- 2 -
The shade of the forest washed over me, shielding me from the open sun of the field. The sudden drop in temperature was a welcome change. I wiped a hand over my forehead, finding my auburn locks already damp with sweat.
Sure wish I had some water.
The System could probably locate a river or lake the same way it found the town, but why bother? Dirty water wasn’t worth getting sick over, not when I could get refreshments in town.
Licking my lips to abate the dryness, I urged my feet forward.
The trees were thin and bare like telephone poles, stretching up before finally bursting into branches far above. Sunlight trickled down through the dense canopy. The spots of light painted the moss-covered forest floor in patches of warm gold. Had I not been in such a dire situation, I would’ve thought it was pretty.
Just keep going straight… easier said than done.
It hadn’t been hard to blaze a straight line northeast in the open field. The forest was proving to be more difficult, with tree trunks, rocks, and the occasional dip in the forest floor sending me on short detours.
Yet for every obstacle I passed, I still didn’t see my reward.
Where are the hiking trails? If there really was a town close by, shouldn’t there be roads? I had been walking for a while. The terrain was somewhat rough, but I should have seen at least some signs of civilization by now.
The claws of anxiety had just begun to press into the edges of my mind when I heard it—the sound of trickling water.
A stream?
I licked my lips again. The skin was starting to crack.
I’ll just go check it out. Who knows, maybe that’s where I’ll see some signs of life.
Besides, even if I couldn’t drink the water, it would be nice to wash my hands and face. With the temptation of cool water on my sweat-dried skin propelling me forward, I changed course to veer left.
The undergrowth grew denser as the sound of water intensified. I had to slow my pace to pry curious tendrils off my pants and maneuver carefully around a patch of briars. After a few minutes, the forest floor slanted downward. Moss and dirt mixed with sand as the trees grew thinner and the canopy yielded to sunshine.
A wide river stretched in front of me. Water bubbled along happily, dancing downstream over its shallow bed of rocks. I climbed down the bank and knelt at the edge. The water sparkled as I dipped my hands in.
“Oh… that’s great.” The cool water felt like bliss against my cheeks. I splashed it over my head and spent a few minutes scrubbing the remaining pollen and dirt from my arms. A few crushed flower petals fall into the stream and are carried away.
With a pleased sigh, I sat back on one of the larger rocks at the river’s edge, feeling slightly refreshed. I scooped a handful of water and cupped it in my hands. When tilted just right, it became a makeshift mirror.
My reflection stared back at me. It had the same brown eyes, button nose, and freckles I expected. I felt silly for being relieved. I might be in weird clothes and in a weird place, but I was still me. Even the dark circles hugging beneath my eyes were still there.
Figures. It’ll take more than some water to wash those away, I thought with a half smile. A shame the kidnappers didn’t take them, too.
Speaking of… my brows pressed together. A soft breeze teased my wet skin. When and how was I kidnapped?
My reflection stared intently back at me as if pushing me to remember something important. Wasn’t I at work before… all this?
I wracked my brain and dug through the memories. They came slowly and uncomfortably, like mud dredged up from the bottom of the river.
I was at the register… no, I finished my shift. I remember taking the card and swiping it through the clock-out machine. I definitely told my manager I was leaving, because I remember her asking me to stay later, and then… then...
My hands began to tremble as memories swam through my vision, as rippled and contorted as the reflection in my hands. A sense of discomfort unraveled in my chest.
I got my bag and stepped out into the parking lot. It was freezing cold. The ground was covered in black ice; I almost slipped by the carriage return. I was walking across the crosswalk when… when…
White.
The ear-ripping sound of screeching tires.
Pain. So much pain—worse than anything I had ever felt before.
The water in my hands splashed back into the stream as I gasped, hands flying to my chest. Pain, less than the accident but still excruciating, wracked my body. It was as though recalling the memory of what happened also unlocked a ghost of the sensations.
I remember now. It was a truck—a big U-Haul truck. It hit me. And I—
The next thing I knew I was waking up in the field.
A horrible thought welled up. I clutched at my arms, patting the skin that was still drying after their wash and warm from the dappled sunlight. “Am I dead?”
System: Calculating. The beep echoed between my ears. Incorrect. Your bodily functions are processing as normal. Your status is: alive.
Now that I remembered getting hit by the truck, it seemed impossible that I had forgotten it. Shouldn’t I have woken up in the hospital? Why would I be out in the woods wearing weird clothes, with a funky system installed inside my skull? The pieces were not fitting together—this did not make any sense.
Unless… I looked down at my clothes. The leatherwork looked less like something you’d see at a museum or historical reenactment, and more like traveler’s clothes from a fantasy video game.
I had watched anime about this. But still, to be brought to another world would be...
“Hey, System?” My voice was shaky. “Am I still on Earth?”
I held my breath while I waited for the answer.
System: Incorrect. My breath froze in my lungs. You are not on Earth.
“That’s… not possible.” I stared down at my wet hands. “There’s no way.”
People died and were brought to magical fantasy worlds all the time in books and anime. But that was fiction; this was real.
I pulled my knees to my chest. The sunlight spilling through the branches and sending sparkles across the river suddenly felt invasive. The trees that had seemed so peaceful were now foreign attackers, and the trickle of the stream over the rocks was an attack cry. Despite being deep in the woods, I suddenly felt more out in the open and vulnerable than when I had been in the field.
“If that’s true…” and I still doubt it “...then why am I here?”
System: Clarification required. Is your inquiry about the meaning of life, your purpose in this world, or something else?
Cheeky. “My purpose in this world, I guess.”
System: Your task is to survive until the winter solstice. Your new life will officially begin alongside the rebirth of the Sun.
“Survive…?”
System: Correct.
Just surviving? That’s it?
Things had gotten very weird and I had no idea what was going on, but the fact was that I felt alive, and that was a direct conflict with the memories I had before waking up in the field. I wasn’t sure what else could be happening, but until I could prove it one way or another, it might be best to play along with the System.
Besides, on the off chance that the System was telling the truth and I had died, then this was a miraculous chance at another life. It didn’t seem smart to throw a fit and potentially ruin it. Who knows what would happen, I could end up going back to being dead—and that certainly wasn’t ideal.
The System said something about rebirth. Reborn back in my world, potentially?
Whatever that meant, surviving didn’t seem like too hard of an assignment. Despite all the hard knocks I’ve taken, I had somehow managed to hang in there and survive thirty years—one accident with a truck notwithstanding.
“Okay.” I ran my hands through my hair. One thing at a time. “To the solstice. When is the solstice?”
System: The summer solstice occurs on the 21st day of Sol. The winter solstice occurs on the 21st day of Zima.
It was a different world; I guessed it made sense to have different names for the months.
“Yeah, that means absolutely nothing to me. What season is it here right now?”
System: The current season is spring.
So about a year to the winter solstice, give or take. I can manage that.
It wasn’t like I had another option—I couldn’t see another way out of this game. And on the plus side, if I could focus my efforts on surviving, it would keep me from focusing on just how crazy this all was.
Gathering up a renewed sense of energy, I pulled myself to my feet, careful not to slip on the wet stone. “Okay. I got this. First step in surviving is getting out of these woods. I’ll—”
Something snapped in the woods. The sound was loud enough to carry over the noisy bubbling of the stream—it had to be something stepping on a stick, and it sounded much larger than a bird or a squirrel.
My body went rigid.
What was that?
On the far side of the river, the shadows moved.
System: Alert: Training Mode is active. Danger approaches.
Tftc!
My pleasure, thank you for your comment! 🖤