The first thing Wren noticed after walking was that the forest didn't behave correctly.
At first, she blamed the animals.
That wasn't entirely unreasonable. Every creature she encountered seemed to discover her existence and immediately regret it. A rabbit-like animal with crystal growths protruding from its back emerged from beneath a root, froze the moment it noticed her, and turned around and ran without a second thought. Several minutes later, something significantly larger appeared between the trees. It vaguely resembled a wolf if wolves happened to possess six legs, silver eyes, and teeth that looked entirely too interested in being teeth. The creature took one look at her and abruptly changed direction.
Unfortunately, Wren had very minimal knowledge of wildlife on Earth, let alone an entirely new alien planet, and thus interpreted their behavior like any recently reincarnated former officer worker would.
"They must be shy."
Wren found this encouraging.
Unfortunately, she was working with incomplete information.
The rabbit-like creature was not prey.
Nor was the wolf-like creature in any way shy.
Both occupied the extremely unpleasant category of "things that routinely killed other things for fun." The fact that they abandoned entire sections of forest simply because Wren existed wasn't something she gave much thought. She simply interpreted their behavior the same way anyone would to an animal that ran away in terror.
"At least I've only met prey animals so far..."
She watched as the six-legged nightmare vanished into the darkness.
Wren continued walking, completely unaware that the local wildlife was treating her the way sensible people might treat an active volcano.
Hours passed.
At least she thought hours passed.
Time had become difficult to track since arriving. The twin moons still hung above the forest canopy. The larger moon washed the woodland in silver light while the smaller blue moon painted everything else in softer shades of sapphire and violet. Under normal circumstances the darkness should have been overwhelming.
Instead, Wren could see everything.
Every leaf.
Every root.
Every crystal formation protruding from trees.
Every drifting speck of light floating between branches.
The entire forest stretched endlessly around her with impossible clarity, and slowly, very slowly, a realization began settling into her thoughts.
She hadn't found anything.
No roads.
No villages.
No travelers.
No smoke rising from distant chimneys.
Not even a set of clothing she wanted desperately.
Nothing.
"Why couldn't I have awoken up in a town or something." She lamented but quickly remembered she was still stark naked. The thought made her blush considerably as she quickly threw out the thought of waking up in a town in her brand-new birthday suit.
"At least I get the chance to try to find clothing beforehand."
If there even is civilization to get clothing from..
At first that hadn't bothered her. She had been too fascinated by everything else. The magical forest. The new body. The fact that she could hear insects arguing several hundred feet away.
Now that the excitement was wearing off, reality was beginning to catch up.
She was lost.
Actually lost.
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Not "I missed my turn" lost.
Not "I went up the wrong hiking trail" lost.
Lost.
Utterly lost.
An ancient forest stretched in every direction, and she had absolutely no idea where civilization existed.
If civilization even existed.
That particular thought made her uncomfortable enough that she immediately stopped thinking about it.
Unfortunately, her stomach chose that exact moment to growl.
The sound echoed through the forest.
Wren froze.
Then slowly looked down.
"I need to find food and water soon..."
The realization struck with all the grace of a falling brick.
"Wait.."
She was a vampire.
A real vampire.
Not the stylish modern fantasy version who stood dramatically on rooftops with their cloak billowing in the wind despite the complete absence of wind.
An actual vampire.
And every story she had read, vampires drank blood.
The horror on her face would have been impressive if anyone had been around to witness it.
"No."
Her response was immediate.
Absolutely not.
There had to be alternatives.
Fantasy stories were full of alternatives.
Magic fruits.
Mana-infused food.
Specialized potions.
Entire industries seemed dedicated to solving the vampire dietary problem.
Reality, unfortunately, was not obligated to follow fantasy literature. And Wren was still currently lost, alone, and very naked in the middle of a vast endless forest.
Wren believed, prayed, that she may be the type of vampire she commonly read in novels, that could sustain themselves on normal food.
Wren spent the next hour attempting to prove herself correct.
The forest provided many opportunities.
Blue berries.
Red berries.
