The girl opened her eyes.

She was lying on her back in a forest. More specifically, a clearing, where the sun warmed her body, and the soft grass served as a bed.

She did not feel any of that.

All she felt was the urge to eat- an overriding desire.

She slowly got up, testing unfamiliar limbs, and looked around.

As far as forests went, it was a fairly standard one. With densely packed trees and bushes teeming with wildlife, it was a sort of near-paradise.

The girl felt a tickling sensation on her arm, and saw that an ant had crawled onto it. Without any hesitation, she pinched it between two of her fingers, brought it to her mouth, and ate it.

It was so small it didn't even register as food to her- but then, suddenly, she felt compelled to work, and work hard without stopping.

She had gained the gift of Diligence from the ant.

She stood up, and looked for more things to eat. She saw a frog, and grabbed it from the ground, where it had been resting. With a loud croak, the frog protested its capture- but the girl took no heed, and bit down on its head. It was the only part that fit in her mouth, as her body was that of an extremely young girl.

She bit down on the frog, hard, until it stopped wriggling. She then worked her teeth left and right until the head became severed from the body, and chewed, blood and errant strings of flesh trailing from her lips. When she was satisfied that the lump of frog in her mouth had been masticated thoroughly, she swallowed. Without further ado, she gulped down the rest of the frog much the same way.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

Again, she felt a new, unfamiliar desire- to run, to jump, to scamper from one location to another. She had gained the frog's gift of Agility.

The girl walked up to a tree, and climbed it, having no problem doing so thanks to her newfound Agility. She perched lightly on a branch, and saw a flutter of movement. Her hand flashed out, and caught a sparrow mid-takeoff. It struggled fiercely in her hand, but she gripped tightly, and continued tightening until the bird's body burst into an unrecognizable mass of bloody guts and shit. She lapped it all up, and placed the unharmed head into her mouth. She had some trouble eating the beak, but managed to break it into tiny pieces of keratin and bones, although it chipped her teeth.

The girl's vision suddenly became sharper, and colors seemed slightly more contrasted- she had gained the sparrow's gift of Perception, which was much superior to a human's, if not so to other birds.

She crept along the branch, scanning the ground, until she saw a lizard dart out from under a branch, its tiny legs furiously making for the cover and safety of another. Soundlessly, she jumped from the branch, and landed on the ground, the lizard pinned under her fingers. With her two hands, she ripped it in half, and ate both pieces. Then, she felt a sudden, furious itching in her teeth, and her hand felt them to find that the chipped teeth had been repaired. The lizard had given her its gift of Regeneration.

Even after eating the ant, frog, sparrow and lizard, she was not sated, and wandered around in the forest, looking for more morsels to eat. She found two more lizards, an earthworm, and another sparrow. But those were insignificant compared to her last meal- a common hill mynah. After she had devoured it down to the last feather, she felt a strange sensation in her neck, and she opened her mouth. Somewhere nearby, she heard a bird call out- and she let out the same call. She had gained the gift of Vocalization. The source of the call, a small warbler, fluttered towards her, then turned around after noticing it had been tricked, but was caught in the girl's grasp. She looked at it interestedly, but let it go. She was full; she had no more need for food. She was not wasteful.

The girl stretched out on the tree, and soon drifted off to sleep, spurred on by her pleasantly full belly. In her dream, she was eating- what she ate was unknown. All she knew was that she was eating everything. Everything in the world.