Chapter 12: NightmaresI threw myself onto the ground in the small clearing I'd come across, breathing heavily after running through the forest for more than twenty minutes. I had a stitch in my side and folded over on myself, trying to relieve the ache with my arms wrapped around my legs.
For long minutes I lay on the ground panting, adjusting my breathing to take short, shallow mouthfuls of oxygen – any more tore at the pain in my side and made it feel like a knife being dug into the skin around my ribs. The pain gradually dissipated and feeling better, I sat upright and viewed my surroundings.
The forest encircled the clearing, tall pine trees on all sides. There was the perfume of summer in the air, the soaring trees filled with the sounds of local wildlife; honeyeaters, woodpeckers,