Silver berries.
Several berries that almost certainly weren't berries.
She tried all of them.
Every single one tasted wrong.
Not bad.
Wrong.
The distinction was important.
The fruits were sweet.
Some were surprisingly delicious.
Her body simply didn't care.
Eating them felt like attempting to solve dehydration by staring at water and hoping it became intimidated.
The hunger remained.
The realization terrified her.
Even worse, the hunger wasn't behaving like normal hunger.
It wasn't asking for food.
It was asking for something specific.
Wren tried very hard not to think about what that specific thing might be.
The strategy worked for approximately twenty minutes.
The forest continued stretching endlessly.
And slowly, very slowly, something began changing.
First came the heartbeats.
At first, she didn't notice.
She would hear one in the distance and accidentally drift toward it without realizing.
Then another.
Then another.
The behavior seemed innocent enough on the surface. Humans naturally moved toward interesting sounds all the time. Unfortunately, Wren wasn't entirely human anymore.
A fact that became harder to ignore with every passing moment.
The hunger deepened.
The heartbeats became louder.
Not physically louder.
Important distinction.
They became more noticeable.
More significant.
Hundreds of sounds filled the forest.
Wren heard all of them.
Yet somehow the heartbeats stood above everything else.
Alive.
Warm.
Steady.
Promising.
The last thought did not belong to her.
At least she hoped it didn't.
Hours passed.
The hunger worsened.
Concentrating became more difficult. Her thoughts became sluggish, and simple. Concentrating required effort, effort currently couldn't give. Walking became automatic, instinctual. At some point she stopped choosing directions entirely. The realization didn't arrive until much later. She wasn't wandering anymore.
She was tracking.
Following.
Stalking.
Wren froze.
Several hundred feet ahead stood a creature.
It resembled a deer.
Mostly.
Crystal antlers rose from its head. Pale silver markings glowed beneath soft white fur. The animal stood in a moonlit clearing grazing peacefully among patches of luminous flowers.
It looked beautiful.
Alive.
Warm.
The heartbeat sounded even better.
Wren stumbled backward.
"No.. what am I doing. Not this. No..no..no."
The response came immediately.
The hunger didn't care.
The smell reached her next.
Not blood.
Potential blood.
Again, the distinction mattered.
The fact that her and her new instincts disagreed was becoming a recurring problem.
The creature lifted its head.
Their eyes met.
For a brief moment, everything became still.
Wren's mind went completely blank.
Then the deer fled.
And Wren moved.
Not because she wanted to.
Not because she consciously decided to.
Because some part of her had already chosen.
The forest blurred.
Trees vanished.
Roots flashed beneath her feet.
The deer ran.
And Wren caught it.
The realization arrived moments too late.
A predator.
That was what she was.
Not metaphorically.
Not philosophically.
Literally.
The next few moments passed in fragments.
Movement.
Instinct.
Hunger.
Ripping.
Blood.
Then silence.
Clarity returned slowly.
Wren found herself kneeling on the forest floor.
The deer lay nearby.
Motionless. It looked like a flower who wilted from lack of watering.
The deer had gashes along its body, deep wounds along its neck, and its fur stained crimson red. Its pelt hanging heavy against its bones.
The scent of blood saturated the clearing.
For several long moments she couldn't move.
Couldn't think.
Couldn't do anything except stare.
The hunger was gone.
Completely gone.
Satisfied.
That somehow felt worse than anything else.
Slowly she looked down at her hands. Then at the crimson stains covering both. The reality settled over her with crushing certainty.
This wasn't a story.
This wasn't one of her novels.
Vampires weren't mysterious nobles standing dramatically beneath moonlight.
At least not all the time.
Sometimes they were this.
A predator kneeling beside the remains of its prey.
For the first time since arriving in this world, Wren cried.
Not because she regretted surviving.
Not because she wanted Earth back.
But because she finally understood something Occatus had tried to warn her about.
"What if this had been a human...?" She thought weakly.
She wasn't the vampire she had imagined.
And for the first time since her reincarnation, that possibility terrified her.