2 - It’s not as easy as it looks on TV

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Content warning: Brief description of gore

It was still dim when I awoke. My eyes fluttered open… This isn’t a dream, then. I was still filthy, but thankfully the mud had dried overnight, so though it was far from ideal (and not made any easier by the loss of my fingernails), I was able to peel and scrape most of it out of my fur and off of my clothes. By the time I was done with that, the sun was beginning to peek past the treeline, and I sat on the edge of the bridge to bask. The dewdrops glittered on the grass, and earthy smells played across my nose. I hurt all over from being thrown through the forest like a rag doll last night, but when I wasn’t in any immediate danger… Somehow, I felt really nice. I felt more right than I ever had, which was strange. I was trans before, of course, but I was never a furry or anything, so why…?

Shortly after, though, I knew I had to get busy. Even though I had just died, and I had nothing tethering me to this world, my self-preservation instincts were nagging at me to do something about the situation. I’ve got access to water, but waterborne diseases are scary, and I don’t have anything to treat them with. I can’t rely on someone coming by to save me. For all I know, this road leads to some mansion and the only regular users died last night. Fire comes next: I can use it to carve wood into a bowl, then use that to boil water.

It didn’t take terribly long to gather enough sticks and kindling to get a fire started. Actually starting it was another matter. I had started fires in the wild before, but I always had tools - a lighter, an axe, a knife… Now, I didn’t even have any pockets, let alone any camping tools. Theoretically, I knew how to make a bow drill, but I hadn’t ever put it into practice…

Near high noon, as I was trying to weave grass together to make a bow drill, I heard a cart trundling toward me on the road. I threw my work to the side and rushed to the road, waving and shouting, but the driver just avoided eye contact as he snapped the reins to speed by. I shouted certain choice words after him, and despite my inelegant language, hearing my new voice for the first time set off a flutter of gender euphoria… My joy was quickly arrested, though, when I returned to my meager campsite. The rope I had been attempting to weave had come undone the moment I dropped it. I miss indoor plumbing…

By the evening, several more carts had passed me by, despite my best efforts to hail them. My second attempt to craft a bow drill was a success, but I still had no luck starting a fire. It wasn’t clear if my noodle arms or last night’s rain were to blame. I was quickly running out of daylight, so I laid out my firewood and tools on the opposite bank of the creek under the bridge in the hope that they would dry out overnight. Before going to sleep myself, I spent a while making trips into the woods to gather leaves and twigs to spread across what passed as my bed. Even if I accomplished nothing major today, at least I could say I upgraded my sleeping arrangements.

As I lay in my nest, once again alone with my thoughts, I began to consider my situation. Before the carriage blew up, though the thought makes me shudder… it seemed like those nobles were keeping me as some kind of pet. Maybe that’s why the people passing by are so wary of me, they see a cat-person wearing bloody robes and assume I’m a runaway? No, if they thought I had escaped some noble they would probably snatch me up in hopes of a reward. Still, I’m suspicious that there’s some racial dimension involved - every person I’ve seen on the road today has been a normal human, I’d expect to have seen at least one person like me.

If getting help is off the table, I’ll have to figure out some way to make my way back to civilization. I haven’t been terribly cold since I dried out last night - there’s one benefit to being a cat, I have a built-in sweater. Maybe the best course of action would be to give up on fire and just start following the road? It would suck if I couldn’t find shelter for the night, but in the worst-case I could probably just climb up in a tree and sleep there… Oh, but that plan doesn’t account for water, even if I was going to roll the dice on waterborne diseases, I don’t have any way to carry it. Maybe if I stowed away in someone’s wagon and hid whenever they made camp…? No, I probably stink to high heaven, they’d notice me right away… Gradually, my inner rambling spiraled out of coherence, and I allowed sleep to take me.

My rest was interrupted in the wee hours of the morning by the same premonition I felt before the carriage was destroyed. I started upright, cracking my forehead on the bottom of the bridge, and blinked through the stars dancing across my vision to identify the danger. It wasn’t long before I spied wolves creeping out of the shadows of the forest. Stupid, how did I forget? I spent all day yesterday spreading my scent everywhere, they could probably smell the blood for miles! I hurried to grab two sturdy-looking sticks from my pile of flammables and clambered to the top of the bridge.

