LifeCraft (The First Alchemist)

ARC 1: Arrival

Chapter 1.01: Compact mirror

A fresh breeze rolls over my skin, a slight chill creeping across my skin. My eyes flutter gently, adjusting to the dim light streaking between the gaps in the trees above me. Trees? I can feel my body almost groaning as I stir. With my vision beginning to clear, I can see that there are definitely trees overhead. Another light breeze dances by me, a stray leaf flying into my side. I turn my head to look at it and questions bubble up.

The last thing I recall is the sterile white of a hospital room as coworkers, Doctors and nurses alike, loomed over me. The brightness of the overhead lights were blinding as I slipped unconscious. I thought I was dying, but then, where am I now? I shake my head gently to clear it of the light fog of sleepiness still hanging around. Several gray strands of hair fall into my view as I do so.

A hesitant hand reaches for my hair, pulling more strands into view. All of my hair is about a medium length and a silvery grey. I was getting old, I guess, but not that old. I pick myself up, dusting off my outfit.

It was a normal outfit that I had a tendency to wear on my days off, with the addition of my lab coat. Soft heather gray sweatpants and a cozy cotton-synthetic blend purple t-shirt that was probably the softest thing I owned. I even find my foraging bag strapped around my torso. The bag was a softer green messenger bag made of canvas, with the inside lined with a durable water repellent fabric. I’d made the addition myself when I planned on using the bag for my forays into the forest for foraging.

Days off were plentiful for me, thanks to the excess of other available surgeons in our city. I spent my free time with learning and hobbies, foraging for herbs was a necessary part in both.

Aside from the bag and the lab coat, I could recall that this outfit was what I had been wearing when the accident happened. The bag and lab coat should be back home, so I don’t understand how they got here. Looking over my body though, I notice minor differences that become more and more apparent. My body looked and felt younger. Wounds and scars that had once been visible on my hands had since disappeared. I pulled the sleeves of my lab coat up and looked at my skin.

My skin looked mostly the same, but it felt softer and it didn’t feel as old. A faint flicking feeling against my legs from behind my lab coat draws my attention there. Curiously, I lift the lab coat up and find a curious grey tail flicking around underneath it. Now that I focus on the alien sensation, I can tell that it’s attached to me. An annoyed flick at the top of my head leads me to drop the lab coat and reach up to feel two soft… ears.

With a sigh, I drop my hands down to my bag and open it up. I look inside at the objects within. There’s a bunch of tiny glass bottles, they’re mostly empty. There are a few filled bottles, filled with basic herbs and seasonings I enjoyed carrying around. I found pepper, salt, and sugar to be useful while out in the wild. The sugar I mostly used to make sugar water. It was a simple and tasty addition to water that I could make on the fly. As for the herb side of things, there were a couple herbs good for burns, headaches, or upset stomachs. All in smaller amounts, though.

Aside from all the bottles, though, was my water bottle, a couple simple survival tools like flint and steel, medical tools, a suture kit, my research journal, and a set of pens. I liked to record my findings and thoughts, having a journal helped me keep everything together. In one of the inner pouches, I find what I’m looking for. A set of small portable beauty supplies and a sewing kit; I set my eye on one object in particular, a compact mirror.

I pull the mirror out and flip it open. Seeing myself is a shock in the tiny mirror, but I hold my composure. I’ve seen people die, I can handle having weird animal ears. Adorning my head is to perked ears, like that of a cat. They’re the same silvery grey color as my hair and tail; unconsciously, I can see one flick to the side before returning to face forward. My face doesn’t look too different, but it definitely looks younger. If I could hazard a guess, I’d have said that the woman I’m looking at couldn’t be older than 24.

There is one more notable change that I almost missed in the excitement of the ears. My normally dull blue eyes were a vibrant, icy blue. They were very striking and went well with my hair. Nothing out of the ordinary with them, though. I make a couple faces at the mirror, testing the limits of this younger face. Nothing really seems out of place, other than how it looks. It’s a fairly normal face.

I bit my finger, shocked that not only did that hurt like hell, I also drew blood. I reach up and feel my teeth; Fangs. I suck the small dot of blood up and look around.

“Okay, not a dream then? Or a very painful dream.” I muse out loud, more just to break the quiet loneliness of standing on a forest path alone. As I finally take stock around me, I realize that I don’t have the faintest clue where I could even be.

The surrounding trees look normal, mostly. They’re not a tree I recognize from any of my outings into the forest, out of the few I’d been to. Wherever I am, it’s not anywhere I recognize immediately. I look up towards the sky and can barely see the sun through the tree cover, but it looks to be hanging dead center in the sky.

“Midday, hmm.” I continue to muse out loud. No one’s around, it’s just as effective as thinking to myself. “I should attempt to find water of some sort. Until then… just head one direction, I guess.”

Satisfied with my plan, I look around myself once more. The anxious flicking of my tail attempts to push its way into my focus, but I resist the temptation. I could spend hours looking myself over and figuring out what happened, but I have no idea how long it could be until I find civilization. Instead, I push the thoughts out of my mind and make sure everything is where it should be.

I start walking in any direction and just keep going that way.