She's definitely not going to risk an unfinished building after what happened this morning. If she can find a patch of grass with trees or corn or something around it to keep her out of view she'll go with that, otherwise she'll try to jump a fence and sneak into whichever barn is the farthest from any of the houses.

None of the barns are particularly far from the houses, is the problem.  But she can find a screened off patch of grass just fine, on the edge between a corn field and a patch of trees and bushes, a decent distance from the houses and roads.

It's not great, but she doesn't really expect to find anything better. She curls up in the little grass patch and tries to fall asleep.

She's woken up in the middle of the night by something poking at her rucksack.  It sounds like a large animal, but it's too dark to really see anything.

She forces herself to her feet and takes off into the patch of trees, or at least a direction that she's pretty sure has trees.

The large something chases after her!  

That direction does have trees, and shortly after that a precipice - not a very tall one, but between the darkness and the tangle of fallen branches at the bottom it's enough to break her leg.

(On the plus side the animal decides to stay on the top.)

OW OW OW OW OW

It hurts as badly as anything they ever did in school but she needs to find a way to keep running or she'll die. She tries to shove herself to her feet and it — doesn't work, it's not even just that it hurts, it won't work.

They're going to catch her and torture her to death and that will probably hurt more than this. If she leans her arm like that — no. If she sets down her sack first — no. If she tries to stand on the leg that hurts less — that works, for a second, and then she tries to take a single step and her other leg collapses under her, or something, she's not really sure what's happening except that it hurts a lot.

She's sobbing, which is stupid, it's not like that's going to help and someone might hear her.

Unless she gets really loud about it, nobody hears her until morning.

Not long after sunrise she can hear someone walking through the trees nearby.

She holds very very still and tries not to make any noise.

The trees aren't very thick here.  The girl, about her age, still nearly walks past her only a few steps away, but then a bird draws her eye in the wrong direction and she startles. 

"Hey! What-- did something happen to you?"  Asmodia does not exactly look all right.

Does that girl think she's stupid or something. No one is going to just admit to being basically defenseless. "I'm just heading to the markets in Dekarium, ma'am. I'll be on my way in a few minutes." 

(This would probably be more convincing if her leg were not visibly broken.)

The girl looks *deeply confused*, and isn't trying to control her expression at all.  Well, that or she's massively over-acting.  "Where?  Through the woods at sunrise?  Is your leg broken??"

"It's fine. I'm sure the priest'll be able to fix it right up once I'm home." Wait, what if the priests in other towns are less willing to fix up injuries and the girl thinks she's lying — too late now.

Judging by the girl's face there was definitely something odd about this sentence.

"Uh.  Home being where?"

(they're going to kill her—)

"Sofrituró," she lies.

"I have no idea where that is," she looks suspicious now, instead of just confused, "and you sure aren't going to get there like this.  I'm going to go get a doctor."  She backs away a few steps, watching the strange girl like she's not sure what she might do.

No, seriously, does that girl think she's stupid, even if there were somehow someone who actually wanted to help out a random stranger in the woods they wouldn't get a doctor, everyone knows doctors are useless — actually, maybe the priests are just lying about that? So that everyone thinks they have to go to them for healing? But either way, this girl is Chelish too, it's not like she'd know either.

She nods. Maybe once the girl leaves she can figure out how to get out of here, somehow.

The girl goes and - well, first she goes and tells her dad about the weird probably-Gypsy girl with a broken leg in the woods, and her dad explains the doctor is probably too busy to come out to the woods, doctors don't really do that unless someone's dying, and besides it'd take forever, so really what they should do is just get her to the clinic, except... how exactly are they going to do that... Really it seems like police business, almost, except the station is way further than the doctor so that's not going to do any good... All right, how about first she takes him over there and shows him what's going on, this sounds pretty weird and he'd rather get a look at this supposed girl before he does anything else.

They're back in about fifteen minutes.  The girl can't find the right spot immediately, and yells "Hey, are you there?"

She has managed to scoot about twenty feet from where she was by using her arms to slide herself across the ground. Probably this was bad for her leg but the alternative is getting tortured to death sooner or later, so. 

She doesn't say anything. Maybe if the girl can't find her she'll just give up?

She does not give up, although her dad is starting to sound like he might by the time they find her. 

He stares at the stranger dragging herself across the forest floor.  "What the devil are you doing??"

"Trying to get to the market in Dekarium, sir." There's really no lie that'll be convincing here.

He sits down on the ground, not too close.  "I've never heard of Dekarium, and you sure as hell aren't going to get anywhere like this."  His brusque voice softens a bit.  "Are you in some kind of trouble, girl?"

Oh, he's threatening her, that makes sense. That... might actually be a better sign than if he wasn't, if it means there's something she can do that'll get him not to turn her in. (Or maybe he's just planning to get everything he can out of her and then turn her in anyway, but it's not like there's much she can do about that.)

"No, sir, but I wouldn't want anyone to get the wrong impression, I'd gladly repay you if you help me get this sorted out so I can be on my way." (So, yes, and she's given up on trying to be particularly subtle about it.)

"O...kay?"  He wasn't expecting a teenage girl crawling around in the woods to pay him anything, but what does he know.  (Maybe she's a witch. Or a witch's daughter or something. She does look like it. Of course he doesn't really think there are witches, but... she does look like it, and she's not acting like anyone normal.) 

Well, in any case she doesn't sound like she's - well, he doesn't know, chances are she is on the run from someone, and she's definitely hiding something, but she doesn't sound like she objects to him doing the normal sort of thing about her broken leg.  (He's not sure what she means about anyone getting the wrong impression.  When people here aren't being subtle they are much less subtle than that.)

"Well, I should get you to the doctor, anyhow."  He eyes her leg dubiously.  "Think you can sit on a bike if I splint that?"