I stood as tall as I could, banged the sticks together over my head, and shouted at the top of my lungs, but as I was, I wasn’t terribly intimidating. The largest member of the pack charged with terrifying speed. I wound up a swing, dealing what I hoped would be a crushing blow to its skull and to the morale of its pack, but it barely flinched before lunging at me again. I dodged its maw by a hair and set off running down the path.

The pack frenzied into motion, their barks cutting through the sound of air flying past my ears. Flying was certainly the right word - I don’t think the average human would have any hope of keeping up with me. Even so, I was hardly on even ground. The wolves were at their peak, while I was dehydrated, battered, sleep-deprived, and nearing starvation, and to make matters worse, I could already feel myself overheating. Gradually, the din behind me grew closer, and I knew I needed to do something to break off the chase. I picked out a particularly tall tree, leaned into my turn to close the distance, controlled my speed, leapt into the air… and slammed into the trunk with enough force to knock the breath out of my lungs, almost my full height off the ground. I sunk my claws into the tree to hang on for dear life and scrambled up into the branches.

After the immediate danger was dealt with, I leaned back against the trunk and began panting to cool down, mourning the loss of my sweat glands. I’m certainly not a persistence hunter anymore. …How the hell would something like this evolve, anyway?

The hours wore on. My captors came and went, appearing to take shifts to keep a hungry eye on their mark. Perhaps it was naive of me to assume wolves acted the same, obviously they evolved under different selective pressures here… For all I knew, they might have started shooting lightning at me as soon as I got out of melee range. I thanked my lucky stars their teeth and intellect were still all they had.

Though the twilight had yet to give way to morning proper, I found a glimmer of hope in the form of an adventurer’s cart rumbling down the road, with shields hanging off the side. The opportunity struct me - I was wearing expensive robes, the light was low, my face was obscured by foliage, and the wolves below would draw the eye. The conditions were perfect to get some adventurer with a savior complex to think I was some princess and rush in to rescue me without seeing my race until they had already done the hard part. I waited until the cart was sure to be in earshot and put on my best impression of a damsel in distress. “Help! Oh, someone, please help! These wolves won’t leave me alone! Won’t someone please rescue me?” For a moment, I thought I was too obvious, but I was filled with smug satisfaction when the cart stopped and a tall man with fiery red hair stepped out, clenching his fists.

“Fear not! The paladin Brask has come to your aid!” The wolves began to growl to scare him off of their prey, but he approached unafraid. Wait, uh, where’s his sword? The pack leader that I struck on the head leapt at him with a vicious snarl. The paladin took a long stance, wound up his fist, and… Is this guy crazy, punching a wolf? The moment his uppercut made contact with the wolf’s chest, a blinding flash of white magic shone from the muscles in his arm, and the creature was thrown no less than fifteen feet into the air. Panicked yelps arose from the pack as their leader flew overhead, viscera scattering from a hole punched clean through its torso.

Ah. Perhaps I picked the wrong person to deceive.

As the wolves scattered, the man shouted up the tree, searching for me in the branches. “Fair maiden! Calm your heart, no danger threatens those under my protection!”

Except for you..! “Uh, sorry, there’s been a misunderstanding, I think I’m fine after all, ha, ha..!” I struggled to think of a way to get down without drawing his attention.

“Nonsense! Jump, I will catch you!” He had spotted me, now following beneath me with his right arm outstretched.

“Sorry, no, I’m fine-” I crept away from him.

“Oh- careful, milady!”

I hoped to jump to another tree, but the branch snapped under my weight, and I landed on the forest floor with an undignified yelp.

“By the moons, are you unhurt?”

I shrank away from his offered hand.

He paused, the lantern on his cart lighting him from behind and leaving his expression a mystery. I braced for the worst, but when he next spoke, he did so softly. “Is it really…? Sorry, what’s your name?”

His response was so far from my expectations that it took me a second to parse. I hadn’t heard that register before… Somehow I knew it was extremely informal, like he was talking to a close friend or family member. “It’s, uh, Lily.”

“Lily…” He was silent for a moment. “Very well, Lily - it’s excellent to meet you! Would you allow me the honor of escorting you to town?”