*****

The girl wakes up to a loud screech before she is thrown off. She quickly stood up and pushed back her drowsiness. Her eyes readjust themselves to the light and she learns of what happened.

In front of her stood the figure of the bird with his back facing her direction. She leaned to the side and saw another creature. It was huge and looked familiar.

Looking closer and digging deeper into her memories, she was able to make a connection. 

It's a lizard! A huge lizard, as huge as the bird if it stood straight up! The lizard was standing on its hind legs like a person would, on its left hand it held a spiky stalactite that it held like a club. Its scale was scarlet, covered in dried mud and leaves. 

"What… is that?" She asks herself, still confused about how a lizard could be that big and how it was standing like a person would, unknowingly leaning closer to her giant bird companion because of fright.

Her breathing stopped and her heart skipped a beat when its red glowing eyes full of hostility redirected its attention to her. Drool fell from between its protruding teeth and its head tilted to the side, its eyes slowly focusing on her figure. 

"Hiie-!" She couldn't help but let out such a sound because of the sudden hostile attention. 

The bird took notice of her reaction with a side glance, its eyes immediately squinting, glaring at the lizard. 

Sensing a sudden threat, the lizard steps back, its attention shifting from the girl and immediately to the bird. In its eye it held fear.

Glares not seemingly enough, the bird opens its flaming beak and screeches loud at the lizard, making it turn around and run away at high speeds, leaving its supposed weapon.

"W-what the…" The girl fell to her rear, her eyes wide from the shock of what she has just experienced.

She looked at the bird, its eyes glowing blue, unlike its flaming body which was mostly the color of flame. Reddish orange.

The bird looked at her as well, lowering its head and looking at her from different angles, as if to check if she was hurt anywhere.

"…I-I'm fine… thank you…" Her voice hesitant.

The bird disregarded her words and continued to inspect her, even almost lifting up the skirt she was wearing, earning it an accidental smack to the beak when she tried to stop it. It didn't seem to notice; if it did, it didn't care because of how weak a hit it was.

This moment was ruined when the girl's stomach rumbled, the bird snorting in amusement.

"Did you just laugh at me!?" The girl shouted, pointing at the bird.

*****

A week passed after the girl's first encounter with a hostile monster. Because of this experience, she became cautious, keeping silent every time she would go and scavenge for mushrooms and herbs she recognized as edible. The bird would assist her whenever she didn't recognize a certain plant or substance, using its nose to determine edible from not. 

Additionally, the bird was the one that did the hunting, bringing all kinds of animals. Deer, boars, squirrels, and a lot of others. Even a groomed sheep one time. She didn't ask where it got that and she didn't want to know if it had an owner. What's important was, it was tasty. Thank you very much. 

Fire was no problem, her magic — and sometimes the bird — dealt with that easily. Though she accidentally burnt a good piece of meat once or twice her first time, but it worked out in the end.

No one ask her about how she dismantled the poor animals. That part is irrelevant.

Another week, her skirt was caught on some dried twig, so she learned how to make clothing from the fur of the animals the bird unnecessarily caught. She spent that whole week, sewing with a makeshift ice needle and woolen threads from the sheep's wool, repeating when she made any mistakes, and then trying again until she was able to make herself a decent fur cloak that came with a hood. Her cat ears felt uncomfortable in it so she might have to fix that sometime in the future.

And then a heavy rain came, she and the bird spent the day under a root, cuddled up together. The bird showed some kind of fear from the rain and the girl guessed it was because it was made of fire.

Frustrated that the meat she was drying on a branch was ruined and dirtied and mudded after falling to the ground, she decided that it was time she built a house for her and the bird to stay in.

She discovered a river not far from the tree they'd been living under. Further upstream she found a decently tall waterfall, she considered building some kind of secret base behind that waterfall like in movies she had the chance to get a glance at, but never finished. Thinking how inconvenient and loud it would be, she quickly lost interest.

Downstream was quite a sizeable lake, the water drinkable and the fishes that lived in it were edible. And it also wasn't that far from the tree. Having spent most of her nights under that tree, she held quite an emotional connection with it and had a hard time abandoning it.

In the end, she decided that she would cut it down and use it to make a house. Or carve its inside to either live in it or give it to the bird, or maybe both.

Through her magic, she simply made a small hut mostly made of stone and a bit of dirt. The root was still nicer so she would only use this if the skies showed any signs of rain. 

And that was another week. She has been counting the days as she would count them in her previous world, but she doesn't know if that will remain true because she's in another world. So she decided to count her years through the cycle of seasons. 

She spent the rest of the season learning various things and skills. Her control over her magic has significantly grown as if it wasn't ridiculous enough. She learned to lessen the strain her eye is under whenever she would do something big by letting her hair do the magic absorbing. Although it would randomly move around whenever she does that, that's just a simple and minor inconvenience, not enough for her to cut such beautiful hair shorter.

The bird also, something has changed with it. The end of its flaming feathers would sometimes turn yellow then white and then back to its normal color. The feathers would do that too when it simply hovered in place, but not when it is moving at high speeds. She didn't know why and just passed it off as just another fantasy world thing. 

