‘Everything hurts’, is the main thought in Emily’s mind. Followed by: ‘This forest sucks’, ‘Why does my ostrich want to murder everything?’, and finally:

  “Why. Do we keep. Getting attacked?!”

  She narrowly dodges the swipes of a massive monster lizard standing on two legs, its front claws easily seven inches long and as wickedly sharp as a knife. It rushes forwards with a hiss, startling Emily and causing her to stumble and fall, her legs having long ago lost strength. Her head bursts into pain, a horrendous pounding that starts behind the eyes and seems to peel back her skull all the way to the base of her neck.

  “S… Screw this!”

  Emily lets out a scream, as she forces her mana to bend to her will, sending it twisting through pathways untouched for many, many years. Thin whips of razor-sharp wind sweep out from her body and swing away and around from her, whipping her surroundings and slicing deep into the lizard creature. She watches as it starts bleeding heavily, reeling back from Emily and letting out a screeching hiss of pain. Leaves, sticks and branches fall around the two, having been sheared apart by the narrow wind whips.

  Emily pants for air, her body and mind spent, and her reservoir sitting dangerously low. The lizard falls back down onto all fours, its forked tongue rapidly flicking in and out. It lifts a ponderous leg towards Emily before collapsing onto the ground, the life slowly dying from its eyes as it takes its last breath, glaring at Emily accusingly.

  Emily collapses onto her back, panting for breath and closing her eyes against the sun’s evening glare. She tries to breathe through the pain, but the act of breathing itself was just sending further rivers of fire burning through her skin and into her reservoir.

  She hears a put-put-put and cracks her eyes open to see Blue standing over her, looking down at her with curiosity. A feeling of guilt wells up in her chest, as the leaves and twigs slow down their fall and come to a rest around her.

  “Crap… I’m sorry, Blue. I forgot you were there.” Emily says, as she reaches a hand up towards them. Blue stares at Emily’s hand intently, and Emily decides to wisely snatch her hand back before he decided to snack on some Emily fingers. Blue turns towards the lizard, losing interest in Emily as he accepts the free meal.

  Emily lets out a sigh, feeling relieved and slightly worried about how careless she just was. Using an unprepared spell when she’s already low on mana and dealing with mana burnout would have gotten her clobbered by her uncle, followed by a two-hour long lecture and a three-week change to her routine. Not to mention the type of spell that she used…

  She glances around herself, witnessing the destruction the spell she used had wrought. She looks back at the lizard creature, watching as Blue tears himself some strips of fresh monster meat. Deep gouges crisscross the creature from where her spell hit it, straight and sharp, just as her wind attacks have always been. If any of those had hit Blue…

  Resolving to be more mindful in the future, Emily tries to get up, finding the task much more difficult than earlier before. She struggles to her feet and feels the might of god as they try to split her head open from the inside, pounding away again and again and again at her delicate organ. Running her sandpaper tongue over her cracked lips, she takes a moment to let the vengeful deity calm down. She’s been searching for water all day with no success, slowly getting thirstier and thirstier as the day has gone on. Occasionally, she’ll stop and try to mime to Blue her need once again, but so far he’s found nothing but more and more trouble for them. And now that she’s out of mana, she’s not willing to try it again.

  Blue finishes eating his meal, letting out a satisfied clucking before turning and walking back up to Emily. He walks past her and stares off into the forest, slowly moving his eyes back and forth, sweeping the area.

  Emily watches as the last rays of sunlight start to fade away, the forest swiftly turning colder and darker. She lets out a groan as she feels the drag of staying awake for as long as she has, and her last hope of meeting back up with her party starts to die with the light. As well as any hope of finding that darn river. Making a decision, she slowly starts to look around for somewhere to spend the night. It’s too dangerous to carry on moving in her current condition. And with how low her mana is, she can’t even hunt for dinner. She’ll just have to sleep through the night and hope that she’s luckier in the morning.

  This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

  She moves away from the dead monster, worried that its body might attract some brave scavengers or even more monsters. Most animals avoid eating monsters, as the corruption can spread. But some desperate scavengers may take the chance. And Emily does not want to be nearby if that does happen.

