and backhanded Alvas so hard that she spun as she flew sideways to land on the floor across the room.
"No!" She whimpered, "Please don't!"
"I have too," Reas growled as he turned to Hlina, "She's a demon come from the shadow realm!"
"No!" Alvas wailed, "She says she is from earth! Maybe she means Midgard…"
"Impossible!" Reas hissed, me was more than halfway across the room to Hlina now, "Midgard is only a folktale now. Nothing comes from Midgard. Hell, it's doubtful that our ancestors did either! Just nonsense to keep common folk passive and in their place! She's a demon and she must be dealt with like a demon!"
"No daddy, please!" Hlina screamed as Reas picked her up.
She kicked, screamed, and cried. She apologized, "No daddy please! Please please please daddy! I will be a good girl! I love you daddy! Please! I'm sorry! I promise I'm not a demon! I'm not! I'm a good girl daddy! Please!"
Her last pleas for mercy were abruptly cut off as Reas dunked her into a full water barrel, the water cascading over the sides as she submerged. She hadn't realized that he had taken her outside their home, or crossed the yard. She screamed and watched as frothy bubbles burbled up to the surface of the water. She kicked her feet and her tiny hand pulled at her father's much larger hands on her shoulders, but the barrel was too deep.
Her lungs were burning. Darkness ate at the edges of her vision. What little strength she had seemed to seep out with the bubbles escaping her mouth. Arms and legs turned to jelly and went limp. She was about to inhale the water no matter how she tried not to.
"Daniel!" She screamed with the last of the air in her lungs.
Darkness gobbled the scene of the shadowy figure of her father looming over her. The last bubbles making their way up to the surface. Her father's hands left her shoulders. It didn't matter anymore. Suddenly she was being hauled out of the water barrel coughing and crying all at the same time as Alvas clutched her tightly to her breast and told her to be as quiet as possible. She only caught a brief glimpse of Reas laying on the ground beside the water barrel, a knife sticking out of his back.
Alvas kept to the shadows as much as she could while in the village. She took nothing except Hlina, and they ran. Once they reached the forest she turned southwest and ran all out until she collapsed.
They ran for five days, always deeper and deeper into the Dragonspine Mountains. Alvas used every trick she ever learned to cover her trail. For five days she didn't eat, and Hlina would have starved had her mother not had milk to suck. On the fifth day Alvas found a cave with a small stream nearby.
——(!)——
Hlina watched her mother move about the small garden Alvas made shortly after their arrival at the cave eight years ago that became their home. She helped out now too, planting vegetables and herbs. Tilling the ground with a stick or with her fingers. It was a rough life but they had each other.
She was taller now, her dark skin usually dirty, her long black hair falling down her back nearly to her ankles. She was starting to change now. Her completely flat chest becoming a little more padded. Her hips were a bit wider and her legs a tad thicker. She was still completely naked though. They were wanted fugitives, so they couldn't exactly go to a village, even if they knew where one was, and buy materials for clothing. And apparently none of the natural foliage in the area was good for clothing either, and her mother had no magic aptitude at all while she was still so young that she hadn't presented any aptitude yet and might never have any. She wasn't alone at least, her mother was naked now too except for one thin waist chain.
"Mama," She asked a couple of years after coming to the cave, "Why do you wear that chain?"
They were in the forest searching for wild vegetables, berries, and herbs at the time. Alvas looked up from her work collecting a small stand of mushrooms that were edible and smiled as she answered, "Oh, the chain? Well our people, the dokkalfar, my people, we wear a chain for every child we have. You are my child, my only child, and so I wear this chain."
"Are you sorry I was born… that you saved me," She asked suddenly. Hlina may have lived a previous life, but that didn't keep her from wanting her new mother to love her.
"Oh honey!" Alvas said in a loving purr, "Of course I'm not sorry I saved you! I love you with all my heart! Yes, what you said all those years ago scared me, but I know you're not a demon. If you had been you would have been able to stop your father from killing you, but you couldn't because you are my baby girl. You are half dokkalfar and half human. A child of two worlds. Three maybe if you are right about this other… earth. But you are no demon!"
"I have never lied to you mama," Hlina said, "I promise everything I said was true, but I am no demon. I hate demons!"
"Good girl Hlina, good girl," Alvas purred as she patted Hlina's head, "However, no matter what, if we ever see people again, never ever tell them the story about you being from another world."
"Yes mama," Hlina answered.
The memory faded away and Hlina watched Alvas gently knead the soil around the vegetables. Her mother was much thinner now than when they had first come to this cave or even when she had asked about the chain. It sat much lower on her hips now than it had before.
Food was scarce, the garden was barely able to provide enough vegetables for them both to eat. Foraging was turning up fewer herbs and mushrooms making them have to forage further and further away from the safety of their home. Then two abnormally hard winters had them nearly starving before they were able to plant and forage for food.
Walking to the herb garden Hlina started working the soil like her mother taught her. She was just getting started when Alvas stood up, stretched, and turned to walk to the stream as she looked over her shoulder and said, "I'm going to go down and bathe. When you finish you can come join me!"
"Yes mama," Hlina replied.
