Since starting college I’d woken up with hangovers more than once, but never one like this. My whole body was agony, as if I’d run a marathon then been hit by a train, and my head was spinning. There was one pleasant change however, despite the pain – I felt incredibly light. The hazy memories of Myr’s ‘training’ planet flooded back… had I ever felt this light back there, even at ‘level 1’?

Opening my eyes, I saw strange green shapes against a blue background, woven together by darker strands like veins. I felt silly as I realized that I was just looking up at leaves. How long was it since I last saw a tree? For a moment I thought that maybe, just maybe I was back on Earth.

That hope faded as I looked around. I was in a forest, but these were no species of tree I’d ever seen before. Their trunks were gnarled and bulbous, their leaves thick with jagged edges. Strange red fruit with curved spikes hung from the branches.

The sky was more familiar at least, a rich blue dotted with cloud. It was a sunny day. Myr’s hell seemed very far away when I watched the leaves rustling gently and the clouds lazily rolling by overhead.

Laying there it felt like I was being healed from the nightmares of the evil god. On Earth I’d lived in a big city and hardly ever bothered going to the park, while in ‘hell’ I’d never seen a single living thing bigger than a mushroom. I’d never imagined I would miss nature this much.

After a few minutes the pain in my body had receded enough that I thought I’d better sit up and look around me properly. If this wasn’t Earth then I couldn’t just assume that my common sense applied here or that it was safe to lie around all day.

Raising my body I realized how stiff I was – Myr really did a number on me – and of course I saw I was still totally naked. It would have been too much to expect that bastard to give me clothes. I was also still… a girl…. Even if it had been a long time since it happened I’d had no chance to think about that particular predicament. At least I was past the initial shock.

It was still going to take a lot of getting used to of course. For one thing, I was a lot shorter now than when I’d been on Earth. Probably a little under 5’. I was a lot curvier too, with wide hips and a large chest. If this was someone else’s body I’d have wanted to ask her out. The thought was unsettling, but also reassuring in a way, since as best I could tell I was still the same person on the inside.

I got shakily to my feet, trying not to dwell on the redistributed weight, and looked about me. The grass underfoot had a strange stiffness to it but when I put enough weight on it the pointed blades would bend normally, making them rather springy and tickly to walk on.

Behind me, to what I decided to provisionally consider the South, was a mountain range rising up out of the forest in the distance. I seemed to be in the foothills, the land around me uneven in places, rocky patches here and there.

There was no sign of any immediate danger, indeed the place seemed mostly deserted, only the faint sounds of birds and insects disturbing the calm. For the moment I decided to focus on finding something to wear and looking for signs of civilization. The forest was nice but the thought of sleeping in a bed and having a cooked meal was irresistible. I just hoped that there were people somewhere in this world.

The thought of food was the trigger for my sorely neglected stomach to spring to life with an angry rumble to remind me that it was a long time since I last ate anything. The fruit growing around me didn’t look too attractive, but it couldn’t be any worse than what I’d eaten until now, so I tried picking one.

Touching the odd fruit made my fingers tingle, but the sensation wasn’t painful and the spikes weren’t sharp enough to break my skin, so I plucked it and examined it in my hands.

The shiny blood-red skin felt similar to an apple but the shape was totally different. A thick round top branched into a nest of soft tendrils that reacted to my touch as if they were alive. I suppose technically all fruit was alive at some point, I just wasn’t used to it moving.

The tip of each grasping tendril was a curved, pointed hook, but they weren’t strong or sharp enough to cause any real pain. The effect reminded me of an angry octopus, but even so I was hungry and the fruit at least smelt better than the slime I’d been eating in hell so… I closed my eyes and took a small bite from the plump top of the thing.

