She awoke, curled up on the ground, her nerves afire with pain. She shuddered, and then shivered. She was freezing cold. Perhaps if she fell asleep, the cold would take her. How she knew cold could do that, she did not know, but it came to her as a piece of truth. She opened her eyes to a world hazy and shimmering. Even the stones and dirt before her eyes shimmered as if she was seeing heat waves on a road in summer. [i]Heat waves? That can't be right![/i] Heat waves were only in places that were warm, not places as freezing cold as where she must be. How she knew that, again, she could not say.

She watched her surroundings longer, and then noticed the smoke. At first she thought it had been a trick of her eyes. She was tired and cold and didn't know how long her eyes had been open. Perhaps her eyes merely had to adjust, she had thought. It seemed that her eyes had been honest for once. She saw smoke, she saw shimmering air, and she was lying in a pile of ashes. [i]Maybe if I breathe them in, I'll die and everything can go back to the peaceful way it was.[/i] The idea startled her, she did not recognize it. She could not remember enough to recognize it.

Her mind and heart swirled with confusion, and she simply wanted to close her eyes and escape into blessed unconsciousness, but sadly, her terrified and confused mind would not allow it. She searched her mind for knowledge, but found nothing. There was an empty blankness in her head, and yet, she had known something, surely. After all, she had known somehow that heat waves were caused by heat, and that cold and smoke could kill her. But... when she tried to recall anything of herself, she could not remember a thing. 

Consciously, she tried to dredge up some knowledge, even something like her knowledge of heat and cold, but it was futile. Perhaps she did not have the right concept of what she was looking for. Perhaps it was like putting in the wrong thing in a search engine. Again, another thing she knew but did not know! She wished to pound her fists on the earth and rampage to take her frustration out on something, but caution stopped her. She had to be sure of her surroundings first. Slowly, she sat up and looked around.

She lay in the bottom of a hole, a crater. The acrid stench of scorched earth and fire should have choked her, and yet it did not. Above, past the smoke, she caught glimpses of a brilliant blue, and through it, she could dimly make out the silhouette of trees and… something else? Through the smoke, she could see a tall figure, and it frightened her. It was a man. She froze at the sight. Her instincts warred with her mind. Something told her to go to him, to work her wiles on him, whatever they were. Something told her that if she did certain things, she would earn something necessary to survive. Perhaps he could even offer her protection. The other side of her, her instincts, told her to run. He was male, he was dangerous, he would hurt her, and he would amuse himself with her. She would be helpless.

She was so torn by these conflicting desires that she wanted to scream, or melt into the ground. To be honest, to become stone or melt into the ground were preferable to screaming. Screaming had never helped her before. Screaming only resulted in pain and horror and despair. She knew this. Somehow, she knew this. Her body, her mind, her instincts, all knew better than to let her scream. Sadly, melting into the ground or turning into stone weren’t options either. She wondered whether she should run or whether she should stay still and hope the man didn’t see her. 

The despair she felt was much like if she was a trapped creature. If she stayed still, perhaps the smoke would hide her, if she ran, perhaps she would escape him. If she stayed still, perhaps he would still see her, if she ran, perhaps he would chase her and catch her. She had no wings to fly away with, no claws or weapons to fight with. She did not have the speed of a cheetah, not even of an antelope. She had no protection. She was human. She was a mere woman.

Then wind blew strongly whipping her brown hair about her face, and in the updraft the protective smoke billowed away. She wanted to cry out for the wind to stop, she wanted to conjure more smoke to wrap around her, protect her, and hide her from the man. She accidentally let out a small cry of despair when the winds ripped the smoke away and revealed both her form, and the man’s. Her wide-open eyes met with that of the man and she froze, mouth open in a little “O”. Then she saw another figure. The figure was slim, but she saw enough to know. It was another man, another male. That, and the lost protective cover of smoke decided her. 

She scrabbled backward in the dirt, scrambled to her feet, and pelted away. She clawed her way up the sides of the crater and showers of dirt and ashes fell below her. He knew she was here now. They knew of her presence. Terror took her over. In moments she was out of the crater and sprinting away into the forest. She threw herself over bushes and ducked under low hanging branches. She never noticed the sights around her, or the purifying smell of clean forests and water. She was desperate, frightened, and confused. 

All she knew was that she wanted to be away. She wanted to be gone. She wanted to escape.