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The cold settles over Ana’s garden like a second skin — sharp and unmoving. Dead leaves carpet the ground in brittle layers. The forest behind the hut looms darker than usual, its pines swaying like tall, watchful sentinels guarding the trail.
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Small brown birds huddle together along the crooked fence, feathers puffed against the freezing air. They chirp in short bursts, hopping from post to post as if trying to stay warm. Their tiny claws scrape the wood, the sound barely audible over the winter wind. Above them, bright red cardinals hop across the roof of Ana’s hut — flashes of crimson against the gray sky. They watch the cottage.
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Rose and Lilly reach Ana’s. The horses slow to a trot, then stop. They dismount at the same time. The cottage door burst open. Ana stumbles out, cane tapping frantically.
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Ana:
“Metro’s gone!!!”
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Rose’s face collapses — shock first, then despair.
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Rose:
“What happened!?”
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Ana hurries toward them, meeting them halfway in the garden.
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Ana:
“They’ve taken Paul and Blake prisoner as well!”
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Lilly:
“No!”
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Ana grabs both their forearms, pulling them close. The three women stand together huddled, faces tight with fear and desperation.
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Rose:
“What happened to Metro?!”
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Ana looks at her — mouth open, petrified.
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Ama:
“The Guards from the Great City… They've arrested him for questioning. And now he’s escaped. They want Paul and Blake because of him…”
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Lilly: (cries)
“We just came from Paul’s — they burned his whole hut down!”
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Ana’s breath hitches. She grabs Lilly’s face with trembling hands.
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Ana:
“We are going to get through this…”
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She looks at Rose, then back at Lilly, panic rising effortlessly, letting go of Lilly's face.
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Ana:
“Paul came to my house after midnight — bleeding to death. He fought the King’s Guard. Blake and I dragged him inside and healed him. He rested until morning… and that’s when they came. That’s when they took our boys.”
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Rose seizes Ana’s shoulders.
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ROSE
“Where do you think Metro is?!”
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Ana’s eyes dart away — toward the forest, toward the trail, toward the cold unknown. Fear tightens her jaw. She turns her head slightly, unsure, terrified… then forces herself to meet Rose’s gaze again.
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ANA
“Im not sure yet,
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He'll find his way back to us…
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…He'll come back home to the Cottage.”
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The three women stare into each other’s souls — bound by fear, loss, and the storm closing in on their world.
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A cardinal flutters down from the roof, landing on the fence beside the brown birds. The dead leaves rustle. The wind sighs through the pines.
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In the fall garden three women stand together beneath the watching song birds, the dead leaves whispering at their feet, as the weight of what's coming settles over them like the inevitable winter itself.
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End of scene.
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