Isadora, meanwhile, had reached the road. Wet, mud-streaked, and exhausted, she smiled weakly to herself. She realized that the "traveling clothes" that she had brought were no more traveling clothes than sheep were goats.
They'll probably smell as bad as sheep by the end of this journey, she thought. Naive as she had been, she hadn't realized that the clothes she took on trips as a princess would be nothing near what she'd need tramping through the forest.
The road was deserted, but she didn't have the strength to start traveling down it yet. She comforted herself with thoughts of a hot meal and a soft bed at the inn of the nearest town. When she'd started the journey with Rudolph, they had originally decided to avoid towns for a while, but that wasn't an option now. She doubted anyone would recognize her as the missing princess anyway, dirty and disheveled as she was. As she rested by the road, evening fell and the rain began to let up. She set out her bedroll under a tree, and started a small fire to keep warm.
This is a bad idea, she told herself. Some traveler will see my fire and try to kidnap or rob me. I should move back into the woods. She tried to get up, but her fatigued limbs refused to exert themselves any longer, and she fell asleep.
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