My boots slam into the dirt as I run for my life. Panic has hold of my chest and throat and is making it difficult to breathe. Sweat drips from my brow into my eyes and I ignore it as I continue to flee in terror. The sensation of dread pulsing from behind continues to grow until it's so thick I can feel it brush against the back of my neck.

The sensation drives me wild with fear; if before it was a bonfire blazing wildly in my chest now it is an all-consuming conflagration. It spreads rapidly and without mercy. It consumes my mind until all I can feel is terror and the ragged, raw heaving of my chest.

Blackness encroaches at the edges of my vision and branches grasp at my flesh. I take no notice except the few times my skin is snagged and I rip my arms blindly away, utterly without regard for the scrapes, tears, and gashes left on my form.

Sprinting blindly forward I feel the warmth of my blood as it drips down my arms to splatter the surroundings before the flames of panic consume me completely and numb blackness swallows me whole.

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I wake on what must be a cloud of bliss. I can't remember ever having woken up on something so soft, I wonder if-

The memories of panic hit me and I bolt upright. Hopefully I passed out somewhere not completely, murderously dangerous? My mind catches up to my body and dizziness engulfs me before I lose my balance and tip to the side.

And land ass-over-teakettle after falling at least ten feet. How the fuck did I get so high up while sprinting in a blind panic?

I begin to right myself and freeze in place almost immediately as a curtain of musky steam billows over me. It's accompanied by a grating rumble that vibrates my head and chest so badly I'm worried something inside me is going to tear.

I remain as still as possible for what feels like an eternity before I hear what I swear is an indignant huff. An indignant huff that sends a blast of wiind in my direction and causes my tattered clothing to whip wildly about.

I turn my head slightly while trying to keep my breathing even, failing miserably.

Deep purple-and-red fur fills my vision and two large eyes track my every movement. I freeze as we make eye contact and then slowly continue to right myself as whatever is in front of me makes no move. My head swims and I clamp my eyes shut hoping beyond hope that the thing doesn't decide to change its mind about... whatever the hell is happening that made it decide not to kill me immediately.

Fur like steel wire encompasses the behemoth form before me. Two enourmous pitted, black tusks emerge from the sides of a mouth lined with rows of jagged teeth. A thick neck runs seamlessly into broad, muscle-laden shoulders topped with spikes of bone. The beast stands on four legs the size of tree trunks and flexes and retracts its claws, stabbing furrows into the dirt.

It just sits there. And sits. Until I raise my head sheepishly and look it in the eyes. They seem to light up when I do so and I notice that the thing looks like a...

Bear-Elephant Matriarch [!]

Yup. A cross between a bear and an elephant. It looks like a grizzly bear was scaled up in size and shape to match that of an elephant and given tusks and bone shoulder armor. It's absolutely savage looking and the [!] after it's name leaves me breathless. The last and only other thing I saw with that designation held my life in its hands and I survived the encounter on a damn whim.

The beast continues to not make a move and I sit completely upright. My heart is beating and pumping blood so furiously that the noises of the outside world recede and it sounds as if I'm completely underwater. A rumble escapes the beast and it stands to its full height. I'd guess that it's around twice as tall as I am, so maybe twelve feet?

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I freeze again and pray to anything and everything that I somehow survive this.

A force hits me from the side and the breath is driven from my lungs. I thrash about in a blind panic before whatever began this assault attaches itself to my torso.

I feel bile rise and for the briefest of seconds I mentally snap back to my childhood. Having something holding and restraining me ignites a fear I had long forgotten. I'm brought back to every time I've ever been jumped, held down, and beaten for spare change or shits and giggles. I frantically begin to roll around, thrashing my limbs as best I can while restrained. I flex and kick and move as violently as I can before I feel a pull on my leg as the ground falls out from beneath me.

My vision catches up with reality and I realize I'm hanging upside down. The Matriarch has me suspended by my leg, her tail wrapped snugly around. I'm given a gentle shake before she moves me and sets me down to the side. I right myself and Seph's form enters my vision.

I can't believe she made it too! She- oh shit. She must have been what was holding on to me when I lost my shit. I scramble over to make sure she's okay and am greeted by a warm smile.

"Gotcha, ya scaredy cat!"

She doubles over in laughter and I catch a huff from the wall of fur to our side.

"You scared the crap out of me. God. What the hell?" I ask with a faint smile. Despite nearly scaring the life out of me, I'm not mad. Getting the jump on someone can be a hell of a lot of fun and I'm mostly just glad we're both still alive and whole.

"I had to! You just kept running and running even when it was safe to stop! You finally collapsed and I was so worried I wouldn't be able to do anything, but after a while of trying to move you out of the valley, she showed up! At first I was scared but 'Wisdom of the Fallen' didn't activate and she just kinda sat there so I figured it was safe. After a while she put us on her back and brought us to her home! I was playing with the younger ones when you woke back up and had to get you back for scaring me so bad when you dropped!"

I look around and fully take in my surrounding for the first time. We're in a clearing in the forest that extends several hundred feet in every direction. I can barely make out the tops of the few trees as I crane my neck back. I sit amidst an azure sea of foliage and am left breatheless. Interspersed with bits of other colors are every shade of blue imaginable. A baby-blue tree trunk extends into spiraled leaves of varying shades of purple. A cliff face far to my left gives off the reflective sheen of a metalic blue that slowly transitions to a crimson gash in the sky.

I steel my nerves as I'm hit with the magnitude of this world. I've always felt insignificant when faced with the vastness of Earth but... I somehow feel even more insignificant now. A speck on a grain of sand in the desert of the universe, constantly half a step from death and nonexistence. I mentally shake myself and turn toward Seph.

Her gaze shifts to daggers and I feel a chill in the air, "Stop passing out or whatever, it's scary. Also if you keep doing it you're definitely gonna die."

Her icy look as well as her message and the tone with which she delivers it set my teeth on edge. She's right. And she wasn't even there for the first time I got knocked out. I wonder if anyone has survived the apocalypse so far without skill and a massive amount of luck. I'd like to say I'm alive mostly because of skill but it's definitely the lesser factor of the two.

Not to mention, she's had to look after my dumb, unconscious ass twice already. She's had no obligation to help me but has continued to do so willingly. I feel terrible for scaring her and tell her as much.

"It's alright ya goof, just don't die, kay?" She asks in a cheery manner.

The contrast between the content of the message and her tone hits me hard. Barely a day gone by as far as I can tell and she's already had to adapt as much as she has. Hopefully she can continue to do so better than I've been able.

"Alright, alright, I'm sorry for scaring you. I really am." She accepts my apology without complaint and I continue.

"There's a bunch I want to ask you, not least of which is about that skill, 'Wisdom of the Fallen' since you've mentioned it a couple times, as well as your time with her." I turn my head to glance at the Matriarch and I blink in surprise as several dozen clumps of fur burrow out and fall off her shaggy form. They hit the ground and begin to launch at each other while letting loose a series of high-pitched growls. After staring for a couple seconds I'm able to make out that they must be the Matriarch's young, and they're cute. Sure, they look like furry machines of death but honestly? So do cats and humanity has thought of them as the most cute since the beginning of time. I really want to jump into the cuddle-pile but I'm confident that even these could kill me without much trouble, especially given how many of them there are.

I turn my attention back to Seph. "But first..." I trail off and a massive rumbling fills the pause for several long seconds, "how the hell do we get food around here?"