Found: Middle-grade book where MC dies at end

A fictional story that we had to read around 5th grade (about 10 years ago), unsure on details but I think character dies in a forest (??) near the very end of the book. It was fairly short, and I remember a red/orange-ish cover that may have silhouettes of trees on it? It had a short title, could've been called something with seer or seeker (though search results don't show it) - which might have been part of the plot? The details are fuzzy, all I really remember is the shock of the main character dying. Not from a battle, or not directly at least from what I remember, maybe from exhaustion? Also, mc was young. The death wasn't the focus of the story, but it ended soon after.

I think there was only one book. This was in the United States.

Any help would be appreciated! This has been driving me crazy for years now.

>1 saguaroblossom: This might be Autumn Street by Lois Lowry. Lowry's a favorite for classroom reading, and there's one version of the cover that has a yellowish glow silhouetting some trees. The main character doesn't die, but her friend is murdered in the woods in the penultimate chapter. If it helps, there's a fairly brief chapter-by-chapter summary/analysis of the book here.

>2 slimikin: This also reminded me of Messenger by Lois Lowry, it seems to have some similar plot points.

>3 MissProQueen: This is it!! Thank you so much!

Glad we got this one settled, before we spoiled an entire list of novels just by virtue of proposing them.