The freedom of relaxation is pretty nice. I had to worry before and I spent a lot of time working a bit too hard and the den I was in before was pretty cramped. Now I was alone with the only predator in the area.
After eating as much as I could of the bear I was stuffed and I spent my time doing fun and experimental things with magic. They say it's hard for humans to be alone but I was having the time of my life.
No assignments, tests, or any other worldly worries. In a way, I'm kinda a god. Now don't consider me stupid for saying that. I'm not all-powerful but more like a lesser-known one who could neglect duties and drink nectar all day.
I spent all my time practicing magic. I was able to move faster in shadow and got more used to using ice to augment my speed over water I even discovered a way to hide in my own shadow.
This let me hide in bright daylight. Although hiding yourself in your own shadow is a paradox so it only works for around a second. Still, If I used it right it could hide some of my attacks and help me dodge. Sneaking around is still out of the question although I don't have anything that I need to hide from. So it's a moot point.
*3 months later*
I thought that it would be winter by now. The seasons must be different. By my estimate, I thought I was born in late March but this world could have something like 16 months.
That just gives me plenty of time to do things. Now it's getting colder though. I'm gonna start preparing for winter.
It's hard to find food now. Somehow it feels like these animals are more vigilant to my traps. It's fine because now I think I stopped growing. I'm around 30% bigger than my parents. Which makes me faster and hit harder. I can easily dispatch bunnies with one swipe of my claws and I can use ice spikes to puncture through the burrows of mice. So the trap awareness isn't doing much for them.
One thing I did notice though is that ice magic seems to work better in the cold and I even feel more connected to that mysterious force that gives me the energy to form my magic.
*1 month later*
I need more food. I thought I'd have more time to find food. I don't have any. Well, rather I don't have enough. It seems like the bunnies here disappeared from the face of the earth. The mice burrowed a little deeper but it wasn't enough. There are some but I'm only getting a couple a week. I sat there cursing my large size which gave me my abnormally high metabolism.
If I was a normal fox I might be scrawny but I wouldn't be starving. The only person I can blame is my own hubris. If I thought through my situation more I probably would've been fine. If only I did things differently.
It was stupid of me to slack off for so long and to not think about the winter. To be fair it felt like an everlasting summer but I need to be smarter. Even the bunnies must've migrated or hibernated or something hell they must just be smarter than me.
It's also getting colder at this rate I might not even survive. My only solution is to move south. I know it's south because the sun passes closer to that horizon. I hope that there aren't any oceans between me and warmer weather though.
With that, I am a fox so I had no belongings I set off south hoping for warmer weather.
The cold set in faster than I moved though. Each day I moved closer the colder it got. If I stayed in the same place It would've been worse but I can't believe it's this bad. I've tried to eat things o the way but my stomach has been empty for most of my journey. All I could do is continue onward.
Today I found a raccoon that died from the cold. It's a horrible idea to eat dead animals usually but if I didn't start getting more food soon I would be teetering on the edge of death. The cold was getting to me but it wasn't awful. My winter coat kept the worst of it out. I didn't feel warm but I wasn't about to freeze to death as long as I had food.
After a few more days though I couldn't even be sure. It'd been 15 days since I set out and my future did not seem bright.
We got a blizzard to and it snowed hard for a day straight. Still, I kept trudging on. I couldn't stop now I had to keep going.
After a week of straggling along, I could tell I was making less ground every day the infrequent snow made it harder to move. I was a fox so I stayed on top of the snow, but I could tell I was making less progress each day.
The next day I caught a lucky break, I saw a bunny. I used shadow magic to sneak up on it and just as I was about to pounce it bolted. I ran it down eventually, but it was lost energy.
After another week of walking, I was hungrier than ever and it was still getting colder. I just wasn't moving south fast enough. The surprising thing is that. I still haven't seen any people this really could be a world that's just animals.
That doesn't even bring me happiness anymore though. All I can think is that I wasted a good opportunity to become immensely powerful because I spent a leisurely summer too far North.
All I could do was keep walking.
3 more days and there were no trees anymore. It was more like a tundra with bushes and all the trees were rather stout.
Before I was finding plenty of streams but it seemed like the plain I was on didn't have enough water.
Now I was cold thirsty and horribly hungry. I'm practically on the verge of death if I don't find a solution soon I mind as well just end myself again it wasn't that hard the first time. Maybe I'll even get lucky and reincarnate as an op protagonist of some sort.
Maybe then I could live my life to the fullest.