Chapter 1

Jaclyn stopped out of breath. She sat down beneath a tree and put her backpack down beside her on the ground. Still breathing heavily she looked around her. The sun was just barely peaking over the horizon. She had run a long way from the orphanage.

Jaclyn had been living there for as long as she could remember. The woman who ran the orphanage was horrible. None of the children who lived at the orphanage liked her. They referred to her as the “Boss”. The orphanage was always dank and dusty and was never cleaned, and the Boss wouldn’t allow them to open the windows. Nobody knew why this was. The Boss would never say. Jaclyn would sometimes sneak a peak out the window above her bed when no one was there. The world outside her window looked wonderful on sunny days. She had finally decided to run away. She would go into the forest and catch her own food and build her own shelter. She had packed her bag putting in only the most important things for survival and left in the dead of night. She hadn’t dared to go any slower than a run for fear of being caught.

And so there she was. A ten year old girl who had no idea in the least how to survive in the wild and nothing to defend herself with should she meet any wild creatures. It was cold out. She curled up among the roots of the tree and covered herself with a blanket that she had brought along. She lay there for a while staring at the stars. After a while she closed her eyes and slept.

Jaclyn slowly opened her eyes. Slowly she tried to sit up. “Ow.” She groaned as she made an attempt to sit up. She was sore from sleeping on the ground. When she finally managed to sit up she noticed that she was starving. She hadn’t eaten dinner the night before because she had saved her meager meal for her journey through the forest. Jaclyn reached out and grabbed her backpack. She put away her blanket and dug around in her bag until she found some bread. Then she stood up, grabbed her backpack and began to walk north, away from the orphanage munching her bread, though she had no idea where she was going. As she walked she began to wonder whether running away had been a good idea or not. But she couldn’t turn back now. The Boss would get her into so much trouble. Maybe she could just deal with the Boss’s punishment and… No she wasn’t going to turn back now. So on she marched.

By mid day she was starving again and she was very tired. So she sat down under a tree and ate some more bread. When she finished she continued walking. The forest was very serene and calm. The only noise was the sound of her feet on the fallen leaves and the occasional sound of a squirrel scampering up a tree or a bird calling to its mate. She stopped to rest every so often and then continued walking.

After many hours of walking she finally decided to stop and build some form of shelter if she could. She walked around a bit looking for a good tree that she might be able to sleep in. She wandered about between the trees until she found an oak tree. She walked around the tree looking for the best place to get into the tree. When she didn’t find any she stood there looking up at the tree trying to think of how she could get up into its braches. After a minute or two of thinking she pulled the rope out of her bag. She went over to the tree and stood under the lowest branch. She tossed the rope up over the branch. Then she grabbed the other end and tied it on so that she had a loop tied around the branch of the oak. Then using the rope she walked up the tree trunk going hand over hand. When she got into the branches she squatted down between the branches. “This is perfect.” She said to herself. She took her blanket out of her backpack and made herself as comfortable as possible. Then she took out the last of her bread and began to nibble at it.

The sun had set by now and it was dark. The stars were beginning to come into view. When Jaclyn had finished her bread she settled down to sleep. But Jaclyn could not sleep for some reason. She lay there in the tree playing with her chestnut brown hair. All of a sudden Jaclyn heard a strange noise some where near her tree. She lay there as still as a stone. Hoping that she would not be noticed. She thought she saw a flash of bright light in the distance. She was beginning to hope that she was imagining all of it. After a minute she realized that the noise had stopped. She thought about lighting a fire but she had no flint or matches. She decided that she would have to figure that out in the morning.

When Jaclyn opened her eyes the sun was coming up. Again she was sore but not as sore as the first night. She did not remember the noises from the previous night. She felt something tickling her left leg. She bent over to see what it was. It was an ant. “Eek! Jaclyn cried. She really hated bugs. She quickly stood up in the tree and discovered a few more. She stuffed her blanket into her bag in a rush. “Aaaaahhhhhhhh!!!!!!!” Jaclyn landed with a thud at on the ground. “Ow! That was so painful!” Jaclyn said to no one in particular. “Are you alright?”