Justine currently stood in front of her tent and visually surveyed the surrounding landscape. It wasn't hard, not with her eyesight that had seemed to improve even more since she got to this place. "The first part of survival-" She rememembered her dad saying on one of the hunting trips that she had been forcibly brought along on. "-Is to figure out where you are. To maintain your sense of place, you need a landmark." That led to her younger male self pointing out the tallest tree she could find. Then her father had led her away from the camp and then told her to use the landmark so that they could find their way back. She did. He made her smores that night as a congratulations gift. It worked. The man had been a master of the carrot and stick method.

Justines eyes landed on the silver tree, it was a good of a landmark as any since it was about two or three times larger than any of the trees with red leaves in the surrounding forest. "Speaking of which...." The trees with the red leaves were another oddity among all the oddities she had found. Depsite looking like they had been placed sporadically in the mish mash sort of way that typically makes up a forest, each and every tree was pratically identical. A ramrod straight trunk leading up about twenty feet in the air, with branches that were also completely straight. The leaves looked normal enough despite being a bright red, the shape reminded Justine of the leaves of an oak tree. But the smell though. What was going on there? Every time she breathed in through her nose, a smell like she was in a field of cumin hit her. Was it coming from the trees? She had no idea.

Chirrr Chirp!

The sudden presence of the silver bird monster food thief brok Justine out of her thought process. Changing curiousity to that of annoyance. Seriously, how was it doing that? She just blinked and it was suddenly there! "Oh! It's you. Come to steal more of my food again have you? Well too bad, that was my first and last protein bar." The bird narrowed it's eyes at her and cocked it's head to the right. It's haughty stance told her that it was above such a mundane position such as a thief.

Chrr.

"I also don't understand how I can read you so well!" Justine sighed again. Maybe she could make sighing heavily her catchphrase? No, a catchphrase needed pizzazz and she was fresh out. "Well, It's fine I guess. I could use the company." She started plodding along to the trashbags full of her possessions with the bird hopping along behind her. The sound of the creature following along made her chuckle. "What are you, a stray dog that just wants attention? Come along then. Maybe I can make you a place to stay." When she reached the bags, she started carefully opening them all until she found what she needed. Pulling out multiple pairs of old shirts and sweaters, Justine tried her best to make a sort of lumpy oval shaped bed for the...

She suddenly turned to the bird. "You know, I think you need a name. Just calling you a silver bird feels a bit demeaning. How about Jerry? It's the name of my cat that I used to own. That is before it ran away because apparently I'm just the unluckiest person ever." Jerry didn't look like it was listening, as it was eyeing the bed she had made for it with a very judgemental vibe. To Justine's amusement, Jerry hopped around the clothing bed a few times in a circle before flapping it's wings and jumping right into it with a CHIRP. It then breathed out a Chrr of content as it snuggled in.

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Justine smiled. "Good?"

The bird gave a huff and looked away. It was adequate.

Justine smiled harder.

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"Status?" Nothing. Maybe her wording was wrong. "Abilities?" Nope. "Power tree." Wrong. "Uh hell, how about self manager?" Nada. "...menu?" Wrong again.

Chirr?

"Queit you. I know what I'm doing." This was in fact a total lie and the bird knew it. As Justine had spent the last ten minutes calling out different wordings and sentences out loud in hopes of some kind of system screen showing up. She felt foolish, but every lit-rpg she ever read had some kind of system and usually when someone was transported to another world like in fantasy or sci-fi stories, they got access to some kind of cheat. So Justine kept trying. She wouldn't give that damn animal the satisfaction of watching her act silly without getting something better than a womans body and better eyesight!

"Mana system." Bzzt. "Chakra scan." Try again. "Ki check." Incorrect. "Spirit Index?" False. "Heads up display." No dice. Maybe it had to do with colors? That blue floating timer box on her door had been something like that. Justine grinned and held out her right hand in front of her while covering her right eye with her left hand. "I call upon the forbidden blue box of power!"

...

The sound of nothing happening was only cemented in further by Jerry's judgemental stare. Justines eye twitched and she pulled out her notebook to write down and strike through another incorrect wording. "Fine, you win this round, universe. But I will get a system. Just. You. Wait." Holding back a sigh, she flipped to the next page in the notebook and made a list of things she needed and wanted to do.

* Shelter. (I have a tent but I need a permanent residence.)

* Water. (A river will work, ponds and streams are a last resort because my filter wont last forever.)

*Food. (This is going to be the hardest one. I have no idea what's edible and what could kill me! I'm probably going to have to hunt instead of foraging. Meat is usually safe when It's cooked thoroughly.)

*Entertainment. (New world exploration. Easy. I should probably pick up a new hobby though...)

*People. (I can't stay here forever. I've seen Castaway so I know I can go crazy being alone with nothing but a bird or a volleyball. I have to see if I'm not the only human, no matter how long it takes.)

*Civilization. (People mean civilization, and civilization means the possiblity of plumbing and toilet paper.

*The Silver Tree. (What's going on with that? I need to find out and hopefully not die.)

*The Red Forest. (I have to get through it to find food and water. Hopefully it's not horribly dangerous but knowing my luck I'm going to be super cautious anyway.)

*My female body. (I'm not bad about this, just very confused. Sadly I might never get an answer to this.)

*Jerry. (Teleport. Super speed? Magic? Magic would be cool.)

*Transport. (Can't carry all my stuff by myself. Maybe I can make myself some kind of sled or something with wooden wheels to carry it all.)

Justine clicked her pen a few more times while staring off into space, it was a bit of a habit that tended to occur whenever she was in deep thought. When she couldn't think of anything else to add, Justine closed the notebook and put it into her backpack, then she slung it over her shoulder. "Alright. Carpe Diem. Sieze the day! Let's do this!"