She heard the rustle again and her heart took a leap when she saw fingers reaching out from underneath one of the logs. Her hands raced to her mouth, choking her breaths.
Someone from outside was pulling on the lower log to make more space and soon pushed an apple into the wagon.
Alina cautiously dropped to her knees and crawled closer. She took the apple and stared at it strangely, then she laid her palm on the wall and whispered, “Who’s there?”
She took a look outside through a space between two of the logs and recognized the face of the young guard who had spoken for her earlier, Sinna.
He was trying to act normal but couldn’t help stealing looks left and right as he retreated.
“Wait,” she called, but her voice came out too quiet, and a bit too late. Sinna had already left.
Alina rolled back to the center of the wagon.
She hugged her knees and buried her face in them. The whimpers and shivers returned. She cried quietly in the dark, but every now and then she would steal a look at the apple by her side.
It almost gave her comfort, in her loneliness and her fears.