"Welcome to your new home!"
The words echo painfully in her ears. I'm never going back home, am I? What of my mom? My dad? Will they miss me? Regardless of her thoughts, she only presents a plaintive expression throughout, choosing to remain silent.
When the group had entered Laykos' abode, she meekly followed and sat on a corner of the living room. Her long-distanced stare was distracted when she overheard Alvin and Laykos' discussion.
"Thanks... But, um, what do you mean by 'new home?'"
"That's what I mean.. my child, it's impossible for you to go back. The barrier prevents it. Here is the safest place, you can grow, you can learn..."
"We can be like one happy family!"
The Barrier... Whatever myths this creature spun, it all seemed to be true to a defeated 12 year old. Internally, her worst fears have been confirmed - she had been kidnapped by a fox for their own purposes, she muses. But she feels placated for now; the floorboards are warm, and there is no climbing back up the hole which they came through.
Alvin's discussion with Laykos was getting more intense - the situation being more dire than it could have ever been in their lives. They were only children after all. They did not deserve to be lost to fate's whims.
"My child, I'm sorry... but you cannot go back.
I am sorry, but there is no return."
Deciding that she has to steel herself if she wants to get back home - Papa wouldn't know his daughter's hidden in a cave, because she was decidedly lost in a forest for hours until she found Mt. Damon; she had to ask Laykos the question bothering her most.
"Is it true there's really no way back...?"