As the sun hid its face from the day, Marlaa could see clouds forming in the sky as the moon tried to shine through. But the clouds would not let it shine upon the earth; there was the smell of rain in the air. She crawled into her bed furs, fearing what tomorrow would bring; she lay for some time thinking about the people that once lived there before she fell asleep.

She dreamt that she lived in the little cave with the wolf and cougar. She was alone, she had no father or mother , no sister or brothers, no aunts or uncles, no one to talk to. She sometimes wondered if there was anyone like herself or was she all alone. She had traveled long distances at times from her cave but never saw anyone that looked like her.

She didnt know what another human looked like, she only had her reflection in the river or stream to look into. How did she come to be the only one of her kind? A question she could not answer. The wolf helped her catch food but most of the time she did it by herself. Would she be alone for as long as she lived, she did not know.

When she woke the next morning, she had to laugh; what a dream I had, she said aloud. Im sure glad there are more people living in this world than just me.

When she crawled out of her bed furs the sky had opened up and was dumping all she had upon the earth. Marlaa thought she had never seen such big raindrops before. She fixed her fire and sat drinking a cup of tea, watching it come down, hoping it would break soon. She thought about Nanna and wondered what she was doing, was it raining in the village, was Mart, Clay and Lira up and out playing. Marlaa sat for hours before the rain slacked off enough for her to start out again.

As she traveled, the rain turned into a drizzle, the rain had made the ground soggy and the rocks slippery at times. The day was not going well, the brush was full of water and dumped its load on her whenever she got too close. The big trees seemed to shake their limbs as she walked beneath them. As she came close to a big tree she heard something crashing through the brush. Throwing herself flat up against the tree she closed her eyes and held her breath, Wolfie by her side. a deep growl coming from deep in his throat, Marlaa knew it was something she didnt want to face. Slowly she opened her eyes to see a mother bear and her cub had stop just in front of where she was standing. The mother looking right at her began snapping her teeth, a warning to notify the creature she didnt recognize to stay away and leave their territory. Wolfie let out a loud growl, the cub turned to run, running straight into his mother, then over the hill they went, with Wolfie in chase. Marlaa let out her breath then turned and ran as fast as she could in the other direction. She ran until she couldnt run any farther, she was tired and not watching her step, when down she went into a varmint hole.

Oh! Marlaa cried; Wolfie came on the run when he heard Marlaa cry out, with Little Yellow following close behind. I think I sprained my ankle, she told her companions. She started looking around for anything she could make a lean-to out of. Her ankle was aching something awful by the time she had the lean-to up just inside the timberline and could start building a fire.

Marlaa built a small fire so she could make a cup of tea and eat a piece of dry meat. Her ankle was starting to swell by the time she put the last sticks on the fire and crawled into her bed furs. She never thought that maybe someone might see the fire as daylight concealed itself; but Targo had seen.

Targo had been following, he was a good tracker and following Marlaa was not hard to do, the fire let him know where Marlaa was; he had no need to look for tracks any longer. Wolfie knew by the smell that it was Targo that came into Marlaas camp early that next morning. He was part of the village so the wolf never knew that Marlaa would need protection; so Marlaa never had any warning. Targo put some wood on the fire to get it going again, heated some water for tea; sat watching Marlaa as he finish the tea and ate a piece of dry meat.

As Targo grabbed her by the hair and pulled her out of her bed furs, Marlaa thought she was dreaming. She knew she screamed but her voice was silent to her ears, she was so scared, she wanted to run but couldnt move. Her ankle was so swollen she could hardly stand on it. Get your things together; youre going back to the village, Targo said as he picked up a stick.

She knew that if the scream had escaped her lips, Wolfie would have tried to protect her and Targo would most likely have killed him and maybe her also, Marlaa did what she was told. They were still on the edge of the storm in the west and the forests dew fell all day. She followed along as best she could, falling further and further behind. Targo would sit and rest, waiting for Marlaa to catch up, when she was in sight he would start out again. By the end of the first day Marlaa could no longer walk, she felt lightheaded, confused and in a hopeless situation.

Ill teach her for running away, her life belongs to me, Targo said to himself.