The beeping had not stopped.

She had spent hours walking alongside the stream, hoping that she might spot an animal drinking at its banks, or a fish through the clear water. Yet no such luck. She turned her focus to the trees themselves, scanning every branch and bush as she passed by. Looking for anything that could be considered food. Yet although the forest had no shortage of plants, they all bore no fruit or flowers.

When she had started in this world she unknowingly began on an empty stomach. The hunger had been building all this time, a foe that only now revealed itself in the rumbling of her stomach and the beeping of Orb.

When the hunger grew painful she had drunk more water in an attempt to curb her hunger, it worked, but only for a short while. When it faded and the hunger returned with a vengeance, she ate leaves, but Orb didn't like this, beeping louder then hijacking her body to make her vomit it back out, violently.

“Great, it can ratatouille my ass.” She spat out the last bits of bile. Glaring at Orb. She suddenly screamed in frustration and wildly lashed out at Orb, yet her hands passed through it harmlessly, clawing at nothing but air. Feeling extremely unsatisfied, she turned to one of the many trees that surrounded her.

“Piece of shit tree!” She kicked it, hard. The tree shook from the impact, leaves falling to the ground. But her focus was no longer on the tree, for she heard a different sound. The scurrying of an animal through the carpet of dead leaves.

She turned, her eyes seeing the tiny creature. She followed it as it ran, unusually slow for an animal its size, it stopped a small distance away, standing on its hind legs and peered around.

It kinda looked like a squirrel, with a copper brown coat of fur, but on its back were several small spikes and instead of a bushy tail it had three tentacle-like tails that coiled and waved around.

She sneaked up slowly, keeping close to the ground. She was drooling, her eyes focused on nothing but the creature. It twitched randomly and as she got closer she could see that not all of it was covered in fur. On the left side of its stomach was a large bulge of flesh, a yellow liquid oozing from it.

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

The creature spotted her and starting running, Gin leaped to her feet and ran after it, finding she could easily keep up with it. She lunged, grabbing it in her hands, feeling something cracking in her grip.

It struggled, emitting a series of high pitched screeches, she could feel the pus leaking from it, dripping from the gaps between her fingers. It was only now that the smell hit her, like that of a rotting corpse, shaking her out of her hunger-induced frenzy.

Seeing her grip loosen the creature struggled once more, yet she barely felt it. She stared at the creature, feeling a bit sorry for it. It tried biting her fingers, but after seeing it had no effect it let go and resumed shrieking once more.

She let go, letting it drop to the ground, but instead of running it simply limped, its back bent in a strange angle. She stared at it, watching it as it tried to crawl away, leaking pus everywhere. Closing her eyes she lifted her foot and brought it down on it, hard.

Crunch.

Gingerly lifting her foot, staring at what had occurred. The creature laid there, a canvas of red and yellow surrounding its lifeless corpse. She spent a while just staring at it. Half hoping it would begin twitching again and scurry out of sight, but it didn't, it just stared back with one lifeless eye.

Picking it up by the tail, she gently lifted it up. She licked her lips, then paused, she had no idea how to begin eating it. She had no idea how to start a fire and she really didn't want to learn in the middle of a forest. But she was extremely hungry, and even the thought of raw flesh was quite appealing.

Its stomach let off a disgusting smell and the wound had popped, dying the surrounding fur in a disgusting yellow tinge. She bit one of its legs instead, getting a mouthful of fur. She tore a chunk of flesh from it, trying to swallow it. The fur tickled the back of her throat, she tried chewing it but every bite squeezed blood from the flesh, it had a disgusting taste, but she did her best to force it down.

It got stuck in her throat, she had to force it down, constantly swallowing her own saliva until it slid down. She gasped for air, she had done it. Any moment now the pain in her stomach would die down, satisfied with what it has...

Orb floated into her view, she felt the same gag reflex as she had before. “You fuck.” She vomited again onto the ground, this time she didn't have water to throw up, just dry gasps until she hurled the piece of meat from her throat.

She coughed, trying to ease the burning pain in her throat, “Orb, you have a better idea you little shit?” Orb sat there, no response, “Yeah that's what I thought.”

A little beep, she turned. Orb had brought up a small little box,

'There's a small road close to your current position'

Orb had left a small arrow on the ground, it was very faint, but Gin swore that Orb had turned a little smaller.

“Sorry, I didn't mean to shout, none of this is your fault.” Orb didn't respond directly, but it seemed to bob a little now. Her stomach grumbled again, reminding her she had to keep moving. So she did, along the path of the arrow, until she reached the road that Orb had mentioned.