She stood there in the middle of the path. Although she was still surrounded by trees the dirt beneath her feet was surprisingly free of leaves.

“Orb, which direction do you think I should take?” Nothing, “Orb, which direction is the closest settlement.”

'South'

“Orb, which direction is that?” Orb placed another little arrow on the ground, “Thank you.”

She kept asking Orb different things as she walked, finding that the more she talked to it the more open she could leave the questions. Eventually the path split, “Orb, which path do you think I should take?”

'The one on the left.'

The trees around her slowly began to thin out, growing sparser and sparser as she walked. At the same time, the sun was setting from the sky and everything yet dark. Yet she barely noticed it, finding she could see almost as much as she did during the day.

Eventually, there was a break in the treeline, a few more steps and the forest gave way to open fields. Her eyes traced the landscape into her mind, lush open fields capped with the endless night sky.

Having lived in the city all her life, this was her first time seeing the stars. They were laid out like a million little notes in a perfect symphony, playing the tune of the world over and over again, night after night, shrouded in the vast black of space.

“Cool.”

She kept walking, the beautiful painting above barely leaving an impact in her mind. To her she basically traded the endless forest for endless fields. Yet as she walked further something was different, the cool evening breeze, no longer obstructed by trees, brought something else. A smell. She quickened her pace, unable to tell what the smell was but instinctively knowing it was important.

Wandering off the path into the fields, she tore through the grass, fighting the hunger every step of the way. Shapes soon emerged from the dark, wooden houses, the smell came stronger now. She followed it to one of the smaller buildings.

Pulling at the door she found it locked shut. She pulled harder, feeling the wood starting to give way. The boards began to bend, then snap, releasing loud pops one after another, the hinges and lock desperately held on until the entire door itself got ripped off, she tossed it away and peered inside.

Food, not a large array but several large pieces of salted meat, bags of wheat and sacks of strange fruit. She hobbled in, tears welling up in her eyes. She wasn't a fan of eating a mouthful of wheat, and the meat had strange green streaks running along its length, so she decided to try out one of the pieces of fruit.

It looked kinda like an apple, having the same shape with a stem at the top, but had skin like a strawberry, bumpy with tiny seeds that dotted its shiny violet skin. She took a bite, enjoying the sweet taste that held a light tangy flavour at the end. Then another bite, followed by another until the entire thing was gone.

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Her stomach rumbled again, asking for more and she was happy to oblige. One by one she gobbled up piece after piece, eating with greater and greater ferocity, almost tearing them one apart with savage bites.

Then suddenly a beam of light came from behind her, casting long shadows onto the ground in her view, she spun around. Standing in the open doorway was a stocky, well-built woman in her twenties, her hair was a messy mane of gold that sat just above her shoulders. Dressed in a cloth gown, in her left she hand a lantern, in her right a loaded crossbow.

They stared at each other, the woman's eyes looked Gin up and down, hovering over her long scaly tail. Her grip didn't loosen on the crossbow, but she kept it trained on the ground, her expression stoic and calm.

“What the hell...?” Gin just stared back at her, her mouth and hands dyed with purple juices. The woman kept her crossbow trained on the ground, her eyes looking Gin up and down, stopping at her tail. “You speak Midarian?” Midarian? The words still sounded like English to her.

“I think so?” The woman nodded, clearly able to understand her.

“Follow me, better if we talk inside.” Gin did as instructed, letting herself be led to one of the larger buildings. The woman pushed open the door, revealing the interior. A simple room with pack dirt for flooring. In the centre of the room was what looked like a fire, surrounded on three sides by wide benches. She walked in and hung the lantern from a hook that hung from the ceiling, illuminating the room in its light.

In the corner, a massive ball of fur stirred, rose up and walked over. It was a massive looking wolf that reached her shoulders and was almost three meters in length. Yet it didn't look threatening, it merely walked over and nuzzled its snout gently against the woman's side.

“This is Fenrir,” She scratched him behind the ears, Fenrir eyed Gin curiously, she waved at him meekly and he strolled over, letting her reach out to stroke his fur, “If you try to run he'll be the one tracking you down. Fenrir.” The wolf perked up, she pointed outside, “Guard.” The wolf nodded and lumbered out the door.

“It can understand you?”

“Only simple commands, sit.” She gestured to one of the benches, Gin sat down, feeling the hard wood against her rear. The woman walked out of the room, coming back not with the crossbow, but with a blanket under one arm and piece of bread in the other. She sat down on one of the other benches and handed the bread to Gin.

“Thank you,” She took the bread and devoured it. The woman merely sat there watching her with great interest.

“You got a name?”

“Gin.” She spoke in short bursts between mouthfuls of bread, bread took priority in this situation.

“Mine is Avril, don't usually see any demi-humans this far north.”

“A demi-human?”

“Half human, half animal, you're one of them right? Judging from that massive tail you have.”

“I guess.”

“So, what are you doing in a place like this? You don't look like a spy, you don't have the scars of a convict and you look too young to be a deserter from the war. So why is a demi-human so far from home, all on their own, eating someone else's Purple Apples by the dozen.”

“I'm really sorry about that, I was starving.”

“I can tell, most people don't eat expensive medicinal fruit for dinner.”

Gin froze, “How expensive?”

“Expensive enough so that I can't really just shrug it off and ignore it. But look on the bright side, you won't be getting any throat sores for quite a while.” She chuckled at her own joke, “You stopped eating, don't worry I'm not gonna charge you for the bread.”

“Sorry.” She resumed her eating, a little more shyly now. Avril watched her until she had eaten every last bite. She placed the blanket down on the bench next to Gin and turned to leave the room.

“Get some sleep, we can talk more in the morning.” She took the lantern off its hook, taking the light with her as she left the room.

Gin laid herself down on the bench, awkwardly fiddled around with the blanket until it fully covered her.

She laid there for a while just staring at the ceiling, although the room was completely dark her improved vision made it a lot brighter than she was used to, but eventually the fatigue of being awake for almost an entire day caught up to her and slowly drifted to sleep.