I still couldn’t believe my eyes. A goblin! Just when I rejected the idea of this world being a stereotypical fantasy world that thing appeared. What was with that look it was throwing at me?

I meticulously studied the face of the goblin. That way it grinned and pointed that crude axe at me. It sent shivers down my spine. Then finally it clicked. Bloodlust. The goblin looked at me hungry for blood.

Immediately I jumped backwards, increasing the space between us. That turned out to be a good idea, as moments later the goblin jumped across the river, swinging down its axe, where I sat moments before.

» I have to run! «

As quick as my still foreign body allowed, I ran away. Behind me I could hear that Goblin crashing through the woods. I should have noticed that goblin earlier with that amount of noise it was making just from running. I couldn’t allow myself to be absorbed in my thoughts to that extent again, otherwise I’d die before I was able to determine, if that was really a different world. I still had not fully given up the idea of dreaming.

Keeh-keh Kikiki!

Something I interpreted as a cry of anger, disturbed the calm of the forest. Hopefully, that meant it lost my track. Despite that I continued running a little longer. Not wanting to take any unnecessary risks.

Presuming this was actually a different world and I wouldn’t wake up in a hospital bed any moment, I needed a few things to survive. Water, Food and Shelter. I already found water and I was certain to be able to go on a few days without food, but with these goblins running around, and maybe even more dangerous creatures living in this forest, I needed a safe place to rest. Additionally, I was still running around in underwear. Right now, it was quite warm even if the sunlight barely reached the ground, but it would definitely get cold at night. Like this, I’d catch a cold at best and died of hypothermia at worst.

The thought of hiding in a cave came to my mind but was immediately rejected. If there are monsters around, there was no way a convenient shelter like that wouldn’t be occupied.  The dense roof of leaves would probably protect me from rain, and I can’t really imagine strong wind blowing through the forest. So maybe a campfire to keep myself warm would be enough. Animals were usually scared of smoke. These were monsters, not animals though. So, fire might even attract them. I could hide in a tree in that case. The goblin didn’t look like it would be able to follow me up there.

I also needed a weapon. I couldn’t run from any fight. At one point I had to fight. If I was half cat, why did I not have any claws to defend myself. I got the tail, the ears and the sharp canines of a cat. Maybe even a heightened sense of smell, I thought remembering that horrendous stench of the goblin. The memory alone nearly made me gag again.

» Pay attention to your surroundings! « I started drifting off again.

After a while of being not too deep in thought, I decided to take my chances with setting up a campfire and resting on a tree. I also could make a crude spear using the fire. Though there was still a problem: How would I make fire?

I couldn’t just set a few sticks on fire with magic or at least not as far as I knew and I highly doubted that I’d find a lighter or matches hidden in my panties. No, I needed to rely to a more primal method of making fire. Flint? I didn’t have any and looking for it would use up precious daylight. I could already feel the air getting colder.

Fortunately, I watched a lot of these survival in the wild shows, so I knew a few ways of making fires using friction, but most of them used special techniques and I wasn’t sure I could reproduce them. The only method left was the fire bow. That could work as long as I find some sort of string or rope and some dry and easy inflammable material.

It didn’t take long until I found a vine strong enough for the bow and the dry bark I peeled of a birch should be sufficient to get the fire going. About half an hour later, I sat below an especially big tree.

» It would probably take two or three of me to hug that tree «, was the first thing I thought when I found it. But it was an easy recognisable landmark, and its branches were definitely strong enough to support my weight.

With the materials for the fire bow and a quite an amount of firewood gathered I started to drill a stick into a piece of birchbark. The seconds felt like hours as I waited for a little bit of smoke to appear and after a few minutes I could finally see a few red sparks. I stopped drilling and carefully started blowing on the bark. Unfortunately, the sparks died off a few seconds later.

I had to try again. Fast, as I could tell that the light in the forest started growing faint. While drilling again, the muscles in my arms started to hurt. I didn’t know it would be that exhausting just to start a fire. After another few tiring minutes of drilling, another bunch of sparks appeared. With a little bit of air, the sparks started growing into a small flame.

