A village

Even after her cart broke down, Alice had still been rather optimistic, but that had soon changed. The heat was one thing, as she was used to it after the years, she could keep going nonetheless.

But when she realized that her water bag was only half as heavy as it should be, and not because she had drunk the content but because it had started leaking, even that little bit of positive attitude that was left after all that happened was gone.

Sometime later that day, Alice reached a fork in the road. This was something she had never heard about, so she had no idea which direction to take. In the end, she remembered what the old storyteller had said, that, although it was only a normal stick, his walking stick was his fate and had saved his life several times. Looking at her own walking stick, she thought of an old story that her father had told her.

She placed the tip of her stick in the middle of the crossing, and let it go. It stood straight for only a short moment and soon started to fall towards her left side. Lying on the ground, it pointed towards the right road. Picking her staff up again, Alice turned right and continued walking. She didn't know where to go, so she let her fate choose her way.

She only started regretting her decision when she didn't meet a single person, not to talk of a village or something similar, for the rest of the day.

When it got dark at the end of the day, she was totally exhausted and tired. Even if she wanted, Alice wasn't able to walk even one step more. But she now had a problem. She always had lived at her home, and even if she stayed with Cathy, they would sleep in the same bed. And even after her Village was destroyed, she found some straw that she used to sleep, but now that the night came, she had nothing of these. The only things she had were food and a change of clothes, but nothing she could use to sleep on. At the end, devoid of any other options, Alice laid down in the grass beside the road, using the few extra clothes as a pillow. Alice fell asleep almost immediately when she lied down, not even feeling the stones she was lying on.

….

She could count herself lucky that it was summer right now, if the same thing had happened during any other time of the year, even her strong body couldn't have guaranteed that she wouldn't catch a cold. Although a cold wasn't something to fear under normal circumstances, it could be quite dangerous in her current situation. Normally a cold would be resolved with a few days of rest at most, but that wasn't a luxury Alice had right now. Her body would grow weaker and the cold would only grow worse.

She regretted that she didn't put away those stones only when she woke up the next morning. Not used to sleeping on the hard ground or even on pointy stones, every single muscle in her body seemed to hurt like never before. Normally it would take her quite some time until she was fully awake, but this time she was immediately fully awake as soon as she tried to move thanks to the pain.

She had never felt worse than this morning. Her whole body hurt, was dirty and sweaty from the warm night. She was thirsty like never before and she had the disgusting taste of dried saliva in her mouth. And even though she still had a little water left, after drinking about three mouths full the only thing that disappeared was the taste, her thirst only became stronger and she couldn't even eat her fill because the dry bread started hurting her throat after a few bites.

In the end, Alice started walking again, despite the pain all over her body. In fact, she was welcoming this pain a little. At least it kept her mind a little clear and awake so that she wouldn't collapse in the middle of the road. Even Alice understood that it would be the end for her if that happened.

….

Just like that, Alice continued slowly making her way along the road, stumbling more often than not. But still, at the end of the day, she managed to reach a small settlement. It wasn't large, even smaller than Alice old village, only three little huts standing around a well.

Alice had reached that place only when it had long gone dark and she finally collapsed in front of the well.

But no matter how bad her luck had been, fate didn't seem to have abandoned Alice completely. When she woke up later, still half asleep and in extremely bad shape, she could faintly make out the face of a woman who was trying to feed her some water.

„Mom?"

„Oh my, you woke up my dear! But I'm sorry, I am not your mother. Here drink some water first."

Even without her saying, as soon as Alice heard the voice, she realized it wasn't her mother, her mother was already dead. She couldn't remember clearly what happened, but when Alice saw the water in front of her, she couldn't think of anything else and took the big mug out of the hands of the old woman and started drinking it as if her life depended on it.

*cough* *cough*

Alice choked, she had tried to drink to fast and some water had gotten into her lungs.

The old woman took her into her arms and patted her back, and although it was much weaker, it reminded Alice of her mother who would always do the same thing.

„Mom... Waaaa! *gulp* *gulp* Wuuuaaaa!", all this time, Alice thought that she had overcome the sadness, but now she was proven wrong. With just this little kind gesture, all the emotions she had buried in her heart rushed back up to the surface and Alice started crying loudly, only interrupted when she tried drinking another mouthful of water.

Before she even realized it, the old woman had already taken the mug out of her hands and taken Alice into her arms.

„Now, now. I don't know what happened, but cry all you want my dear. And if you want, you can tell me what happened, ok?"

Like that, the old woman continued to talk to Alice in a kind and soothing voice while Alice continued crying loudly. It took a long time until Alice calmed down again.