Unfortunately, the second night is worse than the first. After the day I've had, being immobile and helpless appears constantly throughout my nightmares. I wind up waking over and over and over. By the following morning, it actually seems that my roommates have gotten so accustomed to my constant muffled screams that they don't wake up to them anymore. When she looks over at me, Emily's worried, but not nearly as tired as she was yesterday.

Meanwhile, I feel about ready to collapse just walking down to breakfast. Emily helps me again. "I was terrified when you collapsed yesterday," she says. "You just went limp and fell over. You almost looked dead!"

"I'm so sorry for worrying you like that," I keep apologizing. "I didn't mean to scare you. I have no idea what happened."

"Don't worry, it'll be fine." She rubs my head. It's kind of like how Marrianne comforted me. While it bothers me that a girl my own age is comforting me like a small child, it also feels so nice that I can't complain. I close my eyes and let the brief moment of happiness happen.

We sit at one of the big dining room tables for a while again. The food eventually comes out, a stew similar to yesterday's. We eat it slowly. It's about the same as yesterday. Not bad at all. Since I'm still really tired, I just kind of doze as I eat. I try not to fall asleep though, that would be really bad.

"Oh, what do we do during the day?" I finally remember to ask as we are putting our bowls back. She gives me a questioning look, so I explain more. "My first day here, Mister Fredricson had me clean the house. Yesterday I collapsed. What am I supposed to do normally?"

"Oh, we all go to the forest to gather things. Firewood, food, stuff like that. The older kids go to work if they can get a job, but we go to the forest." That's right. All those baskets everyone has. I even saw them all leaving that one day. It feels like my brain isn't working at all right now. Didn't I already guess that yesterday?

"Ok, the forest." I respond, understanding now. I'm going to need a basket of some sort. Mister Fredricson took mine, so I guess I'll have to find one in the storeroom. I go to look while Emily heads back upstairs to get her things. "Wait, can you also get the cloth and stick I have up there? I need to put them back." She nods and heads upstairs.

I walk into the storeroom, but someone stops me immediately. This one is a taller girl. "Don't just go wandering in the storeroom," she tries to shoo me out.

"I'm not wandering, I'm looking for a basket," I explain.

"That's why we don't keep any in there," she explains. Except that doesn't explain anything.

Since apparently there aren't any baskets, I let her shoo me from the room. I'm too tired to argue anyway. Emily comes back not long after. She explains that she's putting something back, and the older girl lets her go in and out quickly.

"I put the stick back but..." She holds up the cloth, pinching the edge between two fingers. It's dripping wet with my spit. I take it back and say thanks. It's really disgusting. Even though it's my fault.

"I'll ask Mister Fredricson about it, I need to go see if he'll give me a basket to use anyway," I sigh. It seems like no matter what I do, I'll just get yelled at again. I don't have the energy to deal with all that right now.

I slowly climb my way back up the second floor. I gulp nervously, then knock on his door. "Come in." As soon as I walk through the door, he grimaces. "What do you want?"

"U-umm, I'm going to go gathering in the forest. Can I have a basket to use?" It almost seems like he expected this, because he just tosses one at me. "Bring it back when you're finished." My tired reactions are so sluggish it bounces off of me onto the floor before I raise my hands to catch it.

"You're still that tired from yesterday?" he asks, eyes narrowing again.

"I guess, I didn't get much sleep last night."

"Hmm," is his only response to that.

"Oh that's right. I'm not sure what to do with this." I hold up the cloth for him to see. Mister Fredricson immediately shifts away with a disgusted look.

"What is that thing?"

"It's some cloth I used last night to stifle my screams, but now it's covered in spit."

"Just keep that thing. You'll owe the orphanage one piece of cloth." He has a face that says this conversation is over. I quickly grab up the basket from the ground and leave. Some part of me is unsurprised that it's the basket I brought here with me.

Since it's taken a while to get everything ready, it's almost time for the third bell. "We all leave for the forest at the third bell," Emily explains, "we need to get going." I nod and pick up my pace to keep up with her. We quickly make it out to the nearby well plaza where a large group of children are already gathered. The morning air helps shake some of the sleepiness from my head.

