Trapped in the eagle's black talons, Snow saw Nugai, Qara and her flock of sheep growing smaller and smaller, until they were mere specks in the distance.

She tried to wriggle out of the eagle's grasp, but every time she moved, she felt blinding pain as its talons cut into her flesh. The wind whistled in her pointed ears as she looked all around her in panic. A part of her was still unable to believe that she had been snatched up by the large brown eagle above her, and that she was now flying through the air.

The feathers in front of my eyes look real enough, the pain seems real enough, Goddess have mercy! Is this really happening to me?

She turned her head and saw that they were heading towards the mountains. For some strange reason, she recalled Erhi telling her that eagles usually nested high up in the cliffs, and that eagles hunted small animals to bring back to their young.

I'm going to be eaten! I cannot let that happen! she thought with horror.

Let go of me, you big bird! she wanted to shout, but her snout did not allow her to form human words. She did the only thing she could: she sank her sharp teeth into the eagle's claw.

The eagle gave a shrill cry and tightened its grip around her, squeezing her until she could hardly breathe. She bit down on the scaly claw again and again in retaliation, until blood flooded her mouth. The pain must have gotten to her captor, because it suddenly released her.

And then, she was falling through the air.

Snow wanted to scream, but she felt like her voice and her stomach had already left her body. As she shrieked a silent cry and tumbled head over tail towards the pine forest below, the people in her life flashed before her eyes.

Erden, her beloved. There was the Erden she had seen in the imperial gardens as a child, the Erden she knew throughout adolescence, and the Erden she married. We're supposed to spend the rest of our lives with each other and grow old together! she thought, her heart filling with regret.

Then there was her father, the Emperor who had no time for her. Her foster mothers and their cutting words. The Empress staring unblinkingly over her with a pair of bloodied scissors in her hand. The Empress again, covered in red fur in her terrifying fox form.

The princes, bullying and laughing cruelly at Erden. Weilong, handing her the reins to her first horse. The wizened dwarves whom she called her brothers, in their little wooden cottage filled with drying herbs.

Lastly, a beautiful face with dark brows and long dark lashes, partially obscured by snowy white hair.

Before she could figure out the last face, she crashed through the top of a pine tree. All she could see were the pine needles lashing at her face and body; all she felt was branches pummeling her and cutting her paws when she tried to grasp them.

Heaven help me! I don't want to die yet!

As she hurtled towards the ground, she twisted in mid-air and made a desperate grab for a thick branch near the bottom. Her fingers closed around it and she held on with all the strength she had. But then she slipped, taking fistful of leaves along with her, and landed feet first with a whump.

Startled birds took flight, and squirrels hid in their nests at the loud noise. When all was quiet again, they carefully peeked out to find, amidst the broken branches and pine leaves under the trees, a girl lying very still on the ground.

֎֎֎֎֎

Snow's eyes flew open and she gasped. She never figured that one day, she'd be so glad to wake up with her cheek pressed against damp ground covered in pine leaves and cones.

"I'm alive! I'm alive!" she said aloud.

Thank the Heavens! Thank you, Merciful Goddess! It's a miracle!

Oh, I'm hurting all over, she groaned to herself. Her head hurt, her arms and legs hurt, her ribs hurt when she breathed, her cheek stung and her hands felt like she had just received a lashing. She rolled onto her back which stung as well, and felt intense pain radiating from her left foot.

My hands! Are they still hands? She brought her hands up to her face, and was relieved to see that they were no longer white paws. She turned them over and was stunned to see her palms and fingers riddled with cuts and dried blood.

I haven't broken anything, have I? she wondered, flexing her fingers and wriggling her toes. Ow, ow, my foot. Above her, she could see the cloudy night sky through the hole she had created when she crashed through the tree.

It's dark already? How long have I been here? She winced as she sat up slowly and looked at the trees standing like silent sentinels around her.

A chill and a sense of déjà vu crept up the back of her neck like a long-legged spider. It seemed not too long ago that she was lost in the middle of a dark forest like this. Panic started fluttering up her throat and her breathing became ragged.

"Qara!" she shouted hoarsely. "Qara! Nugai!"

They can't hear me! They can't hear me from here, she thought frantically.

Just where on earth am I? She tried to get her bearings by searching the sky for any stars to guide her, but there were none to be seen behind the thick blanket of clouds.

Calm down, calm down, it will be okay, they will find you, she told herself, and willed herself to take a deep breath, though her ribs ached terribly. She got to her feet and immediately tumbled to the ground on her hands and knees.

"Ow!" she cried, feeling sharp pain shooting through her foot. She sucked her breath through her teeth when she got up again and tried to put her weight on her foot. Did I twist my ankle?

She hobbled over to the tree trunk. Leaning against the rough bark, she tested her foot again, and found the pain unbearable when she tried to step forward. She sank to the ground with her leg straight out in front of her and stared at her throbbing left foot.

This is bad, if it's broken, it's bad. I've never broken a bone in my entire life. I don't know what to do! Do I just sit here and wait?

She nearly jumped out of her skin when the heavens answered her with a flash of white light and a roll of thunder that rumbled the ground beneath her. The temperature dropped as the leaves of the pine trees swayed in the wind and tugged at her hair.

Snow groaned and put her hands to her temples. Just my luck. Why does the weather always turn foul when I'm already in trouble? It cannot possibly get any worse than this.

A faint animal howl could be heard, borne on the wind. She froze. It sounded like a dog's howl, but it was long and mournful.

Wolves! Qara said there are wolves here!

