Maria remains more or less in the same state all throughout the river trip. Most of the time she is in a fitful sleep while they travel, being haunted by nightmares of demons who want to rape her and thoughts of her family that she lost. When she is awake, she’s not in a much better state. She remains soft-spoken and reclusive. Then, there are several times when she is just on the verge of tears or openly mourning, even when nothing is present to trigger it. Also, there are occaccional times when she becomes highly nauseous and nearly sickly, due to the developing fetus in her womb.

Still, despite all of Maria’s bad moods, she never once is mean to Zack. She treats him with respect and as her savior. She also respects his wishes when he tells her to do something such as eat or wash up.

At the time Zack reaches a small fishing village near the end of the river, Maria is napping in the back of the boat. She sniffles a bit in her sleep because she had recently developed a small cold. Also, she is huddled up in all the blankets that Zack had stolen.