For a long time after the fight ended, Wren simply sat with her back pressed against a tree and listened to the forest breathe.
Gradually, life returned.
The silence that had dominated the clearing during the battle slowly retreated. Birds cautiously resumed their songs from distant branches. Insects returned to the warm afternoon air. Somewhere in the undergrowth leaves rustled as small creatures emerged from hiding. The forest had watched two predators tear each other apart and had wisely decided to wait until one of them stopped moving before continuing with its day.
Wren envied that ability.
Breathing hurt.
Everything hurt.
The adrenaline carrying her through the fight was fading, and with every passing minute the damage became harder to ignore. Deep claw marks covered her chest, stomach, shoulder, and back. Some had already begun closing thanks to her regeneration, leaving angry pink flesh behind, but others stubbornly refused to cooperate. Blood still leaked from several wounds. Not enough to create panic. Not enough to kill her.
Enough to leave a trail.
Enough for something else to smell.
That thought alone was enough to make her stomach turn.
Slowly she looked down at herself. Her shirt was little more than torn fabric hanging from her shoulders. Dried blood had stiffened portions of it while fresh blood continued soaking through others. Her left arm barely wanted to move. Her ribs felt wrong every time she inhaled. The deep wound in her side had narrowed considerably, but every movement threatened to reopen it.
The panther's blood had helped.
A lot.
Without it she was fairly certain she would've died.
But the blood hadn't performed miracles.
She was still a mess.
"...That sucked."
The understatement felt appropriate.
With a grimace, Wren grabbed what remained of her shirt and began tearing off strips. One piece was wrapped around her side. Another around her shoulder. A third was pressed against a wound near her ribs where blood continued to seep through partially healed flesh. The makeshift bandages looked pathetic.
Unfortunately, pathetic was better than bleeding everywhere.
Eventually she managed something resembling basic first aid.
It wasn't good first aid.
It wasn't even mediocre first aid.
It was the sort of first aid practiced by someone whose medical qualifications ended at watching internet videos years ago.
Still.
It was something.
Only then did another realization strike her.
The clearing smelled like blood.
A lot of blood.
Her blood.
The panther's blood.
Enough blood that she could smell it over everything else.
Enough blood that predators undoubtedly could too.
The thought settled into her chest like a stone.
The Mirror Panther had been the first real predator she'd encountered since arriving in this world.
The first creature that hadn't immediately fled.
The first creature that hadn't viewed her as something dangerous.
The first thing that had looked at her and decided she was prey.
What if there were more?
The question froze her in place.
Of course there were more.
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Why wouldn't there be?
For nearly a week she'd wandered through the wilderness under the assumption that the forest was relatively safe. Dangerous, certainly, but mostly in the starvation and exposure sense. She'd explored. Admired flowers. Followed streams. Argued with sticks. Walked wherever she pleased without ever truly considering what might be sharing the forest with her.
The realization struck her with embarrassing force.
She'd been stupid.
Hopelessly naïve.
This wasn't a normal forest.
This was a magical forest in another universe.
Of course something like the panther existed.
And if something like the panther existed, what else was out there?
Stronger predators?
Larger predators?
Things that hunted the panther the same way the panther hunted deer?
The possibilities immediately became unpleasant.
A cold shiver ran down her spine.
What if she hadn't stumbled across one of the strongest things nearby?
What if she'd stumbled across one of the weaker ones?
The thought was deeply unhelpful.
And disturbingly possible.
Wren groaned.
"God, I was so stupid."
The forest politely avoided disagreeing.
Suddenly the clearing felt significantly less appealing.
Every drop of blood soaking the earth now seemed like an advertisement announcing her exact location to every hungry creature within miles.
Immediately.
Before something else followed the scent.
The possibility of meeting a second oversized murder-cat sounded significantly less enjoyable than the first.
Slowly, painfully, Wren pushed herself to her feet.
The world tilted.
She nearly sat back down.
After several deep breaths the dizziness lessened enough for her to take a step.
Then another.
Then another.
The first hour wasn't terrible.
The second became concerning.
The third became a disaster.
Because somewhere between stumbling over roots and trying not to bleed through her homemade bandages, Wren realized she had absolutely no idea where she was.