  Every step is agony. Every impact of her feet hitting the ground sends a fresh wave of pain shooting through her head. Every snatching branch and tripping root seems to just make her day even worse.

  Eventually, she finds the perfect spot: A low tree growing from the side of a flat rock. It might not be the most comfy of spots, but at least it’s off of the forest floor, and gives her back something to press up against.

  She slowly wanders over to the spot, searching around it for any signs of danger. She peeks within every nook and cranny of the rock, checking if a deadly snake or a dozen venomous spiders are living within it, just waiting for her to fall asleep so that they could eat her whole or turn her insides into goo, or whatever spiders and snakes did in this nightmare of a place. Satisfied with the lack of life within them, she then turns her eyes to the canopy, checking if anything was waiting up within its branches for the perfect moment to pounce. With as little as she can see in the fading light, she sees nothing.

  Satisfied with her checks, she climbs up onto the rock, satisfied with the height of it. After carefully lowering herself down onto its hard, unyielding surface, she leans her head against the base of the tree, taking off her jacket and bunching it up to use as a pillow after deciding that the bark digging into the back of her skull was not helping her migraine. She watches as the final rays of light disappear over the horizon, the night following swiftly on its heels. The air grows colder and the night creatures stir, crickets starting their songs while frogs join in with their croaks.

  Blue jumps up and scrambles onto the rock, settling down almost majestically onto the ground, his legs disappearing beneath the thick, downy feathers of his butt. His head stays high up in the air, sniffing occasionally and swiveling from side to side, surveying the forest before them.

  Emily lets out a sigh and stares up at the canopy, unsure of how she’s going to sleep tonight. Alone with nobody but Blue for company. Stuck in the forest with none of her supplies. No tent to keep her safe from the elements. No waterskins full of delicious, hydrating, life-giving water to quench her thirst… And no firestarters to ward off any predators. The worst part of all is the fact that she doesn’t even know where she is or where she’s going, and she’s already been inside this forest for…

  Emily’s eyes widen in realization, as she lets out a mirthless laugh. Her laugh echoes through the forest, silencing the frogs and the crickets song, growing more and more genuine as she goes. Her laughter turns into full-on belly laughs, precious tears running down her cheeks as she curls into herself, her stomach starting to cramp from the effort. Blue turns to look at Emily, his head cocked in confusion as he snaps his beak a few times at the crazy human.

  “S-sorry… I just realized something.”

  She takes a deep breath, wiping away the precious tears and bringing them up to her tongue. She tastes the saltiness of them, and for a moment, she manages to convince herself that they helped a bit.

  “Today was our check-in day. We were supposed to be back in town by now.”

  Blue keeps staring at Emily, unblinking and unamused.

  Emily lets out a sigh, turning over.

  “But here I am, stuck on a rock… There’s no ways I can sleep like this. It’s too…”

  She lets out a loud yawn, the day’s exertions catching up to her.

  “Too uncomfortable. But I guess… I can rest my eyes, just a little bit…”

  Within moments, the blonde mage is asleep, her headache and hunger blissfully forgotten as she trades them for cotton candy sheep and rainbow palaces.

  Blue watches her for a moment longer, watching as her Caretaker’s chest rises and falls. She considers what she should do, from now on. The glowing slice-things-apart trick that Caretaker does has still not clicked for her, and she is still not strong enough to make it on her own, it seems. Caretaker is also stronger than she looks, having fended off Blue’s attempts at knocking her off the dominant podium with ease. At the same time, Blue is growing more and more every day. And with that growth, comes strength. Enough strength, she hopes, to take her rightful place at the top. Enough to let her dominate the food chain, and turn this forest into her territory.

  But for now, she will stay with her Caretaker. Until such a time as they are no longer useful.

  Decision made, Blue gets up from her perch and decides to go get herself something to drink before she settles in for the night. Her recent meal has dehydrated her, after all, and she smelled a source of fresh water not too far from there.

  After a brief few minutes, Blue returns to the rock, scrabbling up it and falling asleep, her belly full and her throat no longer parched.