The small girl sat on the rock with her head in her hands. Although she was lost and alone, she confronted the situation as she always did – with optimism and a driving sense of purpose. She was good at problems. There was always a solution if you thought long and hard enough. At least that was what her mother had always said. She smiled at the thought of her mother chastising her endlessly when she had too easily turned to despair. But the happiness quickly faded to loneliness when she was again faced with the fact that she had no mother or father to help her this time. Marina allowed herself a small sigh.

Marina turned her dark brown eyes to the sky, and tried to work through the problem. She had no food and no bed to sleep in. She had no skills, no trade, and was too small for even unskilled labor. But more than anything, the loneliness bothered her. She turned around on her rock and examined the beach, but Marina only saw the sand bordered by the thick hedge of trees that lay beyond. She had spent two days between the sea and the trees. She had hoped that someone would come for her, but no one had, and she had come to the conclusion that no one would. They must ALL be dead, she thought bitterly. They must have burned down the whole village.

Her mind couldn’t help but wander back to the day before yesterday, when the strangers came. She had been asleep in her bed when she heard a big noise at the door of their small house. She assumed that her father was the one that answered the door, because she heard him shout first. It had been a sound of disgust, horror, and surprise all in one. Then she heard her mother scream, and the sound of something, or someone, hitting the ground. “Marina!” she heard her mother scream, “Run!”

She hadn’t waited to find out who or what she was running from. She got out of bed, opened her bedroom window, and hit the ground running. She darted between the houses of the village. Flames seemed to lick the sky, coming from the blacksmith’s shop, the cheese monger’s cart, and the house across the unpaved road. The next thing Marina noticed were the men in dark cloaks. They held torches and weaved among the houses setting them ablaze. Marina wondered why she saw no one she knew, no one trying to fight the men, or even running away. Luckily none of the cloaked men noticed the little girl run into the trees and escape into the protective cloak of the forest.

She had run to the only place she could think of that would be safe from the men. There was a large boulder, flat on top, that sat on a nearby beach. She kept running until she smelled the sea air and the ground gave beneath her feet. She could find the boulder in the dark, she went there every day to think and watch the water. She had thrown herself on the rock and listened to the night. Silence met her ears. The silence spoke not of peace, but of death, pain, and destruction. Are my parents okay? she had thought.

The question had repeated again and again in her mind for the past two days. She did not stir far from the rock, and she was still wearing her night gown. Marina had waited for someone to come from the village to claim her. As she waited, she observed the seagulls, the summer flowers of the forest, and listened to the birds sing, but mostly she had sat on her rock in her nightdress thinking of what to do next. She was nine years old, how was she going to support herself? And more importantly, she needed to catch the men that destroyed her village. The need to revenge the destruction of her home and her previous life that was comfortable and familiar burned inside her. And they had hurt her parents. She was sure of it.

A sudden sound roused her from her reverie. She turned to see a boy coming towards her from the forest. She squinted, trying to make out his features. He had blond hair, was as skinny as a rail, and was walking purposefully toward her rock. As he drew nearer, recognition came to Marina with a shock. It was the blacksmith’s son, Riley!

She ran toward him, her heart full of relief and joy at seeing someone come from the village alive. “What happened? Who were those men? How are my parents? Is everyone okay?” she demanded as she ran up to him. She was a yard from the boy when she realized it was not Riley at all. She stopped and stared at the boy. She was afraid but she tried not to let it show.

“I don’t think I can answer your questions,” he responded, looking a bit confused. “Who are you?”

“My name is Marina,” she replied slowly. “I live in Kingsford. Or at least I used to.”

“My name is Jared. I live in Harrock’s Mill. I heard about Kingsford. I’m very sorry. As far as everyone knows, there were no survivors.”

Marina stared into the distance as the cold reality set in. Her mother and father had not survived. Jared let an uncomfortable silence ensue, unsure of what to do or say next.

“Have you been here since the attack?” he asked.

“Yes,” she replied.

“You must be so hungry! Let me take you home with me. My mother will look after you. Come on, come with me.” The boy took her by the hand and led her away from the rock towards the forest. Marina didn’t protest. More than anything she wanted someone to look after her.

“Jared, how did you find me?” she asked. “What brought you to the beach in the first place?”

“I go to the beach a lot to think. I like to watch the ocean, I like the feel of the sand underfoot, and being between the sea and the forest just makes me feel safe.”

Marina looked up at the young man in shock. “You probably won’t believe this, but so do I. I’ve gone to that beach most days for years, listening to the water and sitting on that rock.”

Jared laughed. “Then it is a wonder that we haven’t met before!”

They traveled on the forest path until they reached a fork. Marina stared at the right fork, longing for the familiarity of home, imagining going back and seeing everything as it was. She saw herself walking down the dirt road, waving at the village children before entering the front door to be greeted by her mother. Tears welled in her eyes and rolled down her cheeks. The anxieties of the past few days could be kept inside no longer, Jared’s words echoed in her head. As far as everyone knows, there were no survivors.

“Come on, Marina,” Jared said. “There is no use dwelling on the past. What is done cannot be changed. There is nothing you or I can do to change what has happened. All we can do is work with what we have. I always think that however bad your problems, they always work out in the end. If you think long and hard enough, there’s always a solution. You just keep on trying and sooner or later things will work out.”

Marina looked up at him, and her tears subdued a bit. “You’re right, Jared.” There was admiration in her eyes. “I just miss my family. I’ll miss the way things used to be.”

“We’ll always have the beach,” Jared replied.

Marina nodded, and together they walked to the left and into the forest.