The dark endless void stretched on endlessly, how long have I been here? How long have I been falling through the blackness?

Questions I don’t know the answers to swam around my head.

I remember who I was. No, I remember who I am.

That bullied kid. Who was slowly isolated by the class, a true Air-kun. An average person of average ability with no friends with which to turn. Naturally, I’d become a shut-in. Hiding away from the world that ridicules me; berates me; denies my very existence.

Behind closed doors and drawn blinds, away from the sun, the wind and the rain growing older in the darkness.

But you can’t lock your heart away, in some small portion of it the yearning desire to scream at the top of your lungs; I exist! Look at me; I’m alive! That unrealised secret wish, the best that I could do was to whisper it to myself.

“I don’t want to be alone anymore.”

A tiny voice escapes into the void and as though it was awaiting that very cue pinpoints of light blink into existence like the birth of stars.

Hundreds of them.

In awe I watched as they flashed and grow brighter, filling the blackness with their warmth, and light until the whole space is flooded. It’s overwhelming, I had to shield my eyes and draw in a sharp breath.

A moment later I awoke, face half-buried in leaf litter, and found myself in an autumnal forest scene.

A carpet of red, yellow and orange shades blanketed the floor. The natural scattering of tall trees, gnarled and ancient, their canopies of crimsons and golds blocked out most of the light, illuminating the wood in a fiery hue.

The forest was unnaturally silent and still, absent of the usual buzzing insects and chirping birds. Even the branches swayed noiselessly. It had an unnatural feeling.

I sat up and assessed things for a while.

It wasn’t going to be like nature walks around Kyoto; it would be like the field trip to Hokkaido, and truthfully I was ill-prepared for either.

Not because I was physically unable, I mean that was a part of it, but more so I didn’t have the right gear. Or any gear for that matter. I was sat in the middle of this almost enchanted forest in my favourite pair of comfortable pyjama trousers, an old faded and well-worn anime t-shirt and not much else.

(‘That strange God girl did say she had summoned me from a different world, so I guess the first thing to do would be to find civilisation?’)

It was reasonably rational thinking, but after several hours of aimlessly walking through this amber hell, I’m no closer than I was when I started. The only thing that has changed is I’m now more tired, hungry, sore, and dirty than when I started.

With no village insight, I had a growing suspicion that I was going around in circles.

I hunkered down into the indent of an ancient trunk, nibbling on some plain mushrooms and tried to get some rest.

The first night in a new world was spent throwing up.

I didn’t have any knowledge or training, and I was just so hungry, that I eat the first thing that seemed edible, I foolishly thought nibbling it would be safer than swallowing it whole. I wonder if that saved me from more severe poisoning.

The sweat was pouring from my forehead, I could feel it soaking the shirt on my back, and my eyesight kept blurring thanks to the constant tearing. Cramps and nausea followed, which were only preludes to the violent vomiting and explosive diarrhoea.

Sodden and soiled I tried to catch any rest, even if it was just passing out from the loss of fluids, but the wet clothes I was wearing were quickly cooling in the night air, drawing any body heat I had retained away from me.

A pitiful, wretched thing.

Shivering in the tree's nook, I passed several more sleepless hours till dawn came flooding the forest with amber light.

Tired and broken, I began to clean myself up as best I could, wet and dirty clothes made the second day's trek even more unbearable. I even took to sucking on a small stone to forget the hunger, but I didn’t have enough saliva, and soon my mouth was dry, my throat scratchy.

Around maybe midday, I had the only stroke of good luck so far.

Chancing upon a strangely silent babbling brook, I may have missed had I not staggered and fallen from exhaustion. The banks almost hid the undercut creek and the natural camouflage that grew from them; overhanging and matted nets of leaves.

Several large cupped handfuls allowed me to revive enough to follow it a little further downstream to where it pooled in a sunlit glade.

I throw up a little more, but the worst seems to have passed.

The area was large enough to wash in so I cleaned my clothes, keeping alert for any beasts that may use this watering hole. Hunger may have been my downfall yesterday, but today I have exceeded my limits and slipped into the mind-set of primitive man.

Beady eyes darting around as I scrubbed the garments under the still water.

A large sun-warmed rock nearby affords me enough space to dry them out a little before moving on once more.

I took stock of things while my clothes were drying. I can’t stay here, but I lack all the basics needed for survival; fire, shelter, water and food. I can now use the stream and pond for water, but I don’t have anything to carry it with me.

And it flows no further than the pond in the clearing, upstream it also disappears under a rocky outcrop after a half-mile or so.

In other words, I’d be tethered here, which could work if I only had any of the other necessities.

A shelter may be the next most manageable issue to tackle; using the crux of trees or I could build a small tent structure. A knife would make this so much easier, not just in gathering wood but I could use it to sharpen crude stick spears and even pierce the trees for sap.

As it stands, most tree bark is too tough and smooth for me to remove by hand. All the decent usable branches are also growing frustratingly just out of reach.

I’m stuck to gathering what I can find in the underbrush, but there is a severe lack of fallen wood and even small shrubs and bushes. This forest is too unnatural.

Fire is by far my biggest concern.

I have no way to create it and no way to maintain it. The leaves of the forest carpet are damp and unusable as tinder or kindling.

The second night I spent hunkered down in the crux of another ancient gnarled tree, having gathered a large pile of leaves into it, I sunk onto my bedding curled up like a squirrel.

Even after scraping up several layers of leaves, all that’s underneath is just darker coloured leaf litter.

The night passes better than the first but cold, and hunger still jar me from slumber every few hours. I watch the dawn filter through the trees. A light mist dances in the amber light, it moves over cold and wet as I once again slip into unconscious sleep.

Sometime in the third day, I was roused by the growling of my stomach. A dull hollow pain persisted even as I drank a little water.

My clothes cling to me, my hair is a mess, and I haven’t eaten in days.

(‘Some bitch brought me to another world just to die, I don’t even have the energy to laugh at myself’)

The rustling of something halted that train of thought. I tried to turn to see what it was but collapsed sideways just in time to glimpse the unmistakable fluffy tail of a rabbit bounding away. Scampering through the forest, it kicked up a few leaves as it went.

I was propped up against the trunk, scanning the treeline for any further movements.

What little flickering hope was quickly extinguished by the realisation that to eat I’d have to kill, and to kill it I’d have to hunt, but to hunt I’d need the strength to move. Somehow I crawled over to the pond and gulped down enough water to keep me alive a little longer.

With hunger trying to digest my stomach, the constant headaches from dehydration and low blood sugar were becoming more frequent. During a terrible bout of dizziness, I blackout on my leaf bedding.