Winter Wildflowers

Hunted, she thought. She was being hunted. She cried as she tripped once more, her foot catching on a log, and in that one falter, the soldier was upon her. Instantly he roughly pinned her down with a knee to her back and held a strong hand to the back of her neck. Ofelia, immediately burst into tears, thick sobs escaping to the forest. "Pa!", She yelled, weeping into the snow, "...Pa." The soldier sighed and waited. "Sir!", The same voice from before bellowed, "We must get moving!" Ofelia continued to yell out, screaming into the earth, but he only waited. He was cold. Angry. The Frost upon his knee digging into her back. Ofelia could feel his impatience, his irritation at her outburst. She laid there sobbing until she could sob no more. Until the heartbreak seeped into horror. Until she lay there staring at the roots instead. Only then, after a slow and resounding silence, did the soldier lift his knee off her, dragging her up by her arm. Ofelia followed.