Hana woke up eating dirt. With a groan, she turned her head, one cheek pressed into the ground. She had a dull headache, the kind that she would get sometimes when she had a cold, and what felt like the beginnings of a fever. Her body ached all over, and although she was sure she could move, she didn’t. Her vision was blurred, there was dirt and moss on her face, and the rich scent of earth after rainfall washed over her. She was surrounded by trees, daytime light filtering through the green canopy. She wasn’t sure where she was, or how she had gotten here, and with the pain in her head and the rest of her body, she didn’t care to find out. She closed her eyes.

I’ll get up in five minutes.

It was just a strange dream or something of the sort. She’d wake up, find herself back in bed and running late for work, or maybe she’d call in sick for the day, and that would be the end of that.

It’s just a fever dream.

“Ms. Kano! Ms. Kano!”

“Wake up!”

—!

There was one hand smacking her face, and many others shaking her, their voices willing her to move. It was a shock to her system, nearly as effective as being splashed with cold water. She scrambled to an upright position.

“I told you she wasn’t dead!” a familiar, shrill voice huffed.

Hana wiped the dirt off the corner of her mouth. “Momoka?” Her own voice came out dry and scratchy. Her vision wasn’t entirely clear yet, but it made out a pair of red bows affixed to pigtails. There were other small figures surrounding her, looking down at her in concern. “Huh?”

It’s just a dream.

“Where are we, Ms. Kano?”

“Is this a field trip?”

“We didn’t bring our hats!”

As her eyesight came into focus, she saw that most of the children were covered in dirt, like they had been rolling around in it, but otherwise, they seemed unharmed. She stumbled to her feet, trying to get her bearings. She was wearing the clothes she last remembered wearing— a blue apron over a cardigan, plain blouse, and dark high-waisted skirt. She brushed off clumps of dirt that clung to her sleeves and apron. Looking around, the children were also dressed in the same clothes as they were in that evening, their blue smocks over their daytime clothes.

Everything seems so real. Is this what a lucid dream is like?

She had never had one before, but she hadn’t imagined it would be this realistic. Hana pinched herself, hard, and the pain registered clearly. She counted and all her fingers were there. She might as well have been awake, and whatever was going on might as well be real.

“Are you okay, Ms. Kano? You were sleeping for a long time.”

“... Like Inception…” she mumbled to herself, thinking about how odd it was that she would wake up only to be in another dream. Maybe the next time she woke up she’d be home again, passed out on the couch with reruns playing on the TV.

“Ms. Kano, where are we?”

“Hmm? Don’t know…”

She didn’t remember making it home that night though. There had been no rush to the nearest station in the rain, no getting soaked since she had forgotten her umbrella, no trip home in a packed train cart with the office workers who just got off work. There had been a storm, the lights went out, lightning…

… And then what?

Had she slipped and hit her head on the way home? It’d explain the gap in her memory. Perhaps she was actually in a coma, and hopefully in a hospital room.

Maybe I’m already dead?

“Ms. Kano!”

She quickly extinguished that thought. If she had died, and ended up here, along with the children…

— No! Everything’s fine. Just treat everything like it’s real. Don’t do anything rash, don’t make any trouble.

Lucid dream or not, she wouldn’t dare find out what would happen if she did something outrageously stupid, not with her students around.

“Ms. Kano, what should we do?” A tug on her sleeve and a very anxious child on the other end.

“That’s a good question! How about… How about we all line up with a partner!”

Defaulting to the standard practice of daycare teachers was the only thing she could think of. The children shuffled in line, and it gave her a chance to take a quick look around. Nothing but trees and undergrowth around the small clearing, no paths in sight.

“Done!”

“Good job! Just one second, please.”

If it was everyone from that evening, there should be twelve children.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twe—

Not twelve. That wasn’t right. She must still be a bit dizzy.

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten… eleven? One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten… eleven.

Eleven.

Oh no. No, no, no.

Who was it? Who was missing? A child unaccounted for was quite literally the worst thing that could happen for a teacher of younger children. She went through the pairs in her head, trying to ignore the lump forming in her throat.

There’s Aiko and Momoka, Tsugumi and Taiga, Satsuki and Souta, Itaru and Kazuo, Jun and Ritsu… And Reina. That leaves…

“Where’s Yui?”

The children looked around and at each other, clueless.

Satsuki put her hand up. “I got up first, but I didn’t see Yui.”

“Ms. Kano! Maybe she went home already?” Kazuo chimed in, unhelpfully, but with good intentions. “Maybe she’s sick, or she’s late, or—”

Panic. Panic. Panic.

Should I look for her? Did she run off? Or did something else happen? If none of the other kids saw her, then she might not be here. Unless she woke up first and then… I can’t just leave her behind, she’s probably terrified. I’m terrified. I need to look for her, but what do I do about the other children? I can’t just leave them here, there might be wild animals around here. What if… What if something’s already happened to her?