The fight had carried them farther than she'd ever traveled before.
Farther than any hunt.
Farther than any previous exploration.
Farther than she'd ever intended to travel from the cave.
The landmarks she'd spent days memorizing were gone.
No familiar stream.
No silver meadow.
No crystal flowers beside the lakeshore.
No recognizable trees.
Nothing.
Just forest.
Endless forest.
Wren turned slowly in a circle.
The result was deeply unhelpful.
The trees stared back.
A few days ago the forest had started feeling familiar.
Comfortable.
Almost welcoming.
Now it felt enormous again.
Not beautiful.
Not peaceful.
Enormous.
The sort of enormous that reminded her how insignificant one person really was.
Especially a bleeding person.
A bleeding, injured, lost person.
Who may or may not have just discovered she lived among giant magical predators.
The realization did wonders for her emotional state.
The panther's blood eventually began fading.
The warmth she'd been carrying since the fight slowly weakened. Her wounds still healed, but much more slowly now. The strength she'd gained gradually disappeared. The constant ache returned.
Then came the hunger.
Not immediately.
Not violently.
Just enough.
Enough to notice.
Enough to remind her that sooner or later she'd need to hunt again.
The idea seemed absurd.
She could barely walk.
Every step hurt.
Several times she nearly tripped over roots she would've effortlessly avoided a day ago.
The thought of chasing prey through the forest bordered on comedy.
Yet the hunger continued growing.
And with it came another problem.
The sunlight.
The weaker she became, the more irritating it felt.
Every shaft of sunlight filtering through the canopy seemed brighter than before. Whenever it touched her skin, discomfort spread through her limbs. It wasn't burning.
Not exactly.
But it felt wrong.
Oppressive.
The sensation reminded her of trying to walk around with a fever.
The more exhausted she became, the harsher the sunlight seemed.
As though it finally realized she was vulnerable. The source of this chapter is g.com.
As though it had patiently waited for her strength to fade.
"I'm having a terrible day."
The forest remained entirely unconcerned.
Wren stumbled.
Caught herself.
Continued walking.
Several minutes later she stumbled again.
This time it took considerably more effort to stay upright.
The world had started blurring around the edges.
Her thoughts felt slow.
Distant.
The trees seemed to sway when they definitely shouldn't have been swaying.
Everything was catching up.
The fight.
The blood loss.
The injuries.
The hunger.
All of it.
Then she pushed through a curtain of low branches and stopped.
At first she thought she was hallucinating.
The possibility felt fairly reasonable at this point.
She blinked.
The object remained.
Ahead of her stretched a pale strip of earth cutting through the forest.
Not much of one.
Nature had been trying very hard to reclaim it. Grass grew through sections of it. Moss covered portions of the edges. Small shrubs had begun creeping in from the sides. In several places tree roots pushed through the packed soil beneath.
Yet despite all that...
it was still unmistakably a road.
Not a game trail.
Not a stream.
Not one of the dozens of false alarms she'd spent the last week investigating.
A road.
A real road.
Old.
Neglected.
Poorly maintained.
But undeniably made by people.
Wren stared.
Then laughed.
The sound came out weak and almost hysterical.
"Seriously?"
After days spent searching.
After marching through endless forest.
After nearly getting killed by a giant magical predator.
She finally found evidence of civilization.
The road immediately blurred.
Wren blinked.
It remained blurry.
That wasn't a good sign.
She took another step toward it.
The road seemed strangely far away.
Another step.
Then another.
The sunlight felt painfully bright.
Her knees suddenly lost all interest in supporting her.
The world tilted.
Darkness crept across her vision.
As she began collapsing, Wren found herself staring at that worn strip of earth stretching through the wilderness.
Her final coherent thought was oddly simple.
Huh.
That really does look like a road.
Then everything went dark.
[Authors Note: Hello everyone who has made it this far ~ I would just like to thank you for giving this a chance! I'd absolutely LOVE if you guys gave me feedback or reviewed the novel, I also love comments and such! So far, the current release schedule will be around 5 chapters a week or more if I can manage, so if you like the novel please favorite it and add it to your library! Thanks!]