#2

Elva struggled to open her eyes. In the end she succeeded in opening one, but the other seemed to be swollen shut- she reached up to feel it and winced.

She began to assess the rest of her body. She was laying on her back on the leafy forest floor, but did not recognize the trees around her, which was worrisome but not surprising; her family would not have let her remain in the South Wood. They would have put her as far off as possible, so she predicted in her haze of exhaustion and achy pain that she was somewhere towards the very edge of the Norwood. She could see the sky through the branches above, a startling blue color that fascinated and distracted her for a few moments. If it weren’t for the tangled branches above separating her from the sky, she thought it would swallow her whole.

Eventually her mind cleared, and her discomfort intensified. Elva’s lip and chin felt tight and uncomfortable under layers of dried blood, but as she stretched various body parts they felt sore but not broken. She took a few breaths and pulled herself into a sitting position.

She almost fell back over, gasping quietly. She was off-balance, her head naturally wanting to swing down to the right. She sat with her head tilted, heart racing, afraid to confirm what she already knew.

Eventually she reached up and felt her antlers. The one of the right branched high up, and felt hard and smooth except where spongy moss grew on it. She could picture it clearly, elegant and regal reaching high above her head. The left antler, however, was broken off towards the base. She could barely bring herself to feel the splintered place where it had been severed, and when her finger ran across it, the sharp bone cut deeply into her finger. She quickly brought it to her mouth and sucked it. After so much pain, inside and out, she wouldn’t have thought one small cut would hurt so much. It almost made her want to laugh.

“Maybe I’ve gone insane,” she mused, “maybe they hit me in the head too many times. Maybe I’ll sit here and laugh until I die.” But immediately the urge to laugh left her, replaced with the humiliating urge to cry.

Elva did not know how to hold her head straight to compensate for the lack of weight, and she didn’t have the strength; she let her head fall uncomfortably towards her right shoulder and allowed pain and shame to course through her for a few moments. She had nowhere to go, so she thought maybe she would lay here until she disintegrated into the dirt.

But Elva had a deep and strong desire to live instilled in her, which could not be crushed even by abandonment and shame. After the pain and hopelessness came a scorching anger that licked at her insides, and then came a defiant determination to survive. She was glad she had not let tears fall- her greatest instinct was to be strong now, even if just for herself.

Elva forced herself to stand, her two hoofs shaky but able to support her weight. She wondered if there were creatures in the Norwood that could smell blood, though she was comforted by the fact she had seen no one yet. She knew she should move soon, and wished she could climb a tree to scope the area to find a water source.  Both the edge of the woods and any other groups of creatures would be dangerous, but how could they be avoided in a place so foreign?

Before she had time to further consider her options, Elva heard a small whooshing noise from the tree directly behind her. She leapt away from the great spruce, landing in a fighting stance several feet away, and found herself staring into a swirling hole that had appeared in the tree’s thick trunk. Her whole body quivered and she wondered if she would be able to defend herself with such an altered sense of balance. She prepared herself to fight hard to her death, even if it seemed there was so little to live for.

Then, out of the swirling portal of color and light, stepped a girl.