Chapter 3.

Dawin blamed himself very much, it was his idea that she should stay here in the house. It was his words that convinced her to stay in the shelter of the hut. He had wanted her to be safe, but he had achieved exactly the opposite. She was gone and he didn't know where to look for her. After he had searched the whole house without finding the slightest thing, he quickly found a few things together to start looking for her.

He couldn't say why he did that, he hardly knew her and yet somehow he felt responsible for her. He found a kind of shoulder bag in which he put a few clothes, then he went on his way.
For hours he wandered aimlessly in the forest looking for clues to the remaining Sophies In the heart of the forest he finally found the first clue. At the edge of the narrow path the grass was pressed flat and the lower branches of the trees were partly broken off.There was no doubt some people had been here recently. The question, however, was, were they the same ones he was looking for or just simple travelers? Now that would clear up, at the moment it was the only lead he had and he followed her.
He ran further and further into the forest, which was becoming more and more opaque and dark.
He followed this path for hours until night fell and forced him to rest. In the last light of the day he found a small lake from which he could draw some water.
On the other side of the lake was a small cave in the rock which he chose as his night camp and which hopefully was uninhabited. He peeked in and after seeing nothing he went inside. "Well, it's not particularly cozy here, I hope you have a more pleasant night." He said to himself while he thought about how Sophie would be doing right now. He curled up in a corner and thought for a long time before falling asleep.In another corner of the forest, Sophie was just coming to. She looked around anxiously but what she saw she had secretly expected.
She was in a large stone room that she recognized immediately. She had been brought back home to her father's castle. She got up and went to the window. For a long time she looked into the deep darkness of the night and felt infinitely alone. Tears began to roll down her face.
She wiped it with the back of her hand and crept to the big heavy wooden door that locked her room and pushed against it. The door didn't give in an inch. She had been imprisoned in her own room.
There was not a single sound to be heard in the castle.
She thought of what to expect as she cried herself to sleep.

It was already dawn as Dawin the next morning and he could barely move. The night on the cold stone of the cave had stiffened his muscles.First he stuck himself extensively in all directions and then went to the lake to have a drink.
Just as he leaned down, he slipped on the wet stones and fell headlong into the lake. He tried to come back to the surface, but the weight of his clothes and guns were relentlessly pulling him down. He was getting faster and faster in his movements and panic spread through him.

After endless seconds, exhaustion finally defeated him and he let himself go. "Please forgive me for not being able to help you, but I have run out of strength. I'm sorry!" he thought at that moment and gave up.
He still felt something reaching for him, then he lost consciousness and night fell around him.

In the large empty walls of the old castle you could hear the footsteps from afar. Someone was approaching her room. Sophie got nervous. What would you do with her. Would you punish her for running away? She knew that her father wasn't a warmhearted person but would he really do something to his daughter?Someone was tampering with her door. However, she did not hear that the person was using a key. The noise that was being made was too loud. Someone tried to force their way into her room. Sophie didn't know if she should be happy about this fact.
The door gave way and a hooded figure entered her room. "come with me I want to help you get out of here".

Said a woman's voice whispering to her. "Who are you and how do you know that I'm being held captive?" "That doesn't matter at the moment. It doesn't matter who I am or where I come from." The stranger answered Sophie's question. Sophie didn't think twice and went out with the stranger. They crept through the corridors of the castle and had to hide a few times from the guards in a dark corner in order not to be discovered. Then everything would be over and Sophie's new hope for freedom would be gone. Sophie leads the stranger purposefully through the walls of the castle outside."Come on, we made it right away," she said as Sophie slipped on a step. She helped her back on her feet and pulled her further towards the exit. Sophie was pretty exhausted because she hadn't slept much that night. It was difficult for her to keep up with the woman who was almost running through the corridors. Finally the exit appeared in front of them and when they were outside Sophie leaned against the wall and had to take a deep breath. “Thanks for getting me out of it.” Sophie gasped when she turned around, the woman was gone, only her dark cloak was still there. She didn't think about it for long but took the cloak and ran away. In her mind she thanked the strange woman almost continuously for her rescue.

Sophie had hidden in the nearby mountains and was looking for a place where she could rest. She wandered through the rocks without really knowing where she was or how long she had been on the way."You have to find your way out of here, no matter how. You have to get out of these mountains and find your way back again." she tried to push herself on. She knew that without help she couldn't find her way back to the hut that she didn't know the way that she passed out when she was dragged home.

Nor did she know the mountains in which she was. She had never paid attention to these mountains before. She was never very interested in what was outside the castle. Before, she hadn't come out of the castle anyway, her father had already made sure of that. He always locked her in her room and she was only allowed out to eat or to important events. And only if her father needed her to represent his house.
The memory of her past hurt her very much, but hopefully she had finished with that. Exhausted, she sank down on a stone and soon fell asleep. She had a bad dream that night.Again and again she saw her father or his guards treating her as if she were a slave or a maid. She also saw her father beat her for every little thing. Images that were burned into her memory and that she would probably not forget anytime soon.

During the night she woke up drenched in sweat and looked around in a daze. "Where am I? What am I doing here?" Sophie kept asking this question in her subconscious. She considered herself and decided to go on. She wanted to go back to the hut and to Dawin. She believed she had found a true friend in him. She really wanted to see him again, but she didn't know if he would still be where she thought she would find him.
Sophie took the coat from the strange woman, put it over her shoulders and went home.
After a while she found a narrow path that seemed to lead her out of the mountains. Sophie followed him and soon stood on the edge of the forest she had been looking for for hours.On the way to the forest she had also met some of her father's guards but, strangely white, none of the men had noticed her. She was always quick to hide behind the rocks, but it already seemed strange to her. It almost seemed as if the men didn't see her at all. She had toyed with the idea of ​​simply stopping in the middle of the path at the next guard she saw, but that seemed a bit too reckless to her.
She got through the forest without any problems. Nobody seemed to be looking for her here. This fact seemed strange to her, but she was also grateful for it, so she could look for the little hut in peace. She no longer knew where the hut was, she couldn't remember how to get there, so she continued to search into the new night.

Despondent and exhausted, she looked for a sheltered shelter and tried to sleep. This time, too, she did not find a peaceful sleep, but she did not dream as badly as last night.In the shelter of the forest, her dreams didn't seem so tormenting her. Sleep was exactly what she needed now and yet the deep sleep she needs to recover is not available. Again and again she woke up only to fall into a new strange dream soon after.

At dusk she finally decided to resume her search. she found a few berries on a bush that looked exactly like the ones Dawin had given her and she took some with her for the way. She tore off a piece of her dress and put the berries in it. She wanted to hollow her coat but it was gone.
Surprised, Sophie searched all of her sleeping place, but she could not find it anywhere. At a loss and with a bad feeling in her stomach, she set off. "Where's the coat, I should have noticed if someone had taken it away from me. I used it as a blanket. Something is wrong.

I should have noticed! "She thought and slowly she got scared.The thing began to get scary for her, first this woman and the guards in the mountains who didn't seem to see her and then she didn't even notice how they were being stolen. The whole thing was illogical and she didn't believe that it was all just coincidence or even luck. Something was wrong and she wasn't planning on staying here to find out. She wanted to go to Dawin as soon as possible, then she would certainly feel safer. She quickly took the berries and started walking. In her hurry she did not notice the figure that was hiding behind the trees very close to her and that seemed to be watching her.
The figure between the trees withdrew, smiling contentedly. She held Sophie's coat in her arms.
In the meantime Sophie had run even deeper into the woods. The undergrowth around them grew thicker and thicker.