The taste was… incredible! It tingled on the tongue with a sharp aftertaste, but it was mouthwateringly sweet and the flesh was pink, juicy and squishy, reminding me of a rambutan. As I took another bite I noticed the tendrils were wilting as the juices escaped, but I ignored the gross visual and kept eating. Hunger was the best spice, but I suspected these fruits were quite a delicacy for those who could get over the image.

~~~

As I walked along surprisingly well-worn forest trails I ate a few more of the evil-looking rambutans, keeping an eye out for any signs of people or civilization. With a little luck whoever made the trails was still around, and wouldn’t be too freaked out by a naked girl wandering in the woods. After Myr’s mental attack disguised as a language lesson I was hoping that I’d be able to understand whatever speech they had, but if the culture was too different I could be in trouble.

Of course even assuming I could make contact and we could understand each other, what was I supposed to tell people? “Hi I’m an otherworlder, I just got here and I think I might have special powers, please don’t take advantage of me okay?” Even in my head that sounded stupid. Assuming people wouldn’t just think I was delusional.

In the end I decided that rather than trying to come up with some clever back-story to explain why I was wandering nude in the woods, which might or might not make any sense whatsoever to people in this world, it would be better to just fall back on the old classic; amnesia. Thank you lazy writers, for coming up with the perfect excuse for my total ignorance. The best part was that I didn’t need to explain how I got there in the first place.

Unfortunately while I was thinking about that I wasn’t paying much attention to my surroundings and I totally failed to notice the sounds of something moving through the undergrowth, until it was right on top of me. I froze as I heard a series of thuds, but before I could figure out where they were coming from a dark shape lumbered out of the bushes ahead, crushing one with its mass. It was a green-skinned creature with a thick wrinkly hide like a rhino, patches of moss and lichen clinging to it.

At first I couldn’t figure out what direction it was facing, but once I understood the shape of the thing… it didn’t help at all! A rounded central body tapered into three shoulders instead of the two or four that you’d expect on Earth, foot-thick tree-like limbs growing from each one, ending in some sort of grey horn or chitin-like material shaped like a rock. The thing was a little shorter than me but probably several times my weight. An ominous damp area on its underside gave off sounds of breathing.

Whatever the three-legged tripod thing was, a rock monster, some sort of bizarre cow, or just a friendly woodland creature with an image problem, I had no intention of finding out. I started to quietly back away from the thing before it could notice me.

That proved pointless, as the moment I moved the beast let out a hoarse cry and started moving towards me.

Panicked and not looking where I was stepping, I tipped on a tree root and I fell on my ass as the monster closed in. From that angle I could see up between its legs to the underside of the ‘torso’, where a huge gaping maw was lined with layer after layer of needle-like teeth!

I scrambled to get up and out from the path of the advancing thing, but the soft earth under me gave poor traction. A huge leg slammed down next to my face and I rolled away, coming to a stop just before another could crush me. Hemmed in on each side by the trunk-like legs, I couldn’t avoid the mouth that was hungrily pressing down on top of me. In a panic I screamed and kicked at the thing’s third leg.

Rather than feeling like kicking a tree trunk the sensation was surprisingly soft and yielding. With a horrible crunch the monster’s leg gave way. The sound as its leg broke was sickening, but it was the tripod or me. There was no way I was going to let this thing eat me. It gave a gurgling scream as the broken leg bent unnaturally under it and I hurriedly pulled myself back before it could fall on me.

The tripod beast was down to two good legs now but it didn’t give up – it lurched towards me, stumbling and gnashing its hideous maw. But with the surprising fragility of the creature I resolved to make it regret trying to make a meal out of me. I threw punch at its soft middle, the impact sending my attacker tumbling end over end to slam into a tree!

I knew I’d gotten stronger after the ‘training’ I’d been through, but wasn’t this monster just pathetically weak? The imposing appearance was all it had going for it. It should have picked an easier target to prey on. On Earth it would probably have just been prey for anything bigger than a coyote.

The tripod slowly slid down the gnarled trunk of the tree to collapse in a heap at the bottom. That served it right, but I wasn’t going to hang around to see if it was dead. For all I knew it would start breathing fire on me or blow itself up as a defense mechanism. Instead I started moving again, at a faster pace this time, on the lookout for any more gross tripods.

~~~

Wandering the forest for the rest of the day I concluded that if this world were an RPG this would be the starter area. Most of the creatures I came across were herbivores that fled as soon as I got near. The tripod was one of a number of more aggressive ‘monsters’ that I’d encountered, but all of them were tragically frail.

A few times carnivorous plants tried to eat me, but their vines and traps tore apart like paper. I was pretty surprised when one of the plants really did spit fire at me, but it wasn’t that hot; with my tough skin it didn’t even burn me.

There were giant insects to deal with too, like giant mosquito creatures with bladed legs which tried to swarm me a few times, spitting stinging gunk at my eyes. Thankfully the attack was easy to avoid once I knew it was coming, and the bugs splattered with a single slap each. The nasty crushed bits and spilt gunk still stained my skin and made my hair a horrible mess, however, so they were definitely one of the most annoying enemies in the forest.

