“Now what?” Gin stood there for a moment, enjoying the cool afternoon breeze.
She had one big goal, to save the world of Fara from the Demon Lords, but she knew nothing about them. Furthermore, she started in this world with nothing but a new body, and thankfully, a set of clothing.
But she had nothing else, no food or water, in the middle of nowhere in a land she knew nothing about. She stared at the endless blue sky, starting to panic a little. Realizing how lonely she felt.
She snapped herself back to reality, “Calm down, one step at a time. First things first, water.”
“Orb, where is the nearest stream or river?” Orb drew a little arrow on the ground, gazing along the direction it pointed at revealed nothing but more grass. “I guess it's pretty far.”
She walked watching the endlessly monotonous scenery, the forest that she had spied in the distance on her arrival was now located to her left. She watched as it slowly passed by, sometimes creeping closer, before slinking away again, always in the distance, always nothing but trees.
Eventually she got bored of asking Orb what kind of trees they were, an activity not helped by the fact that when Orb asked her to clarify which one she would always cheekily respond “The green one.”.
“Orb, could you tell me about the Kingdom of Midaria.” Orb responded by bringing up text after text about Midaria, written and oral accounts of its history. Excerpts from the notes of travelers. Descriptions of its capital and major cities.
She read each one with varied levels of interest, but the most entertaining to her were the poems and stories of its heroes. Founder Ashrim, Siran the Wolf Prince, Emperor Formynder Guardian of the South. Each one read like the fantasy novels she used to read, filled with epic battles and monsters she couldn't even begin to imagine. Yet they were all real, set in the world she was currently walking in.
So why did it all look so normal?
She paused, reaching the edge of a forest filled with ordinary-looking trees which were in turn surrounded by boring little bushes. Listening closely she could finally hear it, the sound of running water. Walking through the forest she still found nothing, no mystical animals, no strange tracks, no markings on the trees. If not for her tail she might have not believed this was a fantasy world, maybe some elaborate, high budget joke instead.
The stream came into view, it was fairly wide and deep enough to stand in, but the current was slow. It was quite beautiful, the rivers back home were often murky or had trash lining the shore. But this one was almost see-through, allowing one to make out even individual stones that had wedged themselves in its bed. She kneeled next to it.
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“How much do I need to drink?” She didn't feel parched yet, but she had nothing to carry the water with, and she highly doubted all the Demon Lords had chosen to live on its banks. She dipped her hands into the water, cupping the water to her mouth. Drinking until she felt a little bloated. Letting the ripples die out, she gazed in the stream at her own reflection.
“Holy shit.” It hadn't crossed her mind before, but she had no idea what she looked like.
She was cute, really fucking cute.
She looked like one of those characters that she had spent forty plus hours in character creation fine-tuning every detail. Making sure that even the angle of the bloody eyebrows was absolutely perfect. She rubbed her own cheeks, gently squeezing them. Part of her still didn't believe this was the face attached to her body. Although it was a little vain, she spent a short while making different faces into the water, feeling as giddy as a small child.
Then a thought she maybe should not have had popped into her head.
She stared blankly at the water as it slowly rolled by. Under her loosely fitting clothing, she could barely make out the outline of her own body. She blushed until her face camouflaged with her hair.
“I've been walking for quite a while, it's completely normal to want a bath right?” She slowly undressed, leaving her clothes in a pile on the ground, “There is no ulterior motive, just a completely normal thing to do.”
She lowered herself into the water, although it was cold, her face still felt insanely warm. During the entire process, she had kept looking forward like a mannequin, not daring to look down. Her breath became short little pants, to match the thumping of the heart in her chest.
“It's not perverted if it's my own body. There is nothing wrong with what I'm doing.” She felt her head inch slowly downwards, closer and closer...
Grrr
She instinctively wrapped her hands around her rumbling stomach, her eyes followed her hands and found themselves seeing the rest of her body. She burst out laughing, all the tension melting away. She didn't know what she was expected, she had seen naked people before, it was through a screen, but still.
Climbing out, she stretched for a bit, letting herself dry a little before putting her clothes back on. Her stomach growled again, suddenly feeling extremely hungry. She wondered if she had been suppressing this feeling for a while.
Beep, beep, beep
Orb popped up a little message.
'You are hungry, consume food to recover stamina'
She chuckled, funny how Eldro felt the need to have Orb tell her to eat. She wondered if she held her breath for long enough it would tell her she needs to breathe. She closed the message and prepared to set off again, wondering how she should go about finding food.
'Beep, beep, beep'
“Orb, shut up.” A few seconds passed, then Orb beeped again. “Orb, mute, I get it, I need to eat.”
Orb kept beeping, it wasn't loud, but it didn't stop. Every couple of seconds, beep, beep, beep. Slowly driving her insane. Covering her ears didn't help, as the sound was not emitted from Orb itself, but injected directly into her brain. The message popped up again.
'You are hungry, consume food to recover stamina'
'Beep, beep, beep'
She stared at Orb, her eyes glazing over. The beeping would stop eventually, right?