The beginnings of a YA fic book based on a dream I had awhile back

Rose leaned out over the parapet and swallowed back the fear that leapt into her throat. The moon shone down on the dark waters below, churned by the invisible fingertips of wind. She shivered and pulled her cloak tighter in a futile attempt to escape the cold. Muffled voices and fire light drifted down from the guard's tower. Fear crept back into her throat, pricking her shoulder blades and scalp with it's chill. She had to go now before they spotted her!

Rose climbed onto the crenelated ramparts, took a deep breath and jumped into the icy depths. The water embraced her in a death grip and she struggled to reach the surface. Her ears popped and filled with water, yet, through the distortion she heard the guards above shouting as they tried to discover the source of the splash. Her body started to seize with cold and fear.

"Don't stop!" she told herself. Fighting the water, with adrenaline pumping through her veins, Rose swam to the reeds on the far shore. Her clothes clung to her and she fervently wished she'd had the time or foresight to secure a dry change of clothes somewhere on this side of the shore, but she couldn't focus on that now. Now she must run.

Rose ran, muscles weak and drunken with the chill, tripping over her soaking skirts. Gradually she attained an amount of steadiness, focused only on placing one foot in front of the other. The air tore at her lungs until she thought they'd explode. If she could just make it a little further.. A clamorous howling came drifting through the trees. The hounds! They must've realized I've gone! No! Not yet! Rose held back the sobs that threatened her resolve. I have to make it to the caves! She ran as if her life depended on it, which it really did. She ran through the trees she had often ridden through with her brothers on their way to Queenston. She ran up the deer trail along the edge of the hill they'd explored as children. The sounds of the hunting party were getting nearer.

At last she saw it! The crooked tree standing almost alone amongst the ferns in the nook of the hill, seeming to point to an entrance of the caves she'd discovered so long ago. Though she'd come here often seeking solace, she would've never dreamed she'd come here for protection.  Her fingers traced the cold dank walls as they had so many times before, but this time she traveled much quicker with the sounds of hounds and men growing ever louder in the stillness of the night. Ah! Here it is! A small hallway opened on her left, and she crouched down low as she hurried down into it. As she scurried through the low pass, she slid her boot along the right of the wall, trying to feel for the passage she'd found in her wanderings before. This time she had no lantern with her, but she knew what she wanted to find. When the wall opened up next to her boot, she carefully sat down, tucked her skirts around her legs, and slid into the small opening.

It was hard work getting through such a small space, but she managed to use her hands and elbows to help push her through the chute, until it suddenly turned down and she found herself sliding, letting gravity take over. It opened up into a small cavern, about the size of her smallest wardrobe. Along with the chute she used to slide into the room, there was another small chute she knew that lead her to another passage through the mountain. After feeling around the small cavern to make sure she was in the right place, she wrapped her wet cloak around her for warmth and sat quietly, listening. She thought she could faintly hear heavy breath echoing off the walls. Now there was the sound of padded feet and nails clicking on the stone and a scuffling getting closer, coming through the chute she'd just squeezed through. Then a large furry bundle dropped to the floor and there was panting. "Sophie?" She realized it was the first words she'd spoken all night and her eyes filled with tears again as Sophie leaned her head against Rose's belly. Rose wrapped her arms around her precious dog and she collapsed in weary exhaustion as she mourned for her father.