"Since you're new and don't really know how to do things, you should stay with the little kids. The big kid will show you how to gather stuff," Emily explains as we approach. She points over to the youngest children. There are five of them, who appear about three or four years old. They all stand together, with a bigger kid right near them. This one is much older, a boy maybe thirteen years old by my guess.

"Thanks, Emily. I'll see you later." We nod to each other and split up. I walk over to the small kids. Unfortunately, I'm so small that children this age barely have to look up at me, while the older kid looks down. I try to explain things clearly.

"Hi, I'm new here. Since I don't know much about gathering, I was told to come over here."

"Ok, just stick with the little kids today," he responds simply enough, but looks me up and down with a weird expression. I try to ignore it and nod, then stand with the group. The small children all keep staring at my white hair and strange robe, but I can't really pay it much mind. Now that I'm standing still, my tired head seems to be drifting off.

Thankfully, the third bell rings after a short wait. "We're going to the forest now, everyone stick together," the boy instructs. While most of the children walk quickly, he stays with us as we move at a slower pace. I'm sure I could walk faster normally, but this feels like a nice pace when I'm so tired. The main group of orphanage children quickly leave us and disappear down the street. At our own pace, we head just a couple blocks over to North Main Street, then begin to go south. Once we arrive at the central plaza between the east and west gates, we turn west. When we pass out of the West Gate, I glance around a bit, but don't spot Francis. I hadn't really considered it at the time, but since he's a guard, I'm bound to see him again once in a while.

At our pace, it actually takes a long time to reach the forest. The fifth bell chimes as we arrive at the first trees of the forest. The boy leads us a short distance in, to a small clearing. "First, we'll gather firewood. Any bits of wood you can find on the ground will be fine," he explains. "Remember to keep this clearing in sight at all times so you don't get lost."

Well, that's easy enough. We scatter, all scanning the ground for sticks. There are none here. I continue searching the clearing for a bit. It takes me way too long to realize what should be obvious. When it finally occurs to me, I'm annoyed at how tired I am. Of course there aren't going to be any sticks here. We're right at the edge of the forest, in a clearing that they seem to use every day. Wouldn't this area be picked absolutely clean all the time?

Once I realize, I increase my search area to the forest around the clearing. Bit by bit, I start to find little pieces of wood and some tiny scraps of flecked off bark. I deposit any little thing I find in my basket. Since it's small, I can't carry it on my back like the bigger children, but it's so light that carrying it in my hands isn't an issue.

We don't go for very long before the boy calls us all back. He checks our baskets and nods. The other small children have small baskets much like mine. All in all, I don't think we've gathered much useful wood, though.

"This looks good enough for now," he says, "Now we'll search for plants. Everyone stay with me, Don't wander off." Then we move deeper in. We all make sure to stick close to the boy as we walk. "While you walk, keep looking at the ground to see if you can find anything. Say if you see anything you think looks edible."

Each time someone spots something, they call out. He stops everyone to tell us about whatever we found, and whether it's edible, or poisonous, or anything else we need to know. Little by little, we begin to gather bits of food, and the knowledge needed to identify it again later. It's really rough, trying to memorize all these new things when my mind feels like sludge. There are so many different plants that hardly any of the ones we see are ones Marrianne already taught me. As I walk, I keep winding up stumbling over half-buried tree roots, getting my long hair tangled on branches since I couldn't tie it up, and all other manner of trouble. Only the desperate will to understand this task I'll need to repeat all the time manages to keep me moving steadily forward.

I vaguely think I might hear the sound of the sixth bell, but it's hard to say. We just keep gathering. A while later, something just barely registers in my ears. It might have been the seventh bell, but it's so quiet I'm not sure. I'm proven right when it's followed up by the whistle from the AR program. No matter how far away I am, I can always hear it perfectly, it seems.

"That was the seventh bell," I tell the older boy, just in case he couldn't hear it.

