The Barn

Shakily stepping out of the glyphs at her feet she is careful not to blur the protective lines. She does not know how powerful that man she will no longer be referring to as her Father, was, but she is positive he would have easily been killed if not for these intersecting lines. These could become handy.

No way of telling the time Mercy stares at the wreckage of the room for clues to any of the hundreds of questions that should be berating her. But they aren't. Maybe she is just chronically calm.

"Okay, what's first?" She wonders aloud.

Spinning around the room she takes note of the molding stacked hay, a severed pitch fork uncomfortably large for her slight frame, and the blood-soaked splinters of destruction left by HIM.

"Protection... but from what?"

Mercy quiets her breathing and tiptoes to the gaping hole in the wall. She should find out how close she is to other people, she has no idea how kind people can be, only how cruel.

Mercy doesn't know why she knows things, only that she does.

Peering out the wind picks up slightly and catches at the hair in her eyes. The barn looks to be in a small clearing surrounded by nothing but woods, the moon illuminates it well now that her eyes have adjusted. It would not be incredibly easy to sneak up on her under these conditions, but she will take every possible precaution.

Mercy moves swifter this time towards the broken window that points towards the direction her assailant left. He fled through the hole, and headed left... and she can easily pick up the path of disturbed grass that leads towards the woods.

"Perfect!" she grins to herself, emboldened by a known direction. Gaining confidence she moves towards the broken pitch-fork. On the first attempt, the rotted wood gives way to nothing but termites. Then she goes for the worst-looking prong which completely crumbles with rust. It is made of incredibly crude ore.

This time though Mercy finds luck, both of the remaining points could serve as dull knives if necessary. She ties a slight knot to tighten the pant-like garb around her waist and slides one blade into the space created.

The other knife is laid down in the direction she has determined is "out," of these woods, or at least to wherever a man would travel after leaving here. Mercy has decided that she will have to be very meticulous in order to get what she wants in life, and allowing fate to have the flattened grass pop back up and leave her directionless before she awakes is not a fun thought to entertain.

"Two down."

Her racing mind takes her steps to the next window pane in the opposite direction, also long void of any translucent material — not even shards remain which would have been inconvenient upon her bare feet anyways.

Settling her palms upon the ridge of the window she peers out at another wall of trees, though this thicket is much more densely packed. She thinks that is the direction from where she heard the fearful howling of some canine creatures during one of the spells.

Cautiously noting that potential danger, her eyes drift back to the larger parallel wall to the "front." Seeing no door she imagined it was within the blast radius.

Her creeping exhaustion simply could not stave off her need to know what was beyond the fourth fall. If there were houses in that direction, she could easily be killed in her sleep by a passerby who wanted... well she did not have anything to give but her life. Still, she did not want an unexpected run-in.

Focusing on the task at hand and not her compulsion to sort through all the debris and organize each spec of anything resembling a once useful item, Mercy again approaches the exit.

Sticking her head out this time she takes several minutes to slowly scan the tree line, the open sky, anywhere that could hide a living creature looking to take her out of that category.

After a satisfyingly clear view Mercy also perkily serialized that the crickets around her quieted well before her approach, so if she could just move slowly and at a crouch around the barn she could hear her way to safety.

Heading out to the left to get a better view of her planned exit in case of danger, she gauged that the man had half limped all the way out of the clearing. Divots stood where his boots had struck the ground unevenly.

Content with the universe for that fond mental image she took it as a sign to keep going.

This agonizingly slow shuffle of a hand placed upon the dewy exterior of the barn, and the other clutching her makeshift knife ached at her body. She has never eaten before and is not exactly sure when that might become a problem. Oh and water. Damn, life is going to be complicated.

The long grasses that help shroud her in shadow are only two and a half to three feet tall, which conveniently should take out the possibility of a large creature hiding in them. They may also be edible, though to find out will probably require the dangerous trial and error of eating them.

After several careful moments of crouch-crawling, Mercy steels herself before turning the final corner. Blinking at the sight of another long row of thick trees she decides that it is safe enough to sleep. Just to be extra precautious she continues along the wall the opposite way she came.