She was tending to her nice, simple garden when it happened. One second, she's gently trimming off the excess branches and leaves of her cute little bonsai, the next, she's facing an unfamiliar, almost magical forest.

The transition was abrupt, with no warning. For a couple of seconds, she found herself staring blankly at the nothingness in front of her. Then, a low, almost lazy growl that sent horrible shivers running down her spine forcefully tore her away from the little mental coma she'd fallen into.

Eyes wide and scared, she whirled around to face the source of that terrifying growl, and when she saw it, her hearts stopped for an instant, and if she wasn't so paralyzed by crippling fear, she would have screamed until her throat tore itself.

A titanic beast, as large as a horse but definitely more muscular, walked towards her with a lazy swagger to its steps. Spikes adorned its sides, long, twisted things that ended violently and abruptly into sharp nails that looked to her as though they could easily rip her apart. Its tooth-filled mouth seemed to naturally form into a grim smile, and its eyes held intelligence that shouldn't have belonged on a non-human creature.

Her muscles had long since locked up, and as the nightmarish creature approached her, she could barely find her breath. In the back of her mind, the snarky part of herself would have normally joked that saw her life flash before her eyes, but unfortunately, she wasn't quite mentally stable enough to think such things.

Surprisingly, instead of mauling her and rendering her body into a thousand pieces, the beast just... Sniffed her. With surprisingly agile steps for a creature holding such a cumbersome body, it easily circled around her, taking little sniffs of her body. 

Then, as if the shock of the situation hadn't already been enough to give her a heart attack despite being barely into her twenties, the creature began to purr as it gently rubbed its furry head on her body.

Broken from her paralyzing spell, she was finally able to gather her thoughts. "W-what the fuck..." She whispered as a raspy tongue, not unlike that of a cat, lapped at her shoulder. For a brief moment, she thought that the creature was just toying with her, tasting its meal. However, surprisingly, after a few licks, the great beast got up and... left.

Just like that, the nightmare that would have, should have, tore her apart was gone, leaving behind only a memory of purring cats and gentle, comforting licks.

Yet again, she found herself at a loss of words. However, the panic and fear of the situation had, if nothing else, made her realize that, no matter whatever had happened, she needed to find a safe shelter, fast.

With little idea of what she was doing, she scrambled to find something, anything, to hide away in. As she ran, she had to fight against the suddenly encroaching coldness that signified the arrival of nighttime, as well as the niggling fear in the back of her mind that whispered dark thoughts in her mind.

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Thankfully, her gardening clothes, the ones she'd been wearing before... whatever the hell happened, had come along with her, and with them, her comfortable, running shoes had also joined her in this adventure. Thus, she was able to avoid the worst of what could have been had she been running barefoot.

After only ten minutes, she finally found her target. A small but deep hole in the ground, one that she could fit into if she wiggled a bit. With a desperation born of fear and tiredness, she immediately got on her knees and attempted to enter into the hole.

Thankfully, after a short battle with the surprisingly soft and malleable earth, she was able to fit her entire body into the less than 2-meter wide hole, and at last, she could catch her breath.

She could feel the cold earth dig into her sides, but instead of moving away from the feeling, she huddled closer to it. The cold was good, very good. It meant she was still sane enough that her grasp of reality hadn't slipped away.

"Hehe... What the hell... Heheheee..." She began to giggle hysterically, before harshly pinching her arm. She yelped slightly at the pain, idly noticing she'd somehow drawn blood from the pinch.

Letting out a long, trembling sigh, she forced herself to meditate, her martial arts lessons and yoga lessons assisting greatly in the endeavor. Finally, after what could have either been a measly ten minutes, or perhaps an hour, she felt relaxed enough to logically think about what had happened.

'Let's see... I'd just come home from work, nothing unusual there... I ate lunch, I played some online games, and then I went to tend to my garden...' She silently listed out her day, repeating the events several times over in her head. However, no matter how many times she thought about, the fact that she had no idea of how or why she was in this strange place with monsters and trees that seemed to glow ethereally.

"Damn it..." She whispered, tears beginning to gather in her eyes. She had no fucking clue! How was she supposed to survive? Sure, she was a brown belt in Karate and she was decent at yoga, but that meant very little in the grand scheme of things. 

She had no idea how to gather food, how to know what was poisonous and what wasn't. She had no idea how to survive the wildlife, and if there were more of those monsters around, she was so dea--

'Why didn't it kill me immediately?' The thought struck her like lightning. The anxiety in her chest pressed her to mentally investigate further. There had to be a reason that the monster didn't just eat her, especially since there was no way it was a herbivore.

Nonetheless, she didn't know. She just wanted to go home, back to her caring mother and stern but loving father, her mischevious but lovable little brother, her prideful but always there to console her cat, her--

She froze when she felt something rough yet impossibly smooth gently rub away the tears trailing down her eyes. Craning her neck, she stared at the ground, eyes once again impossibly wide. A small, thin root was sprouting from the ground, fighting against the gravity wishing to pull it down where it belonged. 

Blinking her eyes tiredly, she watched as it swayed in the air gently. Once, twice, and then it fell, returning deep into the earth below. Suddenly feeling very, very tired, she curled up into a ball, silently hoping she wouldn't just asphyxiate from the coldness, and then fell asleep, vehemently wishing that, when she woke up, this would all have been a dream.