Satisfied at last that there was nothing
close of which she need have fear she clambered to the ground. She
wished to bathe but the lake was too exposed and just a bit too far
from the safety of the trees for her to risk it until she became
more familiar with her surroundings. She wandered aimlessly through
the forest searching for food which she found in abundance. She
ate and rested, for she had no objective as yet. Her freedom was
too new to be spoiled by plannings for the future. The haunts of
civilized man seemed to her now as vague and unattainable as the
half-forgotten substance of a dream. If she could but live on here
in peace, waiting, waiting for--him. It was the old hope revived.
She knew that he would come some day, if he lived. She had always
known that, though recently she had believed that he would come too
late. If he lived! Yes, he would come if he lived, and if he did
not live she were as well off here as elsewhere, for then nothing
mattered, only to wait for the end as patiently as might be.
Her wanderings brought her to a crystal brook and there she drank
and bathed beneath an overhanging tree that offered her quick asylum
in the event of danger. It was a quiet and beautiful spot and she
loved it from the first. The bottom of the brook was paved with
pretty stones and bits of glassy obsidian.
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