VIVIAN
Once I was in the woods, out of sight from the village, I ran and kept running for as long as I could. When I reached a stream, I would randomly choose a direction and then walk up or down the stream for a while before continuing in a generally eastern direction. I knew from personal experience that animals could track by scent, and the villagers could use either hunting dogs or slaves to track me down that way. By walking through water I could avoid leaving such a trail. It was an idea I got from reading adventure novels.
When I got too tired to run I walked, but I did not stop until first light. Then I found myself a hiding spot and settled down to sleep most of the day away. If I dreamed, I did not remember the dreams. I didn't allow myself to think about what I was leaving behind, or about Liliana, or about the torture that I had suffered. My only focus was on getting away. My cat eyes were a tremendous help with that. They allowed me to see well even in the forest in the middle of the night, and made it easy for me to avoid any farmsteads.
Since I was traveling on foot my progress was slow, but any pursuers I might have had would be even slower. They would have to travel on foot too, and they had to make sure to take the time to find my tracks so that they didn't go in the wrong direction, while I did all that I could to obscure them. At some points where it was convenient I even climbed up onto the trees and hopped between them like a monkey, just to try to create a discontinuity in my tracks.
Sometimes I felt silly. I didn't even know if there was any pursuit, but I had to assume there was one if I wanted to make sure that I wasn't caught.
I woke up around midday. It wasn't so safe to travel by daylight, when the humans were awake, but it might have been even less safe to stay in place and wait while my supposed pursuers were catching up, so I continued my journey. Fortunately it was summer, so the nights weren't cold, and the nicer-than-usual clothes I wore to visit father were enough to keep me comfortable. I was also wearing my boots, since I had to trek back and forth across the entire village while carrying Henry, so I had good footwear for my escape.
Eventually I could no longer deny my hunger. I hadn't eaten since lunch of the previous day, which was already more than a full day-cycle ago. Since I brought no provisions of any kind with me, that meant that I had to hunt. Fortunately that was something that my kind were well-suited for, and in which I had at least a modicum of experience and past success.
I found a bush to hide behind that was right besides and downwind from a tiny clearing that was littered with fruit and nuts that had fallen from a tree, and waited while keeping perfectly still.
After a while the birds, squirrels, rabbits, and other small animals that were scared away by my arrival returned to eat. I waited until one of the rabbits was close enough to me, then pounced, causing all the animals to scatter in all directions.
I managed to catch it in one attempt, then used a sharp knife I had rescued from the kitchen to slice through its jugular veins while holding it away from me. Life flowed out of the rabbit, until it was finally still. I then cut the head off and held the rabbit upside down to let the blood finish draining.
I cut the skin around the ankles, then pulled it off from bottom to top, as if removing clothing. It wasn't particularly hard, although it did require some effort. After peeling the skin off of the forelegs I broke and twisted the wrists, then cut them off. With that the skin was completely removed, save for the hindlegs. I cut off the achilles tendon and then broke and twisted the ankles before cutting them off too.
Now I had one naked rabbit, but I still needed to remove the internal organs. I left the skin behind since I had no use for it, and carried the rabbit and the rest of my things to a tiny stream of water I had found nearby. There I slit open its belly and pulled out the organs with my hands, while being careful not to rupture them. If they did rupture, some of them could release nasty substances that would damage the meat.
I had little use for the internal organs. The meat alone would satisfy me for now, and I had no way to take them with me. I set them aside. When I left, some other animal will have itself a meal. I rinsed the rabbit in the water, trying again to remove as much of the blood as I could. I now had a clean, naked rabbit, ready to be cooked.
I passed a thin but strong branch through the rabbit's body, lengthwise, and rested on a pair of forked branches over a fire in order to roast it on a spit. I ate about half of the meat. It was a little tough, but sweet, which meant that the animal wasn't young, but I managed to kill it quickly enough that its fear didn't spoil the flavor. The rest of the meat I wrapped and stored in my pack for my next meal.
I saw no reason to clean up. If my pursuers had managed to track me this far then they were good enough that any attempt I made to erase my little campsite would be futile. If not, then all it was was the site where someone hunted and then cooked and ate her kill. There was nothing strange about that. Either way it would be a waste of time.
I had to take a break to rest and digest my meal, and spent it resolutely not thinking about anything that might cause me to falter. I could grieve later, after I was sure that I got away from any possible pursuit and found myself a safe place to shelter in.
Once my stomach settled I continued on my way. As I traveled further and further away from the center of the country the human presence thinned out. There were fewer farmsteads and villages for me to skirt around. That suited my purposes just fine. Hildar province, the home of my village, was slightly to the east of the center of the country. The main population centers were west of the center. The further I kept going, the less the danger of encountering slavers or the Royal Militia, or just generally encountering humans of any kind.
However, there was no point in trying to leave the country. Prandia's neighbors treated beast-kin just as horribly, and I didn't know their languages, customs, or almost anything else about them, not to mention having to deal with the border patrols of both sides. All of that greatly increased the chance of getting caught. It was far safer to hide deep in the forests of eastern Prandia.
