Grrrrrrrooowwwwl!

I sunk to my knees, my heart still beating, as if it wanted to break out of my chest. I had just realised where that growl came from.

» How could I forget? «, I mumbled, accompanied by another growl. Hunger. I had nothing to eat ever since I reincarnated. It was miracle that I didn’t get hungry sooner.

I sighed in relief, but I could feel my cheeks heating up. I just got scared of my own stomach. Once again, I was thankful for being alone, so nobody witnessed my recent stupidity.

But still, I had never forgotten about eating before, so why now? I asked that, but I knew. Ever since I woke up in this world, I constantly tried to focus on one thing after another. I convinced myself it was important to survive, but didn’t I just try to ignore that everything changed? Maybe I should have taken some time process things?

Another growl pulled me back into reality. I really needed to find something to eat. I could deal with my troubled mind afterwards. Probably…

With my growling stomach as a driving force, I grabbed my spear and walked into the woods. My ears were twitching back and forth, trying to pick up even the faintest noise. This time I was not listening to avoid any encounter, like I was being preyed upon. This time I was the hunter, searching for any sound, that could give away the location of my future prey.

Unexpectedly, it was my nose, which picked up the first trace of another creature. An appetising, sweet smell captured my attention and before I even realised it, I was following its trail.  I begged my stomach to be quiet, soon enough it would be filled with tasty meat.

My ears picked up a weak rustling noise, maybe ten metres away. Silently, I sneaked toward its origin. Dried leaves and twigs were scattered all over the ground and forced me to take ever step carefully. My breathing got fast. Excited.

With every step I came closer to my prey, that delicious smell got stronger and stronger. I could barely stop me from drooling. My heartbeat was loud enough, that I was worried, the creature would be able to hear it. Slowly, I peeked around the last tree between me and my prey. A snowy white rabbit was digging around between the leaves. It was surprisingly big. It had to reach at least my thighs, even without taking its ears into account. But more importantly, it was soooo cute.

I’d never seen anything as adorable and fluffy before. I wanted… no, I needed to cuddle it. My skin was tingling, just from the imagining that fluffy fur.

Even my usually, completely unresponsive tail started wagging. » Why are you wagging? I’m a cat not a dog, you know. «

As usual, my tail ignored my thoughts and started wagging even more furiously. Hunger and that rabbit’s cuteness seemed to have fried my brain. Soon that furball would be mine.

Rustle-rustle!

The moment my tail swirled up those leaves, the cute creature turned its head around, looking directly into my eyes.

Noooooo! I could already see it running away. However, it didn’t. Instead it looked at me with a mocking gaze, before it jumped right at me. An eerie crackling noise filled the air, and moments later it delivered a surprisingly weak kick to my stomach. It least that was, what I thought, before an unbelievable pain shot through my body.

» Gyaaaa!! « A girlish scream escaped my throat and I collapsed.

It felt like thousand needles were piercing through my body. My muscles jolted involuntarily. I couldn’t move. Just when I thought I would get killed by a rabbit, the pain disappeared as fast as it came, only leaving a strange ticklish feeling behind. All that happened within less than a second. 

» What was that? «

Still a little dizzy from the pain I got up again. The rabbit looked at me with an evil grin. Yes, it grinned, exposing a row of sharp, triangular teeth. The face didn’t look anything like a rabbit’s face. It looked distorted. Terrifying. Did I really think of that grinning abomination as cute?

My stomach growled again and the gaze, which I threw at the rabbit monster changed. It was prey. Food, nothing else, and soon it would fill my stomach, no matter how many more of those electric shocks it threw at me. Gripping my spear tightly, I ran towards the living pile of meat, but it was quick. Dodging my spear it started hopping around me. With every step it took, the crackling noise, got louder. Was it recharging? I didn’t plan to find that out.

I whipped the back of my spear around, trying to sweep the rabbit off its legs. It dodged by jumping into the air, but now it had no way to dodge my next strike. I aimed the spear at its head, but only hit one of it hindlegs. Even so, it was sent flying by the force of my hit. Blood dyed the rabbits white fur red.

Once again, it threw that creepy grin at me, but I could see a frustrated expression in its eyes. I stabbed at it again, but the rabbit still managed to dodge, although with difficulties. The injured leg slowed it down significantly. Its movement became sloppier, with every thrust it dodged. While mine became faster and stronger. Soon another hit, coloured the rabbit’s flank red. Gradually, I got used to the weight and momentum of the spear. My moves got smoother and more controlled.

