Faster!
Don't turn around!
Just run!
I reached the Trees within seconds and fled into the Forest without looking back.
The old Woman shouldn't have seen me and even if she did it would only be my backside that is covered by the jacket.
Don't care – just run!
I dodged a boulder that wanted to crash into me, ducked my head under a few low branches and then followed a small path that seemed to be created by animals.
Just barely I noticed that my Direction was off. This was neither the path to the cutting area nor would it lead me to my hotspring but I didn't care to ask the rational me about it. There must be a good reason.
I just ran as fast as I could.
Every now and then I hit something that was in my way but I managed to always avoid a complete crash so I didn't stop once.
I counted the seconds as I watched the sunlight that passed through the leafs far above me go brighter and then darker again as time passed.
…
It was already dark when I started to slow down a bit.
I just want to be as far away from there as possible.
But why, rational me?
Isn't that obvious, silly me? What if I was seen? No actually I am pretty sure that I have been seen. What if they follow me? Those car-things are as fast as I am so I need every advantage I could get.
But… but what if they were friendly? I watched them so long and they seemed okay…
Oh you dumb, silly me…
Have I learned nothing?
Humans don't like anything that is different.
And I just need to look at myself – I don't want to do that – to see that I am as different as one could be.
But what if they are completely opposite the Humans I have met until now? They could have taught me about this place, this World. Even about magic and maybe stuff about me – well whatever I am at least.
The rational me let out a sigh and I slowed down once again.
Yeah I really want to learn.
Learning.
What a bliss.
Increasing ones own Knowledge, the Information one has and the things they can do. I really love to learn.
It kept me sane when everything else was just pain and darkness.
The memory of my first life's father who held my books and notes in his hand with the promise to give them back when I behave and who then locked me in my room with another person.
OH NO!
The memory was just there for a split second and got swallowed by the calculations in the back of my head immediately but it was far more than enough.
A flood of fear overcame me but I didn't drown.
Something startled me and my panic got overruled by surprise.
…
The World had… a hiccup?
I can't think of anything that could describe it.
For a moment there was something like a roar coming from the earth itself and the next instant the ground was gone.
WHAT?!
The ground wasn't gone but for some reason it was about one meter below me and because I can't defy gravity I immediately fell down.
I stumbled, hit my head on the trunk of a big, mossy tree and fell over next to it.
What the fifteen was that?!
I didn't bother to get up and concentrated my field of perception on the Area where I came from.
There was nothing odd and the ground was as even as it could be in a forest. No small cliff or something similar.
Wait a minute!
…
….
I counted until sixty. Stupid me!
Nothing odd? Haven't you noticed, silly me?
No, what do you mean, rational me?
Everything is odd!
The trees, the stones, the halfrotten leafs on the ground. Even the few stars that I can see over the treetops; everything changed!
What? How should I notice? Maybe the rational me didn't realize, but there was something more important than my surroundings; the ground just tried to kill me!
Ah you overreact, silly me. Such a small fall couldn't even hurt me.
But the ground being lower fits in the concept that everything has changed.
And why could that have happened?
I started to shiver as if a cold breeze had just overcome me and made me realize another odd thing – I am naked.
Sure the jacket was quite dirty from spending hours upon hours in the mud and my latest escape had torn it up a bit but I would never give it away. So where has it gone?
I stood up again and looked around – nope, nothing.
Weird.
Uhm… silly me?
Yes, rational me?
I remember a situation were I just was in another place from one second to another… and its a memory I would never admit that I can really remember it…
Wait… I don't mean-
I froze up.
Completely on edge I stretched my field of perception as far as I could and intensely analysed everything in it.
Staying like this without finding anything special for a few seconds I finally breathed in to relax a bit.
It seems safe.
If I would have been summoned, then there should be someone nearby who did that, right? But there was none.
Maybe it was some kind of long range summoning?
Then someone would come.
But from where?
Should I run? But what if I run into their direction?
Ahh! This is bad!
I sat down next to the big tree and started massaging my temples.
So a summoning seems to be the most logical reason for my situation.
The place is similar to the Forest I have been in the whole time so it shouldn't be to far. The fact that my jacket is gone could also be from a summoning. Because its not a part of me it probably would just get left behind.
I want it back though.
I sighted deep.
Okay so what is the plan?
That's easy; the moment I know the direction I can use, I will flee again.
Sooo… now waiting.
Sadly yes.
I leaned my back against the Tree and curled myself up into some kind of sitting ball.
Staring straight ahead without even blinking once I concentrated completely on my perception.
Just you wait, mysterious summoner, the moment you come near me I will be gone already.
…
….
…..
...
But no one came.
The minutes passed into hours…
The hours got eaten by days…
And the days merged into a week… two weeks… three weeks.
I sat near my tree. Completely silent and waiting.
As I am an expert in wasting time I could easily do this – well having this weird body helps a bit too.
It rained for a few days and got windy after that so I am now covered in a thin layer of dried mud but I don't care.
Animals seemed to recognize me as a part of the surroundings and just passed by.
Some small creatures that I never saw before curiously looked at me every now and then and a big, dark grey bird landed on my head, ripped out a bundle of hair and used those to make a nest nearby.
The bird seemed to be somewhat intelligent because it noticed that my hair turned into mana after a short time and so it didn't came back to get more.
Now it just sat on a branch above me and stared as if it wanted an explanation why I am no good as material for its nest.
Leave me alone, please.