Checking the herbs and tilling the soil took only twenty minutes or so. Standing up she looked over her work with satisfaction. Turning from the garden she started toward the small bath they had made by damming up the stream in a small trough where the water slowed down. The stream still flowed as well as ever, it just retained enough there for them to be able to bathe and paddle about a little as long as they didn't put their feet down and stand up. Being shallow also helped the water to warm up to something less than freezing. Then there was a nice flat rock that they would lay out on and let warm them as they dried off. She could already imagine her mother laying out on the rock now, sunning and drying off after washing off in the water that while warmer was still very cold.
As she walked she picked up fallen limbs and set them in piles so that she could carry them back to the cave once she and Alvas were done bathing. It took her another twenty minutes before she reached their little bathing area. Sure enough Alvas was spread out on the flat rock sunning as beads of water dried from her dark brown skin. Her arms were spread wide and her corn silk white hair was fanned out above her head. She had her feet pulled up to her buttocks and her legs spread apart oddly.
It was so odd for her, Hlina loved pulling her feet up and spreading her legs apart. It felt nice to feel the air caress and the son to warm her sex. Especially after a cold bath. What was odd was that Alvas had told her that it was not acceptable. Since they had no clothes, such an intimate place should be sacred, and exposing it a taboo. At least, until she found a man to marry or mate with. To see her mother now exposing herself in such a lude manner. She was going to…
As she climbed up the hill around the flat rock her mother came fully into view. She stared off at an angle, her face expressionless. Her golden eyes sightless. Tears still gleamed on her cheeks, blood trickled from the corners of her mouth. Spikes were driven into the wrists holding her arms spread apart. More spikes were driven through her feet. Blood and sperm dribbled out of her sex. More sperm was sprayed across her belly and breasts, and blood pooled around Alvas from a gash in her throat that had stopped pumping out her blood some time ago.
Hlina screamed as she rushed to her mothers side, and she wailed as she lifted Alvas up into her arms.
Why? Why did this have to happen to her mother? To her? Hadn't she experienced losing enough people she loved?!
How? How did this happen? Who would do this to a woman?
Growling almost ferally, Hlina jumped up and looked around the rock for trace. She found it in a hard heeled sole of a man's boot. Setting a quick pace, she followed the trail back down the hillside and then it turned northeast. Alvas and Hlina hadn't ever hunted. They had no weapons for it. But that hadn't stopped her mother from teaching her how to, or how to track, or how to stalk. It was most especially important to know how to stalk when you had no way to defend yourself against anything. When you were defenseless you had to be a ghost. Unseen. Unheard. Scentless. For that reason Alvas never went far when in her estrus or menstrual cycles. Her mother had warned that both the scent of blood and fertility were especially hard to mask, and some Animals could smell either nearly a mile away.
It was a good thing she didn't have to worry about such things yet.
It took all day and it was night before Hlina quietly stalked up to the edges of a campsite. The skit was dark and the moon had risen though it couldn't be seen this night. Clouds heavy with rain covered the sky. The night was as dark as it possibly could be, and the forest was even darker except for the small fire burning in a rock fire pit between three tents.
Logs were dragged in and three men sat on each one. On the other side of the camp, dangling from a rope tied around one ankle was a small chipmunk female. She was dead. She was skinned and gutted, and one leg was already missing. It had been severed from the body at the hip and then cut into two pieces at the knee. Both thigh and calf were cooking over the fire.
Hlina was horrified!
She had been a baby when her mother took her and ran after killing her father. Since then she hadn't seen another living soul, much less any of these Animals. How could they do this?
She was humanoid!
"We should've gone and found her kid too," One of the men growled.
"Yeah," One of the others chortled, "Maybe she would have been as much fun as her mother was before Jannic slit her throat!"
"The job was to kill the woman," The man Hlina assumed was Jannic replied, "She killed her husband. She was a murderer. She got what she deserved. The child did nothing."
"Who cares," The first man retorted, "We are out here in the wilds. There's no one that would know whether we had a little fun with the girl or not. Then we could leave or kill her as we like!"
"I let you have your fun with Alvas," Jannic growled as he pinned the first unknown man with a cold stare, "I overlooked your behavior because a murdering husband-slayer deserves whatever she gets. However, if you go looking for her child I will kill you and leave you out here to rot!"
"Okay! Fine," The man said as he patted the air to calm Jannic down, "It was just the excitement talking."
"Well the kid might be innocent for the crime of murder," The second unknown man mused, "But she would fetch a hefty sum of money if we sold her to a slave trader, especially if her virginity is still intact!"
Jannic seemed to be mulling the idea over. After a few minutes a slow nasty smile turned the corners of his mouth. Cutting his eyes from the first man to the second he nodded as he said, "In the morning we will go back and find Alvas' child. If she's alive we will take her. If she's a virgin then we will sell her to a slave trader, if she isn't a virgin, well then, we will have to see where we go from their!"
The other two men nodded, then the poor little chipmunk's leg was pulled off the fire and the men set to eating.