The scariest moment, aside from that initial tripod attack, was when I tried to go over to a pond and wash myself off. It turned out that the water was actually a slime. As I leant over the surface it turned into tentacles and dragged me in. With my current body I’d felt a whole new sense of fear at that, but thankfully the monster was only interested in eating me.

It was hard to move in there, but that was nothing compared to ‘level 10’. I found a thick mass at the middle of the ooze and crushed it, which seemed to turn the slime back into ordinary water. When I tried drinking it the taste was bad, saline and bitter, but it was the only water source I’d seen so far so I made myself fill up.

Thanks to that encounter I also got to clean myself up a little, and check out my reflection in the pool. I had blond hair that reached down past my shoulders and what I’d call a ‘cute’ look, with delicate features that gave only a vague hint of the old me. I wasn’t exactly objective, but couldn’t I have been a model if I looked like this on Earth? It reaffirmed that I definitely needed to get some clothes before making contact with the people of this world.

In the end I didn’t find any signs of civilization, or anywhere decent to sleep that night, so I climbed one of the evil-rambutan trees and used a few fresh branches to make a blanket of leaves. The monsters in the forest seemed to avoid these trees, so it was the safest option I had.

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The jagged edges of the leaves were tickly and it wasn’t exactly a comfortable place to sleep, but after gods-knew how long I’d spent in Myr’s hell it was actually quite relaxing. I soon fell into a deep sleep.

~~~

Morning came with a renewed chorus of forest sounds, but I stayed in ‘bed’ for a while instead of getting up. It was nice and warm under the leaves and I was determined to enjoy my first lie-in in a very long time.

As I lay still a small bird flew over and perched on a branch near me to sing. It was the first creature I’d seen that didn’t seem scared of the strange evil-rambutan trees. It was also the first creature I’d gotten close to that looked mostly normal – it had a stylish gold plume on its head like a mohawk, but aside from that it could have been a regular sparrow. Listening to its song however, I quickly realized it was anything but.

At first it had sounded just like any birdsong, but as I listened more closely I realized that I could make out what seemed like words in the tweeting. Not English, but still a language I could understand. “Morning! Morning!” Twittered the little bird.

“Morning is here! I love morning!” it sang happily. The sounds weren’t actual words of course, but somehow I could tell that was what they meant… approximately at least.

“There’s a strange smell here!” it went on.

“Well excuse me, it’s not like there’s a shower in the forest,” I muttered. The bird’s head snapped around to look at me.

“A monster! A strange monster in the tree!” It chirped. “It’s ugly and smells bad!”

“Ugh, come on, you’re no prettier than me,” I shot back, sitting up. The bird ruffled its feathers and hopped back as if it was afraid I’d attack.

“You’re ugly, I’m pretty!” the bird replied smugly. Did it understand me too?! If so… well maybe people in this world were all avian creatures? Better not get off on the wrong foot.

“Yeah, you’re uh, pretty for a bird, definitely,” I replied, vaguely aware that I didn’t seem to be speaking English either. If anything I was making an approximation of bird noises. It felt silly but then I was trying to talk to a songbird after all. “Uh, nice to meet you anyway, do you know where we are?”

“Tree.”

Real helpful… that’s what I get for expecting abstract thought from a bird-brain.

“Do you know where the tree is?” I asked hopefully.

“Forest.”

Okay, I walked right into that one.

“Does this forest have a name?” I queried, but the bird cocked its head at me rather than answering. I tried again; “What do you call this forest?”

“…”

“Do you know where this forest is?”

“…here?” the bird sounded uncertain this time.

“Yeah, this forest here, where is this forest?” I asked, nodding.

“Forest is here,” the bird said, nodding its head back at me with a playful chirp.

“Ughhh… please tell me you’re not the only sentient life in this world,” I groaned.

“I’m hungry!” the little bird chirruped, taking wing once more and abandoning the conversation.

The little bird wasn’t much of a conversation partner, but it did at least give me confidence that I’d be able to talk to any smarter creatures I ran into. I still had no idea if there was anything smarter than a bird out there, but I was holding out hope for human-level intelligent creatures. Ones that at least had the same number of arms and legs as me.

