Prologue - Running
Running was beginning to become something that Finn seemed to constantly be doing. But this time, Finn wasn’t running with Elisa. Instead she was running away from Elisa. Or, what used to be Elisa.
Finn was constantly dodging trees and nearly tripping on multiple roots. The wind was whipping through her spruce brown hair and smoke surrounded her, making her breath catch in her throat. Her eyes were filled with tears, at the loss of her mom and from hatred. So much hatred.
Elisa and Finn were eating their dinner, consisting of some berries they had managed to find whilst chopping wood and some milk that their goat had made, when they heard teenagers laughing somewhere in the woods. Elisa had quelled Finns worries, claiming they were just kids.
Oh, how Elisa was wrong. Those kids were the ones that killed her. They killed Finns only person. The only one she found that loved her. They set fire to their temporary home. As a joke.
Finn could still hear the boys screaming at the burning hut, shouting “Forest-walker!” over and over.
Elisa was a forest walker. She rebelled from the townies, instead going into the forested mountains and living with nature instead of against it. The townies hate forest-walkers, claiming that they were betrayers and killing thousands of innocent forest-walkers. Finn was a townie, raised as one and with others. But then Elisa took her in. Elisa taught Finn how to live like all the other creatures who inhabit their island.
And now she’s dead.
As Finn ran her mind ran along side her, thinking of everything that her and Elisa had done. Of them wandering the forests together, never settling in one place too long. Of picking berries with Elisa and sitting cozily beside a fire together when it was really cold. Elisa never deserved to die.
Eventually, Finn found herself exhausted and miles away from the fire. She was much too tired to continue moving or even to set up a proper shelter to protect herself from all the evil creatures that reside near her. Instead she just falls to the ground, using her bag that she brings everywhere with her as a pillow.
It doesn’t take very long at all before Finn finds herself safe in a dream with Elisa.
