Coming In for a Hug

Oshu?

The underbrush shuffled, lifting up to reveal itself as something that looked like a sloth with plants growing on its back.

A vine snaked around Freya's ankle, whipping her off her feet with a snap so fast her head slammed into the ground. She didn't even have time to scream before she was sliding across the ground toward the oshu.

Dazed, but not out of it, Freya flung her hands out to stop herself.

Her hands caught a thick branch, but the oshu kept pulling. Either her ankle would snap off, or she'd lose her grip. Sobbing in fear, Freya gripped the branch harder, only to yelp in terror as it pulled out of the ground entirely.

Whipping through the underbrush at a faster speed now, Freya clutched her branch. She tried to shove one of the ends into the ground to stop herself again, but in the process, realized it was trailing a black cloud.

Blackout Shroom!

Hope bloomed in her chest. Whipping the dangerous end toward the oshu, she was just in time to hit it directly in the mouth. The blinding spores exploded in the oshu's face.

Its grip eased on her ankle. Kicking free, Freya stumbled to her feet and ran, speeding away from the struggling monster as fast as she could.

Phonian floated in to race next to her. "Well. That wasn't what I expected," it said.

"I can't fight!" Freya gasped as she ran. She knew this wasn't going to work. She couldn't run far or fast. This wasn't like the video games where they'd throw down a smoke bomb and escape.

First, she'd never had to run like this before. She was already feeling weak and dizzy due to hunger and thirst. If she'd known she was going to end up in a situation like this, she wouldn't have cared so much about Rob's comments on her weight. She wouldn't have spent all her money on the protein powders he'd insisted he needed and then never touched.

Those glassy eyes stared at her, but Freya needed to watch where she was going.

Watching where she was going didn't help. She still tripped.

Landing face-first in a bush full of thorns, Freya struggled to get out of it and staggered back to running.

The ground unexpectedly fell out from beneath her, leaving her sliding down an embankment into a stream. It wasn't deep, but she slipped on the rocks and landed on her knees in the cold water.

Phonian was laughing.

"Sorry," Freya said.

Phonian laughed harder. "You're really hopeless! How did you get out here by yourself?"

"I don't know..." Freya panted, staring down at the water. She was thirsty, but... but fresh water like this wasn't clean, and if she got sick from it, that would be worse than being thirsty. Looking up at Phonian, she asked, "Please, show me to a village?"

"I could do that. But where's the fun in it?" Phonian floated down to her face level. The breeze caused by the running water wafted the nauseating smell into her face.

Freya leaned down and splashed water into her face, slicking her hair back, then tried to rinse off the scratches on her arms. They were bleeding lightly. "I'm sorry. I'm not entertaining."

"Sure you are... oso."

Deciding she had washed off what she could, Freya staggered to her feet and sloshed to the other side of the creek. It was another steep bank here, but she could reach a few exposed roots and used those to haul herself up. Her hands ached, and the cleaning she'd done to herself was entirely negated by the time she got up. The whole thing made her want to cry.

What am I even fighting for? Why am I still going? Where am I going? What am I going to do when I get there?

Stopping, she turned her face upward. A tree had fallen recently, tearing a hole through the canopy to give her view of the sky. The bottoms of the clouds were turning pink, and there were a lot of clouds gathering. It looked like there might be a storm.

Great... she used a clean edge of her collar to wipe her eyes.

"Oh, don't cry, little Freya," Phonian said, but its voice sounded mocking. It floated in front of her again.

"Sorry," she said automatically and looked down, twisting her shirt anxiously.

The berrykin turned its back to her and floated away.

Freya looked up just in time to see something black and sharp-looking poking out of a sort of puckered seam down the beastkin's back.

But again, Freya had never seen one of these things in high definition. Maybe this was normal? They'd always just floated in the games, too, and it wasn't ever addressed whether they had antigravity magic or something. One game had shown that they could cast lightning with their head pompoms as a defense. Otherwise, they were just sentient bags of holding for the party's inventory.

"Don't you have anything in your pouch?" Freya asked.

Phonian's head whipped around, nearly one-eighty before its body followed the turn. "Oh. Hah... Oso. Uh. No. I left everything at home. Oso."

"Oh... sorry..." Freya lowered her eyes again. She started walking. She still didn't know if she was heading north, west, south, or what. The extent of her directional sense was the phrase "Never Eat Shredded Wheat." What to do with that phrase was not in her knowledge. Because she had no other leads, she followed Phonian as it drifted in a direction.

"Are you hungry?" Phonian asked, looking back at her.

"Sorry..." she said as she nodded.

"Ah... I suppose... Wait here." The berrykin darted off at a speed faster than she expected. It ripped through the forest, tearing branches and leaves in its wake. In seconds, she was entirely alone.

Something shrieked in the distance.

Freya pulled at her shirt nervously, stretching it out. Thunder rumbled above. Shelter might have been a better idea to ask for if Phonian was willing to help her.

A yellow blur came ripping through the trees again and abruptly stopped in front of her to drop a rabbit at her feet. It twitched in its death throes, bleeding out a gaping hole straight through its chest.

Sickened, Freya covered her mouth and stepped back.

"What's wrong? Your kind eat this, right?"

"No--not like that!" Freya choked out.

The berrykin's head tipped. "Not like that," it repeated. "Then how?"

"Not--not with the fur on it..." Freya said, "Not..." she swallowed hard. It smelled like Phonian, she realized. "Not raw."

"Then take the fur off and make it not raw." Phonian sounded irritated now.

"I don't know how... I'm sorry."

Sighing gustily, Phonian said, "You're just determined to be a pain, aren't you?"

"I'm sorry," Freya whispered this time as the rabbit stopped twitching.

"How did you end up out here?" Phonian demanded. "Do you have any useful skills?"

"I don't know!" Freya cried, backing away from the dead rabbit, and Phonian further. For some reason, she felt like she was suddenly in danger. Were forests supposed to be this quiet?