"Really?" He looks a bit surprised. "Good ears." He glances around at the other kids. The children look kind of tired. Then he looks at me and asks, "Are you alright to keep going?"

"Yeah..." Actually, I'm not so sure. Normally I wouldn't care. If I collapse, I collapse. But I would be a burden on them if I let that happen, and that isn't something something I can allow. I can't say how much more I can manage before I'm too tired to continue, so I add on the end, "Maybe..." He considers me for a few moments.

"We're turning back now, gathering on our way." We begin to make a wide turn so we don't walk back over the same way we came. We continue picking up little bits of things, fallen berries, mushrooms, little vegetables and leaves.. Anything he tells us is not poisonous. At some point along the way, we're back in better hearing range, so I can pick out the sound of the eighth bell. It isn't much longer before the forest begins to clear before us.

By the time we make it out, even the small quantity of food and wood in my basket feels heavy in my exhausted arms. I think I might be swaying as I walk too, but it's hard to say. The little children around me all look tired as well, but the older boy doesn't seem tired at all. He checks everyone's baskets with a nod, and we begin making our way back. Now that we're all so tired, it takes a little longer than two bells to get back to the orphanage. It's probably halfway between the tenth and eleventh bell when we walk in the front door.

Even standing while the boy takes half of the contents of our baskets and deposits them in a pile on a table turns out to be incredibly difficult. My vision is starting to go blurry and it takes everything I have to keep my eyes open. As soon as he's finished, he says we can go. The tired children all wander off. I need sleep. I can already tell I won't last much longer. My consciousness wants to slip away every time I blink.

So I fight to climb to the second floor. It's far worse than any climb before. I barely manage to force my heavy body up each step, pushing my basket ahead of me as I go. I make it to Mister Fredricson's door and knock a couple times. I hear his voice. I think he's saying to come in?

With a great effort, I open his door and stagger inside. I hold up the basket, "here's the basket back," I think I might have slurred some of the words as my mind started to fade there, but I can't say for sure. He takes the basket, raising an eyebrow.

"You can go now," he dismisses me. I stand for a few moments, trying to work up the energy to move again. He begins to look angry.

"I don't think I can make it back to my room," I tell him. It's hard to make my legs support my weight. I honestly don't know if I can make the climb to the third floor right now.

"Don't care, get out." I droop a little and sigh. Nothing I can do about it. I turn back, struggling with his doorknob. It's hard to get it to turn. I have to hang my weight off of it since my arms are too tired to turn it properly. When it finally unlatches, I get the door to swing out, and leave the room. I push the door closed again.

That leaves me standing in the hallway. I don't have anything else that I have to get done right now. No one will be bothered by me collapsing. As soon as that thought goes through my head, the drive keeping me upright vanishes. I slump against the wall, sliding down to the floor. The floor is so comfortable...

That's all it takes for me to fall asleep.

Shortly after, I jolt awake, screaming again. While I shake and pant on all fours, I look around. In the few moments of clarity before my fatigue sets back in, I realize that I fell asleep on the floor in the hall. There are quite a few children around, all looking at me with a mixture of concern and fear. Mister Fredricson bursts from his office a moment later. "You again? Stop screaming like that!"

"I'm sorry, Mister Fredricson, I didn't mean to fall asleep." I answer. Slowly, I stagger back to my feet, leaning heavily on the wall for support.

"You fell asleep right there...?" it sounds like he doesn't actually want an answer.

"I think I can make it back to my room now, I'm sorry for the trouble."

"Just go away." I nod and turn back toward my room. With the little rest I got before my nightmares scared me awake, I might have just enough energy to make the climb to the third floor. I ball up the cloth I still have with me and put it in my mouth because it feels like I could fall asleep at any moment. I didn't realize that with my nightmares, even collapsing will bother others now. I have to get to my room. So I stumble my way up the stairs and down the hall, past the other kids. I push myself along the wall as they all watch, before finally arriving back at my room. I fall onto the wooden bed, unsure whether I'm asleep before I land.