Will to Live

Honeysuckle

"No. No! No!" Adelaide screamed.

The soldiers were forced to constantly watch her. Throughout the four-day trip, Adelaide never stopped trying to escape. She also hardly ever stopped screaming. They avoided traveling through villages. Adelaide tried everything, even bribing them with her coronet, but they took nothing. At the end of the third day, they entered dense woods. A faint track barely showed through the thick greenery. Now, the soldiers were on their guard, even during the day. The soldiers gagged Adelaide and traveled as quietly as possible. Sometimes, late at night, the howling of wolves could be heard. Once, they spotted a bear.

Finally, a tall wooden wall appeared in the dense foliage. The soldiers pulled the gate open. It groaned loudly. The wagon rolled in. The soldiers left Adelaide, bound hand and foot and gagged, inside, facing a row of small huts, and quickly got back in the wagon and rolled away. The gate closed. A group of older men sat around a fire and stared. Two younger girls came running out from behind the huts. Suddenly, the taller one started coughing. She stopped. Each cough made her whole thin body shake. The younger girl stopped and held her up. Finally, the coughs stopped. The girls ran on toward Adelaide, chattering and laughing.

The younger girl untied the gag and the ropes around Adelaide's ankles and the older girl worked on untying her hands. In a couple minutes, the girls helped her to her feet.

"I'm Evonna and this is Emnilda," the taller and obviously older girl said. The younger girl nodded. "What's your name?"

"I'm Adelaide."

"That's a pretty name. Ain't you got no baggage?"

Adelaide shook her head. "No."

"Why'd you get sent out here?"

"I don't know. Herzog Reikhoff—he took over our castle. He captured my vater and banished me."

"Lucky for you, we still got all Mutter's things, so you at least got a blanket. It's not very warm, but you can shoot a deer or something and then the skin will be warmer."

"Shoot a deer?"

"'Course! How d'you think we survive out here? They don't give us nothin'."

"Who?"

"The soldiers, of course. Come on, we'll—" she had another coughing attack. "Ach, this cough!We'll show you your hut. Unless you wanna stay with us?"

Adelaide didn't know what to say.

"I'd hide your crown though. They'll steal it." She jerked her thumb toward the group of men at the fire.

Adelaide touched her coronet. Miraculously, she had been able to keep it the whole trip. It had been her mother's and her father had given it to her just a few months ago for her fourteenth birthday. The thin golden circlet was studded with sapphires and emeralds. It was worth a lot, both monetarily and sentimentally.

"Come on, we'll show you our hut," Evonna's strong voice snapped her back to reality.

She followed the girls to a hut on the far right of the line of huts. A broom leaned against the wall and an animal skin hung in the doorway as a door. She stepped inside after them. It took a minute to adjust to the darkness, but she could make out two piles of skins. A small wooden table stood in the center of the room. On it sat two wooden bowls and large wooden basin. A water bucket stood just by the door.

Evonna grabbed her hand and pulled her back out and into the hut just next door. "And this one can be yours."

Spider webs hung in the doorway. The hut was empty and needed a little bit of fixing up.

The girls worked on the hut for a week. Adelaide quickly grew comfortable with them. Emnilda usually let Evonna do all the talking, but she constantly helped her sister. Evonna coughed constantly throughout each day, sometimes coughing up blood. Emnilda made her breath in steam every night, but it didn't seem to help.