Snow clapped her hands over her mouth. If Snow wasn't already fearful earlier, she was well and truly petrified now. She started praying to all the gods and goddesses she knew.

Goddess of Mercy, Goddess Umay, please let Qara and Nugai find me quickly!

Qara, she remembered, was unafraid of wolves and hated them when they came for her sheep. She would guard her flock at night with a pack of dogs and other women armed with bow and arrows. Snow had been awed by her recounts of the nights the wolves snuck up to the pens and fought with the dogs. Those that managed to dodge the dogs and arrows would make off with sheep in their maws, but not many could escape Qara's deadly aim.

The thought of Qara fearlessly defending her sheep against wolves gave Snow courage. She took deep breaths to slow her racing heart. Think, Snow, think! What was it that Qara say about wolves?

"There is no animal more tenacious, more intelligent and more organized than the wolf," Qara told her one evening as she cut vulture feathers into fletchings for her arrows. When she spoke in that serious tone, she seemed like a different person altogether.

Her gentle green eyes turned hard as flint when she said, "They are venerated here on the plains - they are sacred animals, like the deer and the eagle. But we do not fear them. We know that they are more afraid of us. But if you ever find yourself alone in the grasslands with wolves, you must not show any sign of fear. Not one bit!"

"Then how I scare them off?" Snow had asked.

Qara tucked a stray brown curl under her red headscarf. "If you're on horseback, you can knock your metal stirrups together. They are afraid of loud noises, especially noises caused by metal objects."

Metal objects? I have nothing here! Snow searched the ground for anything she could use as a weapon, and got up to hobble over to the pile of broken branches and leaves she had created. None of the branches were long enough to be of any use, but she picked the thickest stick she could find. Then, she dragged herself to the tree and sat with her back against the trunk.

She looked up at the tree, wondering if there was any way she could climb up, but the lowest branch was way out of her reach. I can't possibly climb up the tree with an injured foot, can I? If wolves come for me, I'm literally a sitting duck!

Snow, stay calm, don't worry, she reassured herself. Qara will find you! Just sit tight, they'll search for you. And who knows, maybe the wolves won't come this way.

She closed her eyes and took another shaky breath. When she opened her eyes again, she saw, from the darkness beneath the trees, half a dozen pairs of glinting golden orbs observing her.

Snow felt shards of ice running through her veins. Goddess have mercy on me.

Low shadows skulked amongst the trees, circling her like soldiers in an organized formation. She swallowed hard, feeling her mouth go dry and her heart hammering away in her chest. A shadow with pointed ears and greyish-golden fur crept forward, staring hungrily at her.

She raised her short stick at the wolf.

"Stay back! Don't come near me!" she shouted, trying to sound fierce. But the waver in her voice betrayed her fear, and the stick in her hold shook like a leaf in the wind.

The wolf eyed her puny weapon, then tilted its head, as if it were mocking her. It took another two steps forward. Against her better judgement, she threw her stick as hard as she could at it - and missed.

The circle of wolves tightened around her.

"Q-Qara!" she shouted.

She scrambled to her feet and hobbled away as quickly as she could. Strangely, the excruciating pain she felt in her foot earlier had lessened; either her foot was on the mend, or the threat of being torn apart by wolves blocked it all out. But before she even took ten steps, she stumbled and fell in a heap on the ground.

"Help!" she yelled as she pulled herself up and scrabbled backwards until her back was pressed against a tree trunk. She grabbed whatever branches and pine cones she had under her hands and hurled them in the direction of the wolves.

"Stay away from me!"

From where she sat, she could see their sharp teeth as they licked their lips. Maybe it would have been better if I died in the fall earlier, she thought. I don't want to die like this!

"Help!"

The wolves drew closer still. A few paces more, and they could pounce on top of her.

Snow looked skywards and screamed with every fiber of her being: "Somebody help me!"

All of a sudden, she heard a loud explosion. The wolves, she saw, stopped in their tracks and looked towards the sky with their ears flattened against their heads. Then, to her surprise, they fled helter-skelter with their tails between their legs.

Before she could wonder what was happening, a low rumbling reached her ears. The shadows under the pine trees shifted and lengthened as the forest around her quickly got brighter, and for a moment, she thought the sun had decided to defy the laws of nature and rise during the night. The low rumbling became a thunderous roar.

Out of nowhere, a great fireball crashed and skidded to a stop right in front of her, sending tremors through the ground beneath her. It burned so brightly that she had to shield her eyes from the glare with her forearm.

When Snow felt the wave of heat blowing over her start to dissipate, she slowly lowered her arm from her face.

And what emerged from the smoke and the flames, made her mouth fall open.

Author's notes:

What do you think Snow saw?

The title "Falling to Pieces" is the same title as the song by Sia, which I play to death every day.

Did you catch the Little Red Riding Hood fairytale reference in Qara?

The part about knocking metal objects together was borrowed from the book Wolf Totem by Jiang Rong.

Can someone survive a fall through the trees? Yes, apparently. On the night of 24 March 1944, 21-year-old Flight Sergeant Nicholas Alkemade jumped out of his burning aircraft and fell head-first with an unserviceable parachute, some 18,000 feet (5,500 m) to the ground. His fall was broken by pine trees, and he woke up three hours later remarkably intact!

Readers of my first book will know that I got the idea to write the book when I broke my foot and had to stay at home. Now, I put my experience into this book. If anyone is asking, I broke my foot while crossing the road, and hobbled all the way WITH A BROKEN FOOT to my destination, before I got the common sense to call a taxi to go to the hospital. I'm just glad I didn't make the break any worse!

I also had a cracked rib from a separate incident.