With a feeling of fear, Alicia ran as hard as she could to continue through the dark lonely road that she had chosen. Her ignorance of where she was made the girl not know where she should run.
Tree after tree she passed, but not a way out that she found. But the bushes were getting thicker, and the giant trees kept blocking her way.
The girl's mind was a little confused due to being thought of by the healer's words that did not match her original state. It made her not realize that she kept running more profound in the wilderness.
'Ouch-ouch! Very hurt.' The more she tried to run faster, the thorny bushes that were already as high as her thighs would continue to scratch her injured skin.
The pain she was going through was excruciating for her. Still, when she thought her current freedom was what she wanted, she had to try to fight the pain even if it was unbearable.
But in the end, the spirit to survive had to quickly fade when Alicia's body did not support that spirit. Suddenly she felt her body become frail as if the anesthetic that had made her able to endure hunger and thirst had run out.
'Let's move. If we make it out of this place, we'll eat some decent food.' She tried to negotiate with her body to get back strong to run.
However, her legs still feel numb. Not only did she feel weak, her whole body slowly began to feel cold. Her body temperature starts to become unstable because her body has not burned calories from food intake for a long time.
With the help of tree trunks, she kept trying to walk to find a place where the bushes were not too thick before her upper body ran out of energy. She was worried that her body would sink if she fell in the bushes, and all the thorns would scratch her whole body.
Unfortunately, her hands couldn't last long to support her body to find a safe place, and she fell near the trunk of a big tree. Even though the place still had thorny bushes but because the ground was quite high, so she wouldn't sink into the bushes while sitting.
In a dark and quiet place, the voices of the forest dwellers began to cover the forest. The howling of the forest wolf and the flapping of the bat's wings seemed to indicate that they were aware of Alicia's presence in the woods.
'I was not strong anymore. Even though I thought I was strong because I was still alive after days of not eating or drinking. But, I'm still human.' Alicia's hopes of escaping failed.
The sound of howling wolves also added to her desperation to escape. From a distance, she began to hear dozens of approaching footsteps. The previously quiet bushes started to sway.
She knew that the howl was not a song deliberately released by a beast to beautify the night in the forest. But it was done as a signal to the other wolves about the presence of prey.
In addition to fear, she also began to worry when she felt dozens of pairs of eyes staring at her. Even a wolf didn't need to run to catch Alicia, who was helpless under a tree.
When she dared to look ahead, she was shocked. Her whole body started to shiver because there were dozens of pairs of red eyes stalking her around the bushes and hundreds of pairs of red eyes on the trees.
She, a homely girl who rarely went out into the wild, was utterly unprepared for this terrifying sight. Unknowingly her tears flowed because of extreme fear.
When the sound of her low cries began to echo through the forest, a wolf was seen running towards Alicia.
Alicia widened her eyes when she saw the wolf jumping and about to bite her. Since she couldn't run to escape, she just lay down to sink into the bushes.
*Brakkk*
Since she didn't need the strength to lie down, the giant wolf didn't expect its prey to disappear instantly and made it crash into a big tree with a bang.
Luckily for Alicia, the giant wolf staggered as soon as its muzzle was severely injured. But worse, the wolf that looked like it was about to pass out was now on top of her.
Alicia knew that the wolf would soon faint and fell on her. Still, her inability to get out of the way forced her to surrender when the wolf's colossal body fell on her.
She was struck in the chest when the wolf's colossal body fell on her, she coughed a few times, and she felt it was not an ordinary cough.
'B-blood!?' Not only did she cough up blood, but she felt suffocated because the wolf's massive body was pressing against her chest with its weight.
She felt excruciating pain as she was almost reunited with the deaths of the three. She felt that the thorns from the bushes were starting to pierce and pierce her skin.
"H-help me...Brother."
Because of the sudden pain, she felt that she would faint. Before she fainted, she screamed for help with all her strength.
But the sound she managed to make was no louder than the sound of bushes moving. It was sad and painful because the helpless girl was even more vulnerable when the big wolf fell on her.