Someone spotted a slipper lying not far away. There was only one; no one knew where the other had fallen.
The girl was barefoot, curled up in a ball, her eyes swollen from crying like walnuts.
She looked utterly miserable.
When the girl's parents heard what had happened, they immediately decided to come pick her up and take her back to the city.
After all, she was a girl, and the scrapes on her body needed to be treated properly.
The village's medical care was limited, after all.
The girl's injuries were given a rough treatment.
With her grandmother and friends comforting her, the girl gradually calmed down.
Only then did someone ask why she'd been out there alone.
The girl stammered.
Her grandmother had warned her beforehand that she wasn't allowed to go into the woods alone. It was dangerous.
She'd thought it was still early, so she'd decided to take a quick look in the woods and get back before her grandmother woke up.
But then something had gone wrong.
Under everyone's questioning, the girl finally told them the truth.
"That was reckless!"
Her grandmother couldn't help scolding her.
The girl hadn't grown up in the village and knew nothing about the woods.
If a village child had gone with her, it wouldn't have been a big deal to play around at the edge of the woods.
But for the girl to go charging into the woods all by herself, before dawn, was downright foolhardy.
She had no sense of danger at all.
There were wild boars deeper in the woods, and they said someone had even seen a bear.
Her grandmother scolded the girl sternly for a long time.
The girl hung her head. Seeing that her usually kind-hearted grandmother was truly angry, she