A small creature that looked like a big squirrel with two tails sneaked up to me and instantly bit into one of my toes.
Enough!
I jumped up and scared the Animals away.
No one is coming, rational me!
I know, silly me.
So, how long do I have to wait and do nothing?
I… I don't know.
Then I don't want to wait anymore.
I started walking and after a few steps corrected my direction.
If – hypothetically – I wasn't summoned and something else made everything a bit different, then I should reach my hotspring in a few days by walking in this direction.
Thank you, rational me.
…
It didn't take long until a new oddity occurred. Something weird came into my field of perception.
What the fifteen?
A… Bee?
No this form should be a hornet.
I don't think this is a hornet, rational me.
What should it be then? I want to check it out.
And like this I corrected my direction again. Now sneaking towards my goal.
I reached the point I aimed for quite fast and in a few seconds the "Hornet" should soon pass trough here too.
I looked down a natural path between the Trees and saw it immediately.
It was a hornet. It was yellow with orange stripes but that was not the odd part.
It was huge.
Like; HUGE!
At least double my size, if not more and completely ignoring the laws of physic it few in my direction.
For a brief moment I wondered how it could fly – no how this could possibly be alive – but then the giant insect noticed me.
It increased its speed drastically while aiming the giant sting at me and I just barely dodged as I was way too surprised.
Why does seemingly everything want to kill me?!
The Hornet turned way to quick mid air and rushed towards me again. I fled.
Only slightly faster than my hunter I ran down the path where it came from.
Winning a bit more and more distance between us with every second I am sure that I could escape or the Hornet would give up eventually.
But destiny had other, far gruesomer plans.
Two more of that thing entered my field of perception and came quickly towards me. I stopped, staggering. Please no.
The buzzing sound of the insect behind me got louder and before I could turn around a sharp pain hit my back and chest as the sting pierced trough me.
I screamed. Irritatingly more out of surprise than pain.
The monster Hornet fixated me with its needle like legs and lifted me into the Air. Aiming at the other ones it flew over the path and even more of them came into my perception.
Completely perplexed that I didn't die immediately, my mind now got overrun by terror. I don't want to be their food or whatever!
I started to struggle as much as I could and the Hornet loosened its grip out of surprise that I still hat enough life in me to fight back.
Waving around my arms in pure panic I hit the thin legs of the hornet and felt them bending away and even breaking off. Now only hold by the sting I smashed my head backwards as hard as possible and hit the insects body.
A shook flashed through the big Hornet and it leaned forward in pain.
I slipped from the sting, fell on the ground and crawled away for a moment until I finally got up and ran into a Hornet free direction.
I left the path as soon as possible so that the big creature couldn't follow me but I didn't stop for quite a while.
…
Well I couldn't run that fast either.
My back hurts, my chest hurts, my legs hurt… everything just hurts.
I got slower and slower until I just let myself fall over and landed face first on the soft, mossy ground.
Is this some kind of aftereffect that will slowly get me? Like poison and the kind?
No that shouldn't be possible. As I am made out of a thin layer of mana, my body shouldn't be affected by something like that.
But what if this is magic poison? The Hornet could fly even though this should not be possible with a body like that so I can assume that it uses some kind of magic for that so maybe…
I sat up immediately.
Closing my eyes I once again concentrated on the odd creature in the middle of my field of perception.
It seemed normal – well except for the hole in its chest. But nothing that wasn't there the other day too.
So; no poison?
I guess not.
Phew~
Much more relived I [looked] at the hole in my body.
Ugh~ this looks really bad.
It missed the place where my heart should have been by a few centimetres but it would have penetrated my lungs for sure. And this still isn't lethal for me?
Well I don't have lungs and the hole very slowly started to heal so I guess I will be fine.
I [stared] at the super slow regenerating process.
If this could just hurry up.
For some reason I feel completely exhausted. In this condition I wont be able to walk or even make more than a few steps.
Then healing up exhausts me? That would explain the situation in the snowy area.
Then hurry up!
Go go healing!
I can't just cheer on my regeneration, silly me.
But I can't do anything else anyway, rational me.
And that's why; hurry.
[Staring] at the hole and thinking that it should heal faster kept me busy for a while. Surprisingly it really got a bit faster.
Huh?
I concentrated more on the mana that copied the process of cell division only thinking how the fakecells got created and imagining this in a faster way. Now there was quite a difference in healing speed.
I can control this?!
This is great news!
About 30 minutes after realizing this the hole was completely gone as if there never was one.
I opened my eyes and looked at my chest.
Nothing.
The stream of black liquid that ran over my way to thin belly seemed to have no origin. Weird.
Carefully I stood up. Nothing out of the ordinary.
I stretched a bit. Yup seems like I am in perfect health.
Not even the feeling of exhaustion was left and quite happy with myself I started to walk quickly in the direction my hotspring could be waiting in.
At first I didn't feel like running.
Everything was just so weird that I reviewed the important parts of the past weeks over and over again in my head.
I came to no conclusion what all this was about and so I started to run again. I really miss my hotspring.
…
After about one and a half day – I should be only a few hours away from my destination – I froze up while running and promptly stumbled into a brush.
There was a path about forty meters ahead and it would merge with the direction I used.
It wasn't new that I crossed ways with some paths that got created by animals but this one is different.
It isn't really a path and more like a road.
Made out of simple stone and cutting the Forest in two – this is obviously manmade.
So, what now?