Arianell was standing alone in the dark. She could see the wooden bridge underneath her feet, but nothing around. It was like a world devoid of everything, only she and bridge were left. She could feel the cold, it was almost freezing, like standing outside in the middle of winter. Her body shook, but not because of the low temperature. She was agitated.
No, she was afraid.
Then she opened her mouth and screamed something, yet she couldn't hear her own words. A shadow figure appeared before her, but before she could react, it threw her from the bridge. A loud splash could be heard as her body fell into freezing water.
She could feel water closing over her mouth and nose, cutting off the supply of oxygen. Arianell tried to swim up, but no matter how she struggled, the surface could not be reached. She felt pain like it was the last reminder for her body to act. She kicked around her and waved her arms aggressively, yet nothing could be done.
Just when her mind was hanging on the last bit of consciousness, someone jumped into the water next to her. Strong arms wrapped around her body, gradually lifting her. She couldn't see the stranger's face, but she felt him closely. She clung to him tightly, refusing to give up her only means to survive.
"Hey… Are you awake?" The stranger asked after getting her out of the water. He tried to shake her awake, but she couldn't respond.
Who is he? Why can't she see his face?
He was right above her, yet her eyes were clouded.
Is he the one who saved her?
Since her sight was not working, she tried to remember other things. His arms were toned and strong, his body slim yet firm, and he smelled really nice.
A bit like wood, damp moss, or even wildflowers. There was a subtle fragrance of mild spices, earthy and sweet, but also freshness of spring breeze.
This smell is really good… But what does it remind her of?
She tried to remember the familiar scent when a scratching sound interrupted her thoughts.
Arianell woke up to a warm morning. Her room was full of sunlight making it peaceful and cosy. She dreamed a lot, but after waking up, she couldn't remember anything clearly. Her dreams were also not very visual as if her eyes were covered, but more like a creeping feeling overtaking her body, making her overwhelmed with unknown memories.
The lingering scent of redwood stayed for a while before disappearing away.
The scratching continued more impatiently. She got out of bed and walked barefoot to the living room. The fresh scent of growing plants and the sound of dripping water welcomed her. The small orange fox head with three eyes could be seen behind the window, next to it was a grey wolf puppy waving its two tails vigorously.
The sight of two bizarrely looking animals was her everyday occurrence by now. Not long after she first encountered a small fox in the forest, the grey wolf joined in hanging out in her backyard. Both will scratch her window early in the morning until she wakes up and gives them food.
They were a bit naughty but knew how to repay her kindness. In exchange for their lousy morning behaviour and her food, they would bring all kinds of herbs found in the Forest back to her. Most of the plants were commonly found back in her old world, some of them were even considered to be annoying weeds.
Arianell, however, found it cute to be compensated this way, so she carefully dried the herbs and put them into a jar.
"Coming…! Don't be so impatient…" Arianell took out the plate with yesterday's dinner and went to the back garden. She put it down under the olea tree and two puppies ran to it devouring the food in an instant. They were wary of her at first, but now they would come by themselves wanting to be patted.
Unexpectedly, she gained two pets without trying.
She watched them perplexingly. In her previous life, fantasy stories would describe nine-tailed foxes, but here the one with more tails was a wolf. Would he grow more tails as he gets older? Or will more eyes appear on the fox's head until there are nine of them?
"If you want to eat my food, how about I name you? Mm, what about Thunder and Whisper?"
The little fox was Thunder because of its untamed and fierce behaviour. It charged against every sound, that somehow startled Arianell. While the wolf was Whisper because he was moving like a ghost. Silently, without her expecting anything, it would appear by her side.
As the summer was approaching, Arianell got busier. Her previously empty garden was now full of life. The pumpkin vines stretched to every corner. At first, she trimmed them to let the fruit grow bigger and the leaves were delicious to eat anyway, but now the amount was just too much for one person to consume. She considered selling them to others, as the supply of vegetables was always low, but it would be impossible to hide the identity of the farmer around here.
Mihail Samar might be a bit annoying person, but once he takes on a request, he will fulfil it to his best abilities. His blacksmiths built a hydroponic system according to her blueprints and greens like lettuce, spinach, bok choy, celery, or kale were now growing in every space inside her home. She even found and brought back several seedlings for strawberries, making her little secret garden one of the best in the entire kingdom. She doubts even royal has a better access to fresh greens like her.
Arianell got used to picking up the woods in the forest almost every day and during her outings, she keeps on finding more and more treasures. So many edible things could be found among the trees, that it could probably feed the entire country without being depleted.
Besides her gardening mission making her almost independent from the city's marketplace, she also took on much more important and harder tasks. Starting with the olea tree in her garden, she cut off some young branches and tried to grow new trees from it. To her surprise, her multiplying experiment was successful.
There was a river about thirty minutes' walk from her house. The stream source was deep in the forest and as people were paranoid about everything that came from enchanted land, almost no one knew about its existence. She decided on the riverbank to be her trial lab as she started growing her olive alley. She wasn't expecting much at first but watching new leaves sprouting from branches filled her heart with joy.
She thought that growing trees was meaningful as the roots could keep water in drained land, returning it to the time before the curse.
After the morning watering routine, Arianell went to the village. She produced most of the food alone, but she didn't know how to hunt, so the market in the city was still her only way to obtain meat. It was very expensive, but two small magical beasts liked to eat protein so much, that she basically became a vegetarian because of them.
She also needs to visit the Deneb twice a week for her teaching work.
The way to Deneb was long and boring. Walking one hour each way was tiring, but unless she learned how to hunt, she would be forced to endure this.
Many people were gathered at the centre where the market was held again. They were murmuring and covering their mouth in disgust, as they looked at the carcass hanging in one of the abandoned stalls.