Not A Refreshing Morning

Risa did not sleep.

She spent the whole night wide awake, gripping the tree for dear life, ready to swing at anything that so much as rustled a leaf.

By the time the sun finally peeked over the horizon, she looked—and felt—like a cryptid who had spent a decade living in the woods.

Her entire body ached.

Her arms felt like wet noodles.

Her legs were completely numb.

Her stomach growled loud enough to be classified as a demonic summoning ritual.

“Ugh,” she groaned, stretching stiff limbs. Everything hurt.

The good news: she was alive.

The bad news: she was still in this dumb world, still had no food, and was now fully aware that the local wildlife wanted to murder her.

Risa sighed, rubbing her face.

“Alright. Today’s goals: not starve to death, not get mauled, and… I don’t know, find civilization?”

She squinted at the endless trees around her.

Yeah. That wasn’t happening anytime soon.

With great reluctance, she climbed down from the tree—nearly falling on her face in the process—and began stumbling through the forest.

Risa walked.

And walked.

And walked some more.

Hours passed.

The trees all looked the same.

Her feet hurt. Her stomach felt like a black hole.

Every sound in the forest made her paranoid.

“Seriously, how does Aila get a village, a magic sword, and a fan club, while I get THIS?” Risa grumbled, kicking a rock.

It bounced off a tree and smacked her in the chin.

“…I deserved that.”

At some point, she stumbled across a river.

“Oh, thank god,” she muttered, dropping to her knees.

She splashed her face, completely ignoring the concept of water purity and taking a few sips.

It was cold and refreshing, but did absolutely nothing to fix her main problem: food.

She squinted at the water.

There were fish.

“Alright. New plan.”

She picked up a stick and stabbed wildly at the water.

The fish dodged effortlessly.

She stabbed harder.

More dodging.

After ten minutes of this, she screamed in frustration and threw the stick into the river.

It floated away.

“…I am losing a battle against an actual food source.”

She did not have the patience for this.

She needed to find civilization before she was forced to add “raw fish” to her growing list of food failures.

After a long, exhausting debate with herself, she reluctantly decided to follow the river.

“Rivers lead to people, right?” she mumbled. “Or, at the very least, less murder-y animals.”

She really, really hoped that was true.

-

Risa followed the river for what felt like an eternity.

At one point, she found footprints in the mud.

“YES! Civilization!”

She bolted forward—only to freeze mid-step when she realized something.

These were not human footprints.

“…Oh. No.”

A low growl rumbled behind her.

Slowly—very, very slowly—she turned her head.

A pair of glowing red eyes stared back.

It was big. Furry. Fanged.

A wolf.

A very, very hungry-looking wolf.

Risa’s soul left her body.

“Oh, come ON!”

The wolf snarled and stepped closer.

Risa did the first thing that came to mind.

She screamed.

Loudly.

Like a dying banshee.

The wolf paused.

Risa blinked.

Wait. Did that actually—

The wolf lunged.

“NOPE, NOPE, NOPE—”

She immediately booked it.

She ran faster than she ever had in her life.

Branches whipped at her face.

Her lungs burned.

Her legs screamed in protest.

She did not stop.

She refused to stop.

She had already survived one night in this death-trap world.

She was not about to get eaten because some fantasy mutt thought she was easy prey.

Up ahead, she saw a fallen log.

With zero hesitation, she leapt over it.

The wolf followed—

SNAP!

A hidden rope trap yanked it into the air.

Risa skidded to a stop, panting.

The wolf hung upside-down, snarling, thrashing against the net that had snared it.

“…I take back every insult I made about traps.”

She slowly stepped away, catching her breath.

No way was she sticking around.

Someone had to have set that trap.

And that meant people.

And that meant actual civilization.

Newfound hope surged through her as she sprinted toward the source.

After what felt like an eternity of suffering, maybe—just maybe—this nightmare was finally turning around.

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