Hlina crouched behind a large tree nearly forty yards from the camp and she waited for the fire to burn down low and the men to climb into their tents. She crept to within twenty yards of the camp and then she waited until she heard the three men snoring. It sounded like three saws cutting timber!
How could they sleep through such a racket?
She had watched where all three men put their weapons for the night. Each man carried swords, daggers, and something that looked remarkably a lot like a pistol. But all three men had carried their weapons into their tents with them. The only weapon left out was a knife that they had used to cut chunks of thigh meat off the bone stabbed into one of the logs.
The fire was only hot coals by the time Hlina moved from her hiding spot and approached the knife. Two yanks in opposite directions and she freed it from the log. Silently she moved through the camp like a silhouette. She picked the first man's tent, the one that bragged of raping her mother and wanted to do the same to her. Getting down on hands and knees she barely rustled the entry flap as she crawled into the tent on her belly.
The man lay to one side and on the other was his boots and sword belt. She was careful to climb up beside the man but not touch him or his weapons. It was an agonizingly slow crawl with her pausing with every change of breathing or position. Once she was even with him though Hlina froze.
She had never killed anything before, ever, in this life or her previous one. Oh god! Daniel! How long had it been since the last time she thought of Daniel?
No! She chided herself in her head. Daniel could wait. He had to wait! This was about her mother! They killed her mother! And they were going to come for her next…
The man turned on his side facing her. She watched his face but he never opened his eyes. He settled into a quieter rhythm of sleep. She waited.
Eventually he turned back onto his back and Hlina saw her opportunity. Pulling her knees up under her body, she pushed herself up and used all of her weight and strength to drive that knife straight into the man's heart!
He lurched upwards with a gasp and in a panic Hlina pulled the knife out and stabbed again! And again and again and again… until the man stopped moving and his silence was that of death.
She listened for a long time. Wondering if the sounds of the man's gasp and her stabbing him, that sounded so loud in her ears, had woken the other two men. If they had, then she would be dead soon, or worse. The sounds of saws cutting timber never stopped, only paused from time to time when they changed positions. Turning around in the tent she pulled the dagger out of the sheath on the sword belt and left the tent just as quietly as she entered.
Skulking to the next tent, she got down on her belly and started inside. As soon as she put her head inside she saw that the man was lying to one side almost exactly like the last fellow. Retreating back to the first tent she carefully pulled the sword from its scabbard. It was heavy and almost as long as she was tall, well, she was close to five feet tall now and the sword was at least three feet long. It took almost all her strength to pull it out of the tent quietly. Once she was outside with it she lifted it and carried it to the second man's tent. She walked down the side until she was about where she imagined his chest was, then lifting the sword over her head she stabbed down with everything she had!
There was a soft ripping sound as the blade cut through leather. Then there was resistance as sword hit skin, muscle, and bone. The man gave a single gasp of surprise, but Hlina's momentum was behind her as steel punched through his chest and out his back. Grabbing the cross-guards, she used all of her meager weight to push the sword down until the man was pinned to the ground by cross-guards against his chest. He gave a single cough. Hlina could feel him struggle feebly for only a second. Another cough, and then silence.
Slipping into the dead man's tent, she pulled his sword belt out and looked at the weapons he possessed. The sword was different from the first one. This one was longer but the blade was thinner and lighter. Made for fencing. It had an edged blade, it was pointed for stabbing too. She heard the last man, Jannic, rustle and move to leave his tent.
He was coming out!
Dashing into the woods she jumped behind a tree and hoped her breathing wasn't so loud it gave away her position, or existence!
Jannic stumbled out and groggily looked about, then turned and trotted into the forest just past the chipmunk carcass left hanging overnight. He went only a couple trees further and then he pulled down his pants and urinated against the tree.
Hlina pulled the sword from its sheath and dashed across the camp. Her small bare feet barely made a sound, but it was enough that Jannic heard after his piss and turned to face his attacker. He only had enough time to see the glint of steel before the tip a sword ran him through. Just under the ribs, through the liver. He knew it was fatal even as he swung his arm and caught a dark brown little girl on the side of the head, sending her flying sideways to land in a crumpled heap. Staggering to his tent. He managed to crawl inside and pull his sword from its sheath, but when he came back out the dark brown naked girl stood in the middle of the camp and he could see Alvas' strong features in the little girl's face.
"You killed my mother," She hissed.
"Awake!" Jannic croaked hoarsely, "Awake you sons of goats!"
"They are dead," Hlina growled, "I save you for last. So that you would know who killed you!"
"Your fate will be the same as your mothers," Jannic shouted as he lurched forward swinging his sword at the girl who easily jumped aside. He stumbled, and she charged in and planted a dagger in his ribs before darting away again. Gasping, he swung at her again, but she jumped back out of his reach and there she stayed. Just out of his reach until all his strength ebbed away and he finally crumpled to his knees.
She watched him, her face expressionless as he died. When Jannic finally breathed his last breath Hlina turned away from him and went into his tent and found his blanket. She was tired. So terribly tired, but she couldn't bear the thought of sleeping so close to these men, dead or not. Taking the blanket, she walked back out into the forest and found a good place to sleep beneath a tree some fifty yards away and laid down…