» Yes. « Now it just needed to feed on a little more wood and I would be warm this night. I already could see myself sitting beside flames. That was when my little fire started shrinking again.

» No, no, please… «, I begged tears forming in my eyes. More bark, more air, » Please don’t die on me! «

I didn’t really know, what I was doing anymore, but something I did was right as a few minutes later I sat beside a growing campfire, splitting the darkness that fell upon the forest.

Completely exhausted I leaned onto the tree and stared on my aching hands. I was sure they would be covered by blisters in a matter of hours, but at least I was warm, and no monsters approached the me yet. The smoke rendered my nose practically useless but not my ears.

Now that I consciously focused on them, I noticed that these cat ears were even more sensitive than my old ones. Despite, that they did not hurt me in the slightest. I still couldn’t really believe it.

Before I got too tired, I used my last energy to climb up that tree und laid down on a massive branch two or three metres above the ground.

As soon as I arrived there, I fell asleep. I couldn’t even fight against it. My consciousness simply faded away before I realised it.

****

» Hey, wake up! «

That was the first thing I heard while being vigorously shaken. I jerked up and looked into the face of a bald man. He had scar going over his right eye and wore a dark brown moustache. His bald head sparkled as if someone had poured a litre of oil on his head. It would’ve looked ridiculous if it wasn’t for that annoyed frown on his face. Who was that?

But more importantly, I was teleported again. This time I sat in an empty, completely white space. It wasn’t blinding or even bright. Just white. Not even a shadow to be seen.

» Who are you? Where am I? «, I asked still looking around confusedly.

» You may call me a god, and this is an empty part of my realm. «

That guy, a god? If he was an old man with long white hair and a beard reaching down to his knees, I would have believed that, but that guy? I mean he was bald and only wearing some sort of baggy pants. How could someone like that be a god.

» That’s quite rude of you, you know. «

I froze. Could he read my mind?

» I can. «

Oh shit. » I am sorry, I was just surprised. «

» I don’t care what you mortals think, but I have a job to so would you finally be kind enough to listen. « His voice had a threatening sound to it.

I nodded.

» As you probably have realised by now, you died and because I owed a favour to the god of your old world, I let you reincarnate into my realm. So be thankful! «

» But why did you turn me into a girl and a cat-kin? «

» That was your doing, not mine, I simply transferred your body into that forest and healed your wounds, but I may should tell you that you weren’t human to begin with. «

» What?!? «

Then he started rambling how the god of my old pitied me, as I was born as the only example of a different species in his world. So, when I died, he asked his friend to reincarnate me into his world. Not because there were other people of my race there, but because there were at least intelligent species other than humans in this world. This way, I at least could blend in with the beast-kin. That my body changed, the moment I arrived in the new world might be consequence of the magic energy in the air there. There was no magic in my old world and the god believed that that was the reason my body couldn’t fully develop, though that was just him guessing.

» Anyway, what exactly am I if I am not a beast-kin? «

» Huh? Just look at your status. « He had a dumbfounded expression on his face, as if I’d just asked the most stupid question in his world. »Ah, that’s why you were yelling around “Status” earlier. Just look at your hands and focus a little magic on your eyes. «

He sighed.

» You don’t know how to do that either, huh? Let me help. «

He pointed a finger on my forehead, and suddenly felt a tingling sensation rising from my stomach to my eyes. When I looked at my hands, a little window appeared before my eyes.  

There were some more lines, but they were all filled with unreadable nonsense.

» You probably won’t be able to read your stats and skills yet, as your appraisal level is too low for now, but just practice a little bit and you will level up in no time. «

The god raised his hand as if to wave me out but froze in the middle of his movement.

» Before I forget it. These stats don’t just represent your abilities but rather increase the strength you already have. So, if you train enough your body will grow stronger, even if it doesn’t show up in your stats. It might even increase the upper limit your stats can reach. «

Then he waved again. My eyes were filled with blinding light, and when I could open them again, I sat on the branch I fell asleep on, the sunlight shining through the leafy roof.