as the darkness continued to worsen the men indeed returned to their camps and left the cold , injured woman alone in the wilderness she hid in a fallen tree that had been hollowed out by the years of weather and animals the woods finally became silent with the retreat of her pursuers and she eased up from the ground , her shoulder burning with pain and slowly dripping blood from the bullet that had pierced her body nearby a stream gurgled and here she cleansed the wound and packed it with the special herbs that her mother had taught her to use .