She ran through the woods till her feet started to falter. Her breath stole from her body with each one she took. She must get to him. She must warn him.

A large moss-covered log loomed up in her path. She could easily jump over it, or could she? No time to think now!

With all her might, she kept over the log, expecting to land flat on the ground. Though she stumbled as her feet came to the ground, she had cleared it.

Her lungs started to burn within her. She had to slow down.

She stopped and rested against a tall oak tree. She leaned her head against the rough bark. Everything gleamed with an eerie silvery glow. The moon was full tonight, and it was a good thing for her, for the forest was unbearably dark at night.

She had barely caught her breath, when she started to run again. She just had to make it to the old apple tree. That shouldn’t be too far now.

Oh, her poor soldier! Her beloved James! She must keep running to warn him, his life was in her hands.

There it was, the old apple tree! It’s sight was a refreshment to her stinging eyes. Suddenly, she heard a noise. She slowed. A gunshot rang out through the empty forest!

And she dropped to the ground.

A soldier came forth out of the thick shrubs. He, in his red uniform, looked evilly confident as he strode out in the pale twilight.

“It wasn’t the boy!” He called back to the shrubs. A second redcoat emerged.

They stood over the youthful girl, her long chestnut hair bedraggled on the ground around her. Her breaths came slower and slower, and soon she was gone.

A sacrifice of love, paid in the highest.