The slope soon turned into a deep hill, she began picking up speed as she conntinued down the hill. She noticed much too late, that there was an obstacle lying directly across her path. The ground beneath her became flat stone that was slimy, wet and very slick with moss and trickling water. Instinctively she backpedaled in order to engage the brakes, she felt the loss of control as the back tire began sliding out from under her forning the bicycle sideways. She twisted her body in the oposite direction in order to compensate, but she was thrown from the bicycle and she landed very awkwardly on her chest and right arm. She heard a snap in her arm as she fell from the bicycle, her chest hit something hard leaving her breathless, and seeing stars. As she struggled to her knees, trying to get her wind back and assess the damage, her head spun, the forest suddenly got as black as night, she heard a crack of thunder . . . and then it began to rain.
Seeing stars before her eyes from when she fell, still wheezing and trying to catch her breath, she clutched her sore stomach and screamed out in pain when she tried to move her right arm. She tried to stand, but the ground beneath her waivered and her world went black. Alannah fell once more on the ground, passed out cold from the head wound that was oozing blood. When she woke, she thought she heard voices, trying to call out, her voice was only drowned by the sounds of the thunder. She began to slowly crawl around and look for shelter. She found a hollowed out stump of a great tree and huddled in the stump, hoping to wait out the storm. As the pain in her stomach subsided to a dull ache, the pain in her arm increased to that of red hot pokers. She hoped to have remained relatively dry, but the rain had other plans. The rain storm turned into a raging storm, continued through the day. The floor of her little sanctuary was beginning to flood with little rivulets of water, leaving her soaked, shivering and bleeding.
Hugging herself for warmth and praying that someone would find her, she leaned as far into the crumbling tree stump as possible. She spent the entire day in sodden misery, and finally by late afternoon she decided that she needed medical attention and she needed to return to the Chateau.
Retracing her steps was an ordeal in itself. Though the bicycle was no badly damaged, it was too wet for her to ride and with her arm hurting the way it was, she had a very difficult time managing herself over the rugged terrain, let along dragging a bicycle beside her. She decided to leave the bicycle where it was and traverese over the terrain. She arrived at the Chateau with the last light of dusk. The door to the house opened a little before she reached it, and Dominic stood there framed in the light, looking relieved and angry. She was brought into the house just enough to shut the door, where she was told to stay put.