Chapter One

A steady rain continued to drizzle, making the air cool and moist while a dense fog covered the forest floor. Thick oaks and rough trees crowded closely together as if for warmth, and farther down the woodland there was hardly a discernable proper path. Light from the sunset just moments before was still lingering through the canopy.

A small girl trudged aimlessly along a winding, muddy path, occasionally stopping and looking about her surroundings. The woods were quiet, aside from the rhythmic sound of rain drumming the leaves. Trees and underbrush extended as far as she could see in the dimness, towering all around the girl's tiny figure. The friendlier trees at the beginning of the woods seemed nothing like the coarse hickory and mossy trunks neighboring her now. She shivered in her damp and dirty garments, stopping to wipe the rain from her eyes.

"Sunup, sundown, I'm still lost ..." she mumbled to herself. She brushed her golden hair from her face and blew into her hands for heat. She rubbed them together and folded them under her arms. "Why did I run away? This is what I get ..."

She stopped, remembering with sharp pain exactly why she did—her father, or more accurately, her lack thereof, for he was dead, and nothing she could do would bring him back. She kicked the ground in fleeting anger; at least running away provided her with a sense of freedom she had never known, but she felt it could never last. They would soon come to collect her. Yet she could not help but ponder the events that had brought her this far. It was all so unclear—a sudden commotion, and then confusion as her caretakers lost t

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