The climate started to turn cold, meaning that it was autumn. The leaves have also started changing colors. After autumn is winter when it will be super cold. So for that, she prepared a lot of things. Spending most of the season stocking up for the coming cold and managing her small garden next to the hut near the lake. At first, she didn't know what to collect. She didn't have experience with this kind of thing. She was poor back in her previous world but she still had the help of modern furniture and appliances. Although mostly second-hand and third-hands, those still worked well.

Although inexperienced, she still managed to come up with a solution. She stored meat in a box of stone embedded halfway into the ground and covered the interior with ice. The lid was a simple trapdoor made of stone and ice. Then sealed up with a large fur covering it from top to bottom. 

"Magic sure is convenient," thought the girl.

Halfway through the season, the bird's feathers completely turned yellow and its feathers' ends showed some white as well. 

She thought it was just evolving or something similar, like how those pocket monsters would she once heard of. Humans sure come up with the weirdest things though, she thought.

The air started to turn even cooler and she was almost finished with her preparations. Once finished, she spent the rest of autumn making fur coats to shield her and the bird from the cold.

She also expanded her hut into a small house with some roughly cut wooden planks stacked up together. She wanted something more like brick but the time didn't allow for it, the first snowflakes fell and the temperature came down with it.

She and the bird spent most of their time sleeping or sewing inside the enlarged house. They cuddled together under a huge sheet of bear fur sewn together. The bird's feathers completely turned white as they neared the coldest part of winter.

"Does your feather change colors according to the season?" She asked but was met with half-opened eyes and a snort.

"Okay! Rude, I was just asking." The girl pouted.

She started communicating with the bird like this a month after their meeting. She was still scared of it through that entire month, but now they're at the point they would tease each other. How she can determine what the bird wants to say? And how does it know what she wants to say? Despite the obvious difference in species and language barrier? Only the gods would know.¹quite literally, cause you know, falna

The entirety of the season was a boring one. Just inside the house, sleeping and cooking and sewing and cooking and sewing and sleeping and cooking and sewing and cooking and sewing and sleeping, you get the idea. 

What she didn't expect though, was a bunch of idiots coming into her yard shouting things. They carried swords, spears, bows, and some other minor weapons. This happened until spring came. Groups of random thin and malnourished-looking people came shouting at her. Mentioning the word "food" in their language quite a lot of times.

Desperation was evident in their eyes, if she didn't help them with their food problem they would surely die in this cold. So she offered a third of what was left in her stocks. She's running low on food too but her conscience wouldn't leave her alone if she didn't at least give a bit of what she had. 

Besides, she and the bird could always hunt for more if necessary. Although it would be harder, there should be some snow rabbits out there, migrating and moving around to follow winter.

But when she handed the meat she offered, the oldest of the bunch grabbed her by the hair and seemed to be demanding more. Infuriated by the audacity, she immediately pushed him away with a burst of wind, forcing half of the dozen of them onto their bottoms. Because of this experience, in the future, she would only give things to people who didn't have weapons with them.

She took this as a lesson to not be always nice and choose who she helps. She's trying to live too, you can't expect her to just hand over what she's living off of. 

With a few more encounters with groups of random people with weapons, the winter passed and spring came, along with grass that immediately covered the ground in less than 2 days. Nature in this world sure does its thing fast.

Spring wasn't quite as eventful as the mundane winter, although winter was already uneventful except for the bandits — as she started calling them — coming to bother her from time to time. Just mindless fishing alongside a large white flaming bird. His flaming feathers have started turning deep red this time. She simply ignored that, it was just a normal thing for him, and the bird said so!

And then summer came, and the bird's feathers completely turned deep red in color. Its normal body temperature also increased by a considerably high amount. Well, nothing she can't fend off with a little bit of cooling magic so she could hug him while sleeping. 

She passed summer tending to her fields, extending them by quadruple their previous size. She also carved the insides of the tree and made a lot of shelves inside. She would put carved figures she made out of wood in there from time to time when she can't get some sleep for various reasons along with figures she made through magic sometimes. 

She expanded her house with the help of the bird and gave it a roof after doubling its size. It is now a proper brick house with a nice-looking wooden roof with a huge trapdoor on it for the bird to come in and out of. She made the door small, just a bit taller than she was.

She had hoped her body would grow in size but looking at the carvings on the wall she had made to measure any changes in her height, she just gave up on the thought of it. She didn't even grow a centimeter, for goodness' sake!

Frustrated, she spent the rest of the summer learning how to fly. Who needs height anyway if you can just fly over things, right?

And like that, by her own calendar, after five years passed, she was woken from her afternoon nap by some man shouting in her yard demanding something. She learned this word after dealing with a lot of annoying bandits. The fools would be like; I demand this, I demand that. Seriously, learn how to work for your own living.

"Why can't these people just let me live in peace? I deserve this after living so painfully back in my previous world!" 

*****