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an excerpt

Loriana awoke in the morning soaking wet and very stiff. So stiff, in fact, that when she tried to climb down out of the tree, it was less of a climb and more of a fall. She landed in a crumpled heap on the dewy grass. The sun was high in the sky and the day was growing warmer. It took her a moment to remember why she had slept in a tree and not in her nice warm bed. When it hit her that the soldiers might still be in her house, and that she was fully visible from their window, she dropped to the ground and lay flat with her face pressed into the damp earth, her heart pounding.

What if they had hurt Papa? Or ransacked the house? Or taken their food? The thoughts running through her mind terrified her. But there was no way to find out what had happened other than to sneak up to the house and look through their one window.

She didn’t want to risk being seen; she had heard what they said last night about ‘having fun’. Whatever they had had in mind, she wanted no part of it. She army crawled her way over to the house, using her elbows and knees to scoot herself along on her stomach.

When she got close enough to the house, she got up on her hands and knees and then into a half-standing crouch. She silently tip-toed towards the window, and then stood up just high enough to peer inside. It was dark and silent.

She breathed a sigh of relief. The soldiers were gone.