But that stupid rabbit really didn’t want to end up as my dinner, and I grew more and more tired with every minute the fight lasted. The rabbit monster might have been injured, but it seemed to be used to moving around a lot, while I wasn’t. If I didn’t kill it soon, it would escape, and I would be too weak to chase after it.

I couldn’t allow that to happen. Driven by my hunger, my attacks sped up again. Furiously, I delievered strike after strike, the rabbit couldn’t even afford to blink anymore. Finally my spear pierced through its eye. A few drops of blood splashed on the ground and the air was suddenly filled with the disgusting smell of that rabbit’s brain or rather what was left of it.

Out of breath, I dropped on my knees, my eyes not leaving the rabbit for even a moment. My stomach growled angrily, but my attention was completely captured by something else. A faint blue haze rose from the rabbit’s corpse. I reached out my hand, but the moment I came close enough to touch it, it faded into nothingness.

I was curious about that mist. I didn’t think it appeared over the goblin’s corpse. Well, I didn’t really look at the dead goblin so I couldn’t be sure. More importantly, I had to prepare food.

I quickly returned to my camp and let out a small cry when I remembered something. I had absolutely no clue, how to dismantle a rabbit. Although I had seen a few survival tv shows in the past, they never really showed how to prepare your prey to be eaten. It couldn’t be too difficult, could it?

First, I probably had to remove the intestines. After all I didn’t want them to spill their contents onto the meat. Using my sharp stone, I cut or rather tore open the belly and removed all the organs. Then I continued to carefully tear off the skin and at last I cut the head off.

At first I wanted to just throw the whole rabbit onto the fire, but it would take a quite some time until I was able to eat it, so I cut off a few thinner strips of meat. These would be ready soon.

My eyes were sparkling in anticipation, while I was watching the meat being cooked above the flames, at least I couldn’t hold back the drool especially when the smell of grilled meat reached my nose.

I devoured the first piece in a matter of seconds, without really tasting it. Only after grabbing the second piece, I decided to savour the taste of my first kill. I didn’t expect anything great. I didn’t even have salt to season the meat after all, but what awaited me, when I bit into the deliciously smelling meat, could only be described as hell.

It was as if the meat had rotten, the moment it entered my mouth. Immediately I spat it out. Before me laid a perfectly cooked and slightly chewed piece of meat, but my mouth was still filled with the taste of foulness and rot.

» How…? Why? « Tears streamed down my cheeks. There was this delicious meal right in front of me and it turned into something disgusting as soon as it entered my mouth. To make it worse, the smell was still mouth-watering as ever.

Suddenly I felt sick.

» Oh no! I already swallowed a piece of that meat. «

Seconds later, I threw up.

Something in me broke at that moment. My vision was got blurry from the tears, that gathered in my eyes and everything I kept ignoring those past two days came crashing down on me.

Everything I had known, everything I had been was gone. Just like that. Just gone. I would never be able to finish that book, that still lied on my bed. I would never be able to go to university, as I had planned my whole life. I would never be able to talk to my friends again.

I was alone in this world.

» WHY?!? «

I laid there crumpled up, crying. The noises of the forest attacking my ears again, as loud as they always had been, before I ended up here. I also could hear my own weak and broken screams.

I couldn’t even say goodbye to my parents. They weren’t my real parents, and I hadn’t seen them in years, but I still loved them and now I would never be able to see them again. Not that they would recognise me like that. I had not just lost my world and everything I knew. No, I lost myself, my appearance, my body. Never would I be able to see my face in a mirror again. Never would I hear my voice again. These were parts of me, things that made me, who I was and now they were gone. From one second to another.

» What have I done to deserve that? «

I lost everything… and all I got was a forest full of dangerous monsters I could not even eat and the starving, half-naked body of a girl. I got a tail, that acted on its own, with fur that couldn’t even keep it warm for a night, despite the fire burning right beside it. I got bare feet, covered in scratches and bruises, from all the twigs and stones, that were lying all over the ground, covered and hidden with moss and rotting leaves. I got a nose that could smell the delicious scent of grilled meat making my stomach ache and a mouth that turned that very meat into a rotten abomination. I got ears, that were even sharper than my old ones, but stopped blocking out all the noises, as if my mind wasn’t torturing me enough.

It was too much. I cried until I had no more tears left, until the last scream escaped my sore throat. Only then I fell asleep.