In the dense forest where the road stretches on for miles and miles ahead, a truck transporting valuable goods whizzes past the endless trees. The driver only yawned, struggling to keep his eyes steady on the wheel for the past several hours. Aside from the occasional whirling of the engine and the sunshine stinging him right in the eye, it was just another regular delivery to some company.
If he knew about the stowaway who was sitting between the actual truck and the suspension keeping the several metric tons of cargo attached to the vehicle, then perhaps his day wouldn't be as dull as it was.
Leah kept her legs close to her, tucking the cloak over her head as she waited for her transport to reach the city. It took her the whole night to find her way out of the national park what with the low lighting to look at the map. She had the knowledge of pyromancy, yes, but the risk of burning the frail map was not worth it.
Pyromancy, magic. Magic was another topic that was prevalent in the other world. Chant the spells through the books written with sacred texts, invoke the energy of the world through the staff and wands of your choosing, powers that would appear like miracles in the eyes of modern society.
Indeed, Leah was able to conjure fire from the tip of her finger but it was lackluster. A dying candle to a tower of flame. When one finds themselves in an environment where they are unable to draw energy to embellish wrath upon their foes, they pull such energy from the inner sanctums of their body.
And Leah's wasn't the most in tune with such a thing. The Hero of Hope was. He himself trained with those who still weaponize the domains of their soul. The old folk who could very well change their bodies into animals at will. The Dyrs, children of the beasts.
Dyrs were not a species inherently. It was a title to those who were close to the roots of their own nature. They were rather akin to skin-walkers but they do not carry the grievous deeds of becoming a shape-shifting witch. Although, to become a Dyr is no less taxing than murdering your own family. After all, uprooting what you really are to become something else is a murder in of its own way as well.
Leah stared at the palm of her hand. Verily she shouldn't be able to do it as well. Achieving such a thing would require insight, to grow eyes inside of yourself to be able to manipulate your existence. Even if she could, she doesn't even want to look, not in a thousand years.
The people who've lost themselves as they keep changing again and again. The things that they became were worse than the monsters that try to eat them. Their humanity relinquished to dust, some of them just morphed into distorted beasts with no sign of intelligence. Leah would pay anything just to unsee all of that.
And in her deep thought, the scenery of titled lands with planted crops came into view. Houses passing by in the blink of an eye, a small town around the countryside. She could say this sort of view was familiar, something to poke nostalgia from but it's been far too long that she doesn't even recognize a lot of it.
Even then, she doesn't even fully remember where she lived. Quite frankly, she gave up on coming back a long time ago. Now that she was here, she felt out of place again. From the way the townsfolk dressed, to the architectural design of the road made from cement and brick. It's supposed to be natural but Leah couldn't shake off that sense of alienation she felt.
That feeling only heightened when she suddenly heard a siren rapidly approaching the truck. Red and blue flashed from the top of the cruiser as the eighteen-wheeler slowly came to a halt. Well, Leah never really thought she could ride it out until she reached the city anyway.
Looks like it was time to go.
Before the vehicle could even reach a rather sensible amount of velocity for a man to jump off from, Leah didn't hesitate to lunge off from the truck and onto the walkway. Recovering from rolling on the pavement, she spent no time running as fast as she could from the policeman who had promptly sprinted out of his partner's car and after the illegal stowaway.
"Stop right there!" She could barely hear him from behind. To be honest, she wasn't that afraid of getting caught. She was more afraid that she might kill another man accidentally.
Leah bolted through the small town, running across people's lawns that were surrounded by small patches of trees. After a minute or so, she glanced behind to see that the policeman was out of sight. Likely re-routing and informing it to other officers, if she had to guess.
She murdered a park ranger just so she doesn't get put in handcuffs and now she's escaping law enforcement just so she doesn't get put in handcuffs. Strong and fast as she may be, Leah clearly didn't think this through.
The woman in the hero of legend slowed down for a moment, frantically looking around for somewhere to hide or to run off to again. Houses but she doubted that any of the townsfolk would even want to harbour some would be criminal in their home. Well, Leah wasn't particularly asking.
Darting over to the nearest one, she ran towards the backdoor-- before quickly turning to the shed that was to her left. It was better than breaking and entering anyway and they're not typically locked. Even if they were, she'd just force the padlock open. Fortunately, it wasn't.
She closes the door shut, the creaks of light piercing through the wooden boards of the tool shed. And then, she waited. Leah only heard the distant whizzing of the cars outside, alongside the occasional tweets of the birds outside. No running footsteps from where she came from, no voice speaking to a humming radio, just the gust of wind whistling on about.
Leah stood inside the shed uncomfortably, perhaps longer than she should've before deciding to even take a peek outside.
"Hello, mister."
She almost jumped out of her own skin, almost lunging backwards into the leaning piles of tools and equipment behind her. The child in front of her giggled with a smile.
"Hehe! Did I scare you?"
Leah regained composure, taking a deep breath. "Almost. What are you even doing here?"
"This is my house!" She said. "What are you doing here, mister?"
"Uh…" Lie, Leah, lie! "I'm playing hide and seek!"
"Ahah! I thought so!" The little child skipped for joy. "I knew that you were playing hide and seek! Don't worry, mister! I didn't help the seeker that came by, I promise!"
Leah would be very disturbed if she did the same thing with an actual criminal in her place. Still, it was a stroke of luck, a ridiculous stroke of luck.
"You promise?" The false hero said.
"Mmhmm!"
Suddenly, the backdoor opened.
"Sarah! What are you doing over there?!"
It was the mother who was concerned about who the heck is her daughter talking to, naturally.
And naturally, Leah sprinted out of her hiding spot before she could report it to the police.
"It was nice talkingtoyoubutIgottago!"
"Ah, okay!" The little child's reply was… questionable but Leah didn't particularly have the time to ponder on that. For the fourth time from her awakening, she bolted away as if she was on fire again.
The mother quickly went to hug her child. "Sweetie! Why did you go to that man?!"
"Mom?"
It was her child's voice but the child in her arms didn't open her mouth at all, only staring at her with a giddy smile. Slowly, the mother turned her head around. Her child was standing at the backdoor, holding a stuffed teddy bear.
"Sarah?"
The mother looked back at the child she was holding, except there was no child. It was as if it had disappeared into thin air, as if the woman was just talking to herself the entire time. She blinked profusely, confused.
"Mom?"
"Oh, uh, coming sweetie!"
Unaware, unknowing and unafraid. There was a lingering presence in the air. Hazy, unfiltered smoke that followed the false hero in her escapade.
The lion is hunting the gazelle.