Cute face. 

The sun is very bright.

She glances up at the clock, then back to the boot, which at this point is coated with her saliva.

Her arms and legs are shaking.

The clock says it's been an hour and fifteen minutes.

Licking. Trembling. Her eyes are drooping.

"Did I say that you could pass out?"

"Do you want to?"

...she looks up at Vera, but has no reply.

It's very cute how she can't tell. She's going to make the bed now, though. She's not a monster, just a sadist^{[citation needed]}.

Cara tries to follow the boot, but her mobility seems to be suffering. 

Scooping her up and tucking her into bed.

Cara is now in bed! 

She shuffles until she can see the clock. Her eyes are barely open. 

"I forgot to tell you to sleep while I was gone so you're going to sleep now. Rest up, doll."

Out like a light.

She pulls the covers up to Cara's chin and watches her for a moment. The girl's breathing evens out immediately, mechanical as a metronome. Her face goes slack in a way that normal sleep doesn't quite manage.

Vera settles at her desk with the chem textbook, but her attention keeps drifting. She drums her fingers against the wood, considering. She's already feeling pretty qwoppy about the whole thing, but at this point, what is she going to do about it?

It's a stormy January afternoon, and though her lord is well-protected in a fine winter outfit, Cara's simple maidsgarb offers her scant protection from the harsh winds. 

Still, she was ordered to follow, and follow she does, down the poorly-trodden path towards the center of the woods.  (She does not shiver. If Lord Vera looks back, and sees her shivering, she will surely be punished. She will endure.)

"Stop", says her lord, and Cara stops, at the near bank of the green river. (She has to try harder not to shiver, here, but surely they will not remain here for too long - Lord Vera is a busy woman, after all.)

"Remove your clothes", her lord orders, and when Cara freezes in shock, she is slapped for her impudence. "Now." 

She stumbles at the force of the blow. She knows better than to take time to recover - that was a warning. Her next punishment will be much worse.

She strips, quietly, efficiently, the tears running down her face masked perfectly by the rain drenching her body. She does not let herself shiver, though she feels the cold seeping into her bones, and she is frightened. She places her clothes gently on the ground, once she has them removed. They aren't her property to discard carelessly, after all.

Her lord looks her up and down, smirking. "Good. Now. Climb this tree." She points to a pine tree with a trunk reaching out perilously over the river.

Cara climbs. The bark is rough against her bare skin, and the freezing rain makes for slow and painful going. She only makes it ten feet out from the shore before she hears her lord shout "Stop!" in that loud, commanding voice that brokers no rejection or negotiation.

"Hang from the branch", her lord says, and Cara knows that this time, she is being disposed of. Still - she obeys. What else can she do? She drops to her knees, grabbing the branch with both arms, and then, still clinging onto it tightly, slides her legs off.

Her lord doesn't give her any more orders, just watches and waits. 

It's so cold. She's so scared. She lets herself shiver, now, and lets out a sob, too.

Eventually, her arms are shaking too much to hold on, and a gust of wind sends her tumbling into the freezing water below.

She flips a page in her textbook, the sound sharp in the quiet room. The girl's breathing has taken on an odd quality - not quite the rhythm of normal REM sleep, something else entirely. She glances over, notes the way Cara's fingers twitch against the sheets.

The equations on the page blur together. She pushes back from the desk, chair legs scraping against linoleum, and pads over to the bed. Reaches out, then stops, hand hovering an inch from Cara's shoulder. The girl's face is slack, but there's movement behind her eyelids, rapid and frantic.

What should she do next?

1. Wake her up and guide her. You can still fix this.
2. Maybe let her dream a little longer?
3. Bathroom, now.

c. Bathroom, now.

She scoops up a hand towel from a drawer and trots over to the bathroom, turning on the left faucet. She waits for it to run cold enough that her wrist aches when she dips her fingers in it, and then fills the towel till it's bloated with freezing liquid.

When she gets back into the room, she folds it, and drops the towel over the girl's face. It covers her eyes, mouth and nose.

The dream ends. Her eyes open, under the washcloth. She doesn't move. (She can't breathe).

She's going to go back to studying for a bit.

Cara tries to breathe, but there's water in the way. 

She passes out.

She watches. Counts seconds. At one hundred and fifty, she peels back a corner of the towel. Just enough to see one eye, wide and glassy. "Breathe through your mouth. It's just a little water."

Cara is not conscious! Her body is trying to breathe for her, but it doesn't seem to be working out super well?