The humans pushed Roe roughly down a stair and with horror she realized that they must be under the ground. A door was locked behind her and she found herself to be trapped in a small space. There were no windows and the dark stone walls seemed to get closer, squeezing Roe so that she couldn’t breathe. She had always been afraid of enclosed spaces where she couldn’t see the sky. “Don’t be silly Roe,” she said to herself. “You can’t panic know.” She took a deep breath and then another one. The terrible headache made it harder to concentrate but somehow she managed to control the panic. The small flint knife was still tucked in a small pocket on the inside of her loincloth. With great difficulty Roe managed to get it out and freed herself from the rope around her wrists. The concentration the task demanded helped to keep the panic under control.


Roe could still feel the taste of the guard’s blood in her mouth and it disgusted her deeply. Her parents had told her that the spirit of every creature that she ingested would become a part of her so that every creature in the forest would be joined. Roe really didn’t want to be joined with humans so she spat and did her best to get rid of every trace of the blood in her mouth but she had swallowed some of it. The thought of human blood in her stomach made her feel sick. In addition the foul smell of the water in the moat still clinged on her skin and hair. A wave of nausea overwhelmed Roe and she threw up in a corner. There wasn’t much in her stomach anyway but she hoped that she had got rid of every trace of human blood.



There was a pot of water in the dungeon and Roe rinsed her mouth before she took a deep gulp. It didn’t taste good. She realized that she was very likely to die in this castle and her parents would never know what had happened.

She was angry with herself. In her eager to travel fast she had neglected to eat and sleep properly and this had weakened her and made her senses less sharp. She had underestimated the humans and this would cost her life. A horrible thought hit Roe. What if the spirits of the ancestors and the forest wouldn’t be able to find her if she died so far away from her forest! No, surely her spirit would find the way home even after death. But the horrible thought wouldn’t completely leave Roe. This wasn’t a good place to die at.



The feeling of panic gave way for an overwhelming feeling of guilt. She hadn’t been a good daughter and would die because of her selfishness. When her parents got older they wouldn’t have anyone to take care of them. It was unbearable to think about Thorundur. He would never know how much she loved him. Would he miss her or would he soon forget her as he went on with his life with the other elves? The time that he had spent with her would probably soon just become a very short moment of his eternal life. How good it must be to have tears like the elves. She would really have liked to be able to let her sorrows leave her with fluid from the eyes but Forest people didn’t have tears.


The Mother had given Roe a necklace that would to give her courage when times were difficult and she had never experienced more difficult times than now. But she couldn’t get any comfort from the necklace, because the humans had taken it from her.