~~~

Exploring the forest that morning I didn’t run into any more chatty birds or other friendly creatures, but I did I spend an hour or so trying to twist and tie the tree branches into some sort of shirt - something that would at least cover me up a bit.

Unfortunately it proved impossible for me. I’d seen people making things out of branches and bits of bark on the internet, but I’d never paid enough attention to memorize the details. When I bent branches the wood splintered and broke. When I tried to lash twigs together with bark they just fell apart.

Even if I was without clothes, I at least had the tasty evil-rambutans to fill my stomach. They were plentiful in the forest, so I took a few extras with me to eat as I walked. Heading down though the hills I made for the flatter lands I could see in the distance, to what I was imagining as the North based on the position of the sun. There was no reason to think the sun in this world moved the same as that of Earth, but it helped me keep a sense of direction.

It was late that day, as the sun was starting to set, that I finally came upon signs of intelligent life. That bird didn’t count.

Coming to the top of a hill I looked out across the lush valley. On the opposite slopes I saw a wooden palisade topped with a slanted roof.

It was crude but sturdy, and wisps of smoke rose from within the walls. I could even make out humanoid figures patrolling at the tops of the wall. My eyesight was pretty impressive even if I said so myself. If the angle wasn’t wrong I could probably have even seen the faces of the patrolling guards.

My first impulse was to run over waving my arms and possibly crying just a little bit in relief, but I decided to be cautious and try to scope the place out before I let them see me.

It turned out that I was very glad I did, as on approaching closer I realized that the guards weren’t human at all – they had humanoid upper bodies, but their faces were snakelike with long fangs. What I thought were cloth head coverings were in fact cobra-like organic hoods, and the ‘scale mail’ I thought they were wearing was just, well, scales.

The snake-people didn’t exactly look friendly but what really decided the matter for me was when I saw a group slithering back to the fort with some sort of prey strung up on a pole between two hunters’ shoulders – a humanoid figure, motionless, tied at the wrists and ankles.

I thought about trying to help the poor bastard, even if the snake-people looked pretty powerful, but I had no idea if the person on the pole was even still alive – or if they were any friendlier than the snake-people – so instead I just crept away as quietly as I could and tried to put as much distance as possible between the fort and I.

I jogged though the night after that, too uneasy to stop for sleep in the vicinity of the fort. It didn’t feel great skipping sleeping but I figured I’d be fine after how long I went in hell without a single wink. In the end I skipped sleep the following night as well, rather than linger in range of any hunting parties. I didn’t feel like I was impaired the day after that, just a little tired. Back on Earth I’d have been dead on my feet by that point.