“Please be a dream, please be a dream…”

She reached for the pocket of her apron, hoping for her phone, but there was nothing there except a handkerchief. She didn’t even know if there would even be a signal in a place like this, but the item still would have been a comfort.

“Ms. Kano, where’s Mr. Tobita? Did he not come?” Reina asked.

He was nowhere in sight, and while the thought of him being missing was also worrying, she didn’t have the capacity for that at the moment. The situation was already bad enough. No education program had ever prepared her for being lost in the woods with a dozen children. There were only two things she could think of doing immediately: look for Yui (and maybe Hikaru), or try to find her way out of here. Neither was likely to be successful.

Wait…

She remembered the right thing to do, technically, was to stay put when lost. Of course, that would only apply if people knew they were missing. The parents would definitely notice. Last she remembered it was nearly time for them to be picked up. But judging from the sky above, it was daytime. At least a night had passed. Were they being searched for? Why hadn’t they been found yet? They certainly weren’t anywhere close to the daycare, that much she knew. There weren’t any woods in the area, it was a primarily residential neighbourhood in the city.

It was sound to think that if they were going to be rescued, it would take a while to happen. She’d have to make due with the children on her own, at least for the time being. Her mind flashed to a future in which they’d be living in the forest in some rickety wooden shelter or a damp cave, foraging for food. That wasn’t happening. Put lightly, they were screwed. She didn’t know how to start a fire or make a shelter, didn’t know how to hunt or which plants were safe to eat. She never learned, never had the need to learn growing up in the city, so staying and living here wasn’t an option.

We have to get out of here. How?

If they walked enough in one direction, they would eventually make it to some sort of path or more recognizable location. But how long would that take? Hours? Days? Weeks? Maybe even longer, seeing as kids this young didn’t have the best endurance. And as far as she knew, they were in the complete wilderness. There could be wild animals like wolves or bears. How were they going to get food? Or water?

There was rustling in a clump of undergrowth. Hana nearly screamed, the sound bringing her out of her spiralling panic. She leapt in front of the children.

A small, pink nose poked out of the leaves, followed by a pair of antlers.

“It’s a bunny!” Momoka squealed, pointing at the fluffy brown creature.

“No, it’s a deer!”

“Rabbit-deer!”

It was a rabbit, bar the white antlers sprouting from between its ears. The creature stood still, watching them with large, round eyes, its nose twitching. It scurried away along the edge of the clearing and back into the wilderness.

“Ms. Kano, do rabbits have horns?” Kazuo said, putting up his index fingers to his forehead, imitating the look of the creature.

“No, they don’t.”

Not normally.

“Are you sure? Because that rabbit definitely had horns!”

A spirit, maybe? That doesn’t make any sense either!

It could have been a yokai of some sort, there were plenty of weird creatures that appeared in the otherworld. She was adamant on avoiding the possibility that they had all somehow died, however, so the best thing to do was just accept that rabbits had antlers now.

“It was definitely special. I’ve never seen an animal like that before!” The tone of her voice was leagues more calm than her mind was.

While all the children were pleasantly surprised, all she could think about now was what other strange hybrids, dangerous hybrids, could be around. Something had to hunt the rabbit-deer, right? Perhaps it was fox-bears, or spider-falcons, or—

Barks split through the air, and this time Hana screamed. She wasn’t the only one. A pair of dogs pelted past them in such a blur that they were only identifiable by sound. They were headed in the direction of the rabbit-deer-thing. Still barking.

Hunting dogs?

It was hard to tell, but they looked like a western breed, the kind with floppy ears. If there were dogs, there might be people around, and that thought was a relief. She would be able to ask for directions, find a way to contact someone.

“Is everybody okay?”

“Mhm!”

“Okay!”

Despite their responses, they were clearly shaken by the incident. Souta was clinging onto his older sister with tears in his eyes, Momoka had grabbed hold of Aiko, and the younger boys were all hiding behind Ritsu.

She was thinking of something that might assuage their fears, but as though on cue, the sound of footsteps came from the same way the dogs had. They were solid, and heavy thumps, with the occasional crunching of twigs underfoot. The gait didn’t sound like an animal’s, but at this point, Hana wouldn't be surprised if a bear on its hindquarters showed up.

Luckily, it was a woman that emerged from the trees. She was about thirty, very tall and solidly built, with European-looking features— angular features and a tall nose. Her wavy, reddish hair was tied back into a braid, though stray wisps poked out here and there. She had a dark green vest, and a brown tunic shirt underneath, trousers and boots. Across her waist were a variety of buckles, pouches, rope, and… Was that a dagger? And a bow?

The only thing that came to mind was:

A cosplay? She looks like Robin Hood.

The woman stared down at them with a frown, brows furrowed, eyes sweeping across the children before they fixed onto Hana.

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