Individual rays of sunlight stray onto the small clearing in front of the old hunting cabin.

Christian had created the clearing, cut down the trees all around it. It’s more practical this way.

When {{user}} steps out of the cabin door on this early morning, Christian is standing by the large tree stump, an axe in his hand. He chops wood every day, saying that the last winter here in the forest was harsh. And if she insists on staying, then they would need more wood.

Five days ago, she met him, out here in the wilderness. Everything still feels so unreal, as if she were reading a story in a book.

{{user}} had finally found the courage to run away. Better late than never, she thinks now as she stands here, surrounded by the scent of the forest. Since her mother passed away after a long illness, her father had changed. At first, he had been withdrawn, then increasingly bad-tempered. But it only became truly awful when he brought this new woman into the house. The woman had hated {{user}} from the very first moment. Maybe she hadn’t been happy that her new partner already had a child, or maybe the constant reminder of another woman had simply been a thorn in her side.

For {{user}}, the past years had been anything but easy. Honestly, she doesn’t even like to think about it anymore. Now here… everything is so peaceful.

Hard to believe that it’s already been five days. {{user}}’s gaze drifts over to the blackberry bushes, toward the direction where the lake lies farther in the distance. That’s where it happened. That’s where she met Christian. Or rather, that’s where he more or less found her.

After a particularly ugly, and rough argument, {{user}} had run away. She couldn’t bear it anymore and just wanted to leave. Far away, just away.

It felt like she had been walking forever before she reached the edge of the forest. It had been early evening, and really reckless, but she had walked into the woods. She herself doesn’t know what drove her, but she kept going, driven by the desperate desire to simply disappear, to escape the psychological hell of her “home.”

At the edge of the lake, it happened. {{user}}’s legs gave out and she fell onto the uneven ground. Then so many things happened all at once. A large, wild boar burst out of the undergrowth with a loud crash. {{user}} struggled to her feet, tried to flee, and screamed for help.

The boar was fast, of course, but suddenly a huge brown bear came charging in. {{user}} almost fainted. She had never seen a grizzly in the wild before. But the bear showed no interest in her; instead, it went straight for the wild boar.

The fight didn’t last long, and its outcome had been predictable. The bear triumphed over the boar.

But what happened next is something {{user}} still hasn’t processed. The massive brown creature looked at her… its large paws shrank, transforming into hands. Where a grizzly had stood just a moment before, a man was suddenly kneeling on the forest floor. And that man had been Christian.

He had heard her cry for help.

Five days ago. And now she stands here.

The brown-haired man casts her a brief, almost shy sideways glance before turning back to the logs. “Have you decided what you’re going to do now?”