That day too I kept walking, looking for any signs that I was going in the right direction, but once again there was nothing but trees, the odd animal that fled, and hostile pests. In the end I made ‘camp’ for the night, creating another simple bed in an evil-rambutan tree on the edge of a rocky clearing. I tried not to worry about the possibility of snakes coming to eat me in the night. Hopefully I’d find some sign of civilization soon, even if it was just so that I could have a nice soft bed for a night.

~~~

When I awoke the next day it was late morning judging by the feel of the air – I got the sense that the day had already gotten started a while ago and I’d overslept. I suppose it was reasonable, given my two nights of skipped rest. At first I thought I’d woken up because I was hungry, but then I heard something in the distance.

At first I couldn’t place the sound, but straining my ears I made out a distant metallic clank, then another, the sounds resolving into the footsteps of heavy metal boots. I stayed quiet in the tree, listening as the noises gradually approached. It sounded like there were several people. Soon I spotted humanoid figures emerging into the clearing below.

Arms! Legs! No tails or scales! And best of all no tentacles or proboscises! I wanted to cheer, but remembering the snake-people I kept quiet – better to watch them for a bit before I tried saying hello. I still really wanted to find some sort of clothes too. It would be totally mortifying to have to walk out naked in front of a group like that.

Watching from the canopy I saw that it was a party of four, all clad in heavy armor. They were wearing what I’d tentatively call full-plate, the metal dull and unpolished grey, with boots which sounded like they must have metal soles from all the clanking. Each had a helm with a simple cage extending out around the face like that of a baseball helmet. Through the cages I could see skin. Human skin!

It was a little worrying that they appeared to be walking straight out of the middle ages, but at least they were people – and clearly at least somewhat intelligent ones given their attire and equipment. Each was carrying a leather backpack and a number of weapons.

One member of the group was particularly short and heavily built, with a bushy ochre beard that spilled out under the bottom of his helmet – could that be a dwarf? There were two others whose faces I couldn’t see enough of to be sure, one with pale skin and one dark, but the light-skinned woman at the front definitely looked human. She had plaited black hair and an elegant face that wore a serious expression as she walked.

The group certainly looked like people I could talk to, but with how heavily armed they were I wasn’t sure it was a good idea. The provisional dwarf carried what looked like a crossbow while the others had an axe, a bow, and in the case of the leading woman an ornate wooden staff and a metal long sword. I vaguely remembered reading somewhere that long swords were a sign of wealth in the past on Earth, but who knew if that was true here.

What were they doing in the forest geared up for battle like that? It wasn’t like this was an especially dangerous place. And if they weren’t armed for protection did that mean that they were the dangerous ones?

Listening carefully I could hear them talking as they moved. The taller, dark-skinned man spoke first, with a rather plain voice. “How far to the ruin now Gar?” I could tell he wasn’t speaking English but the meaning was still clear. At least my ‘training’ was good for something.

The provisional dwarf replied with a voice that reminded me a countryside farmer, with a low, gravelly tone. “About three hours now thank the gods, this armor’s heavy. Dunno how slight folks like you bear it. Gimme a minute ter adjust it again. Rented armor never fits right.”

The woman at the front gave a nod and the group came to a stop not far from the tree I was hiding in. The provisional dwarf started to fiddle with the straps and buckles of his suit of armor. The others sat on the rocks and pulled out water skins and a few dried fruits to eat.

“You wouldn’t be complaining about wearing armor if you’d ever stepped on needlegrass without it,” the woman who seemed to be the leader said with a mirthless laugh. “It shreds even leather boots. I wouldn’t have brought you with us in the first place if you hadn’t insisted.”

“Yeh yeh, human, just tell you where the ruin is and you’ll bring back all the treasures – and o’ course you’d share it all with me too, right? Not a gemstone held back? Bloody adventurers, I ain’t daft. Besides this is a dwarven ruin so you’ll need a dwarf t’ get you in and out safe.”

“You know, dwarf, these bloody adventurers could be all that’s standing between you and a swarm of razorflies if we’re unlucky,” piped up the fourth, youthful-sounding figure. If I had to guess I’d say he was in his late teens. “So quit the bellyaching already!”

“Enough,” the woman spoke flatly. “Marcus, we have a quest to fulfill, no matter how belligerent Gar gets.” She turned to the dwarf. “Gar, you’re in the middle of the Bloodsucking Forest. Everything here can kill you, even the trees – so try having some faith in us, we’re in this together.”

“Yes Lyanna,” the boy replied, sounding a little sullen. The dwarf gave a grunt and a nod. Were these people alright? This forest was like a park and yet they were acting as if it was a deathtrap. Sure the pests were annoying, but if a total novice like me could survive them barehanded and unarmored this group should have nothing to worry about.

As for what they were doing here, it sounded like they were stealing from an abandoned tomb or something. Given the businesslike attitudes maybe it was more like exploring an abandoned ruin. Regardless they weren’t heading towards civilization but away from it, which left me wondering if I should try to quietly follow them, or just set out on my own.

Unfortunately the choice wasn’t mine.

