Lot shivered as she looked up at the smoking spires of the black mountain. She had always been told that the mountains were where the strength of men go. In her mind, she wondered if her husband had felt like this when he went off to war. She was no were near the strongest men of her village had gone when the war had come to her town to take him away from her. It was so far away from her. Her son had long since given up on complaining about the cold, he wasn't getting any kind of response from her as she was uncomfortable with her own bleeding feet. She didn't have much to have him play with as she felt his body grow limp.
She looked around at the environment and knew that if a lone woman travelling with a child made a fire here, that she would be found quickly. Lot shivered as she thought about the things that she was going to find her. It wasn't something that she savored, being the wrong place at the wrong time, but she needed to warm up quickly in order to keep both of them alive.
She tried to think of what she needed for life instead of what she needed to go in the opposite direction. She didn't want to be buried here or be burying anyone.
Maybe, there was a cave somewhere.
Lot shifted her son from the front of her body to the back where it would be able to keep her hands more free. Her son whimpered softly as he was uncomfortable, and then Lot shifted her corset strings such that she seated her son against her chest. He was secure and had become warmer as he absorbed her body heat. He liked the spot and his breath become more regular as he drifted off into a more comfortable sleep.
One problem less than before, Lot said to herself as she started to look around the cliffs. It had been a while since she had been really taking in her surroundings. She pocketed whatever small stones that she could find as there wasn't much that she could do to scare off such a large enemy as an ogre. She put an axe in her skirts, thinking maybe that it could be useful later as it was a much smaller one than she had at home for a man to use. Lot knew she would be useless in a fight, but she never knew why it would come handy later. Someone had obviously left it behind, so they meant to come back and that meant that there might be a camp or something nearby of the people who came to this area. She followed the miners items that she could find around her until she saw that there was a wooden fence. She put both of her hands on it as she wondered what the use was to have a fence in the middle of a forest.
Below her, she realized that the light was increasing, and she realized that whoever had razed her house was burning down the entire village. Her blood ran cold as she was very glad that her son was there completely asleep as the tears fell from her eyes. Whatever the matter was ahead of her, she recalled in the tavern how the men had talked about the path being blocked by a cave in, she couldn't care.
There was no where to go back to that she could call home.
Lot's hands tightened around the axe in her skirts. She found a loose board in the fence and then squeezed through. It was tight around her hips, but she managed and she was thankful to find an abandoned camp there. She could see that there were boxes stacked up around the awning which was the opening to the cave.
She opened a few and found small pouches of tinder and flint. It was a miracle. Lot also found some clothes that had been freshly washed, it made her feel paranoid as she was wondering who was doing laundry so far up in the mountains. She hadn't run into any people on the way up and nor was there any houses or homesteads. She shook her son awake and then changed him as he was dribbling in and out of sleep. She used the extra cloth from the men's clothes to tie her son behind her back.
A corset had more uses than one. But now, she did use it to flatten her chest. She braided her hair then with strips of cloth and ribbon to keep it out of her face in a long braid with the ribbons poking out at all angles. She used the sweat from her hands to try to slick it all back into something more orderly, not that it would matter now as no one was going to be looking at her. Her face was wide with a wild expression. She shared what food that they had found there. She knew that it wasn't the best idea, but she made a small area in the boxes and as she heard the town below them burn, she tucked her child in to sleep.
Thank goodness Komi was too exhausted to ask questions.
But, even as Lot was tired, she couldn't stop the tears from leaking down her face. She couldn't believe that today had happened, she had been hoping that the world was coming to return to peace now. It had been so long since she had felt the large comfort of her husband's body. There was nothing that she wanted more to feel, but she knew that it was nowhere to be found. How was he going to find her, now that the house he had built was a smoking ruin. She didn't even know if her mother in law was alive or not. She used her arms as a pillow. One hand on her son and the other on the axe she had no idea how to use. She prayed then, that she would find a new home at some point.