The Tangle The night was heavy and the air was alive

@Tux

She ran, and ran, and ran, and for a while the poor girl was too emotional to know where she was going. Once her running became too exhausting she was forced to stop and rest. The ground had become boggy and gross; but there were chunks of frozen earth among the soupiness of the marsh and she clung to those with a renewed desperation. Ibis had run from the nice man and his questions (Gundham), and she had run from her mean liar of an aunt (Wraen).

Ibis was learning that running wasn't always the best plan. There was no way to tell how long she'd been out here on her own either — that aspect to her misadventure was the most frightening thing of all. She had been hungry for a while but now the hunger was gone, and she still hadn't eaten anything. Her energy levels were dwindling and it was getting colder every day. The little girl continued on because she couldn't just sit there and fail, her drive to see her father had been a strong pull for a while — now, she was relying less on her emotional conviction and more on a feral need to survive, something that went beyond her years by far.

When the criss-crossing shadows of a forest began to dapple her coat with deeper grey tones, Ibis didn't notice. She'd slogged her way through the marsh and was too cold, tired, and despondent to realize the shelter when it came up around her; then again, once she was surrounded by trees and cloaked in shadows, she felt the cold of the dark as a much more virulent thing and seemed to wake up again. Come back to herself. It was in the Tangle that she finally collapsed; wide awake but so tired, shivering from the cold, and filled with dread when she realized just how much she'd messed up.