As the dwarf finished adjusting his armor and the group was preparing to set off again Lyanna said something about ‘another search’ and recited some sort of prayer. As she spoke a cloudy stone set into the tip of her staff shone with a green light. I got a sense that some sort of energy was coming from the gem, and a moment later I felt a faint sensation of it washing over me. There was a tremor almost like a bubble popping against my skin as it tried to pass, and the woman gave a gasp. “We’re not alone,” she hissed to the others.

Hands immediately went to weapons. Lyanna pointed up at my hiding place as she drew her sword.

Panicking, I wondered if I’d been hit with some sort of magic. No-one told me that people in this world could cast magic spells, but it certainly seemed Lyanna had!

The adventurers backed away from my tree, the archer nocking an arrow, the dwarf raising his crossbow.

“Whatever it is, it’s not human or demi-human,” Lyanna said quietly to the others. “There, look, it’s trying to hide under those branches!”

Talk about rude. I don’t know what else I’d be other than human. But there was no time to argue about my status – they’d seen me and they were turning hostile. Before I could react Lyanna waved a hand and the archer loosed a shot right at me.

I flinched, but it seemed the arrow didn’t have much force behind it; the tip shot didn’t break the skin. My shin still hurt where it hit me however, and the archer was readying another, this time chanting another of those spell by the sound of it. I could see blue light gathering around the arrowhead. I didn’t want to find out what that might do to me if it hit.

Lyanna too was chanting, strange jagged lights crackling from the head of her staff. They weren’t speaking the same language they had used for conversation, but if I listened I could still understand the words just as clearly. “God of Thunder,” she said, “Punish my foe and strike them true-”

I’d heard enough. Embarrassing or not I wasn’t about to sit around and get hit with lightning bolts. Those things hurt! The magical variety was probably a whole lot worse too.

I stood up in the tree, letting the branches covering me fall and raising my arms. “Please stop!” I called down hoping they’d understand me. “I’m human! I’m lost in the forest!”

Marcus gave a gross wolf whistle that made my skin crawl as he saw me through the leaves, but Lyanna didn’t appear to be stopping her spell.

The dark-skinned older man called out even as he kept his bow trained on me. “No human would be walking around the Bloodsucking Forest without armor – never mind weapons!”

I got the impression he was just buying time for Lyanna’s spell.

“This one is! I’m lost and I don’t know how I got here!” It was mostly true when you thought about it. I didn’t even know where here was until a moment ago and I certainly had no idea how Myr transported me to this world.

“She’s mad, Dolm” Marcus suggested, still holding up his axe.

“Arrows don’t just bounce off humans either!” The archer Dolm replied, his arrow still trained on me. “It must be a disguise. We should capture her and take her back to the guild.”

Lyanna meanwhile, seemed to have finished chanting. For a moment I thought nothing was going to happen but then she spoke the final word. “Lightning!”

Without waiting to see what sort of attack came out I dived from the tree.

A white-hot lightning bolt leapt out from her staff to blast the treetop apart.

Electricity crackled on my skin as I tumbled to the ground, the boom followed by splintering and the crackle of flames where it set the wood alight.

“Please stop that, it’s dangerous!” I pleaded. “I’m just a lost human girl! I don’t want to fight you!”

“If that were true you’d be dead right now,” replied Lyanna with a grim smile.

“Or cut to bits on the grass,” Dolm added.

Another bolt of lightning leapt from Lyanna’s staff as Dolm loosed his arrow. I dove behind the trunk of the unlucky tree I’d slept in as a second thunderclap resounded in the forest. What really shocked me was the arrow bursting through the tree trunk and out the other side, cutting a painful gash in my cheek as it passed me. What kind of power was in that shot?!

The tree, burning, splintered, and with holes in the trunk from both lightning and arrow, groaned as it toppled over, falling with a boom that shook the ground. I was about to take off running when I heard a familiar buzzing sound, like a swarm of riled up wasps but far bigger.

Flying up over the treetops were more of the mosquito-like bugs that had harassed me before, dozens of them swarming into the sky and heading straight for the small clearing we were fighting in. With the smoke starting to rise from the burning tree they couldn’t miss us.

Lyanna grimaced. “Just our luck, the noise disturbed a razorfly nest! We’re retreating, forget the girl!” As she spoke the party grouped up and started to run, Gar dropping his crossbow in panic. Even as they were making for the other side of the clearing the swarm was already descending on us.

Lyanna unleashed lightning at the lead bugs, frying five or six to cinders. Dolm’s arrows tore the wings of three more, sending them crashing to the ground one by one, but the rest poured on clicking their bladed limbs together menacingly. A moment later and they were in melee, Lyanna’s staff and Dolm’s bow forgotten as the quartet struggled with the giant insects and ran for the cover of the trees, shielding their eyes from the spit attacks.

They seemed more than capable of taking care of themselves and as likely to shoot me as thank me if I tried to get involved, so rather than follow them I swatted down the bugs that came after me and headed in the opposite direction. By the time I’d shaken off the swarm I’d totally lost track of Lyanna and her party.

Remembering everything had happened… all of them catching me eavesdropping… seeing me totally naked… getting into a fight that ended with them being attacked… I was almost glad that we’d gotten separated.

It seemed safe to say that my first contact with humans had not gone well.