The woods with its naked boughs and layers upon layers of dead leaves littered on the ground envelop her like the deadweight of a heavy blanket, muffling the sound of her feet, the rise and fall of her agitated breathing. The sound of court ladies calling after her fades and then gets completely cut off. In the snowy clearing surrounded by dark, blackened barks Seol could hear nothing but the sound of her own feet and the air leaving her mouth in puffs.
The ground suddenly slopes beneath her and the unexpected change in the lay of the land catches her unaware. She misses a step and tumbles down the slope, a mess of skirts and dead leaves. Seol breaks her fall against a dead bark that had fallen over a clearing far below where she had initially stood. Her elbow is scratched from the fall. The snow provides for a soft landing. Scent of decay fills her nostrils.
