The Little Girl Lost

Victoria Walker was sick of walking.

It had been an hour since Gavin had left to relieve himself behind a tree and in all that time Victoria had kept walking, expecting at any minute for him to catch up with her or at least to come upon the caves. Neither happened.

And the longer that Gavin was away the more the beautiful, tall blonde began to worry. She worried that something had happened to him. Heather hadn't warned them about anything but that didn't mean there wasn't anything out here that might do them harm. She knew of forests like this that were home to black bears, and instantly she pictured Gavin, bloody and mangled, a towering bear as black as the night looming over him.

And of course, she considered going back and looking for him. But after a while all these trees and paths started to look the same. Victoria honestly couldn't have told anyone with any certainty that she was anywhere different that she had been an hour ago, except for the fact that she'd been walking. That tree looked just like all the others and this part of the trail was just as dusty and dirty as every other part. What would happen if she got lost? Gavin would keep walking just thinking that she was just up ahead.

So, her plan was to get to the caves at least. She could wait there for Gavin and there she would have some idea where in the world she was. At present all she knew was that she was at least a couple of hours from the cabin and surrounded by trees. She had no idea about direction or distance. Dammit, Kurt had said this path was easy to follow. He hadn't mentioned anything about the reality warping abilities of the trees.

Her worry growing, Victoria cast a look up and down the trail, **** for some sign that she was either on the right track or not alone. No such sign came. And, because she was distracted, Victoria missteped and stumbled on the hard ground, falling sideways into the overgrowth. However, the sides of the trail sloped downhill in this area so when Victoria fell, she didn't just go back, she went rolling down the hill.

Dazed and confused and unable to control the direction in which she was rolling, Victoria shut her eyes and simply prayed that she would survive. In the next moment, Victoria rolled over the edge of a moss covered crevice, so badly overgrown it was indistinguishable from the rest of the forest. She slipped through the crack, sliding down the steep wall until she was thrown against the side of the solid, rocky cave.

Perhaps fortunately, Victoria had passed out on the way down, so she didn't feel her body hit the wall. However, that also meant that she didn't hear the footsteps approaching in the dark of the tunnel.