I opened sensitive eyes to a blackness painted with smatterings of tiny, white dots. A single, particularly large dot peered out, half-obscured by… structures. Almost immediately, I recognized the lights as the stars and the moon.
This information seemed to have been embedded into my very being, along with the knowledge that the structures about me were large trees with expansive branches seemingly reaching upwards and towards the black sky.
I laid upon thick grasses and weeds that sprouted from frozen soil. As my back was bare, it should have been unpleasantly cold. Yet it was not. I knew that this ice certainly was cold, and it should have been beyond the tolerance of a human body to bear it.
Was I human?
My muscles would have creaked if they could. Then suddenly, an arm swung upwards in one uncontrolled movement, so violent that I nearly tossed myself over and onto my underside.
The dim light illuminated from the sky peeked through my fingers. I had a very human-like hand, along with a slender and very human-like arm.
From what I could see, I certainly appeared human. Yet something – that I had yet to pinpoint – felt off. There I laid for several moments, as I attempted to recall.
I recalled nothing. Nothing of my name, nor my life, nor the circumstances that brought me here. My mind, it functioned, but it was as if it were simply an empty template of what a human mind would be.
Violently, my upper body jerked upwards in an attempt to sit myself upright, shocking me as I folded into a neat half. I had little to no bodily control, it seemed. At least, my body was limber. In my second attempt, slowly, I lifted my torso then folded in my legs, into a more relaxed sitting position.
Slowly, I turned my head, allowing my eyes to flit about and take in my surroundings. I knew it should have been dark. And quiet. But. I saw with such clarity. The hum of insects and the slightest rustles of the nocturnal creatures easily reached my ears.
My hands, slowly – I was getting better at movement – reached towards my head. My fingers touched my cheeks and traced backwards to feel for.. very human-like ears. They then traced forwards again to feel for an outline of seemingly human-like eyes. I could check neither for their color nor the pupils however.
When tilted my head downwards, black, black hair cascaded with it. Incredibly long and–
No. There was no color to it. Simply a complete absence of it. Nothing escaped through its veil.
I ran my fingers through the ends.
It did not feel quite like hair. The strands did not quite separate like human hair would. It merely shifted and bunched into something that resembled hair from a distance. And somehow it seemed to float, as if gravity were merely a suggestion. As I turned my head, the “strands” moved as if underwater.
And my skin.
I lifted my arm. It was white, and not as in a pale human color. It was sheer white, as well as very subtly translucent. I was moving my limbs this way and that to further examine them, when suddenly, an itch manifested itself in a corner of my mind.
I scratched it.
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RACE Fleeting Spirit LEVEL 1
HP 57 / 60 MP 20 / 20
CON 3 DEF 1 AGI 7 STR 2 INT 3 WIS 2
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As I focused on that itch, information inserted itself into my mind. Then, on dismissal of that focus, it dispersed once again. There was little time to ponder the exact meaning of this information or the mechanic that brought it to me, because just then, a much louder rustle pulled at my attention.
Hard, sudden impact. Then, the most unpleasant sensation raked itself across my back.
>> DAMAGE TAKEN
>> HP [ - 32 ]
>> HP: 25 / 60
Whatever struck me must have misjudged the force necessary to knock me over, excessively so, because it tumbled forward with me.
Once my body settled, now in a splayed position against the cold, cold ground, fear drove me to attempt to stand. And although unbalanced, I succeeded.
>> NEW SKILL
>> Physical Prowess ( Lv. 1 )
My unused vocal cords could only produce a hoarse “ah, ah” sound, at the severe agony originating from my back.
I did not have to look far to learn what struck me. A large feline creature, having fully recovered from miscalculated pounce, stood several meters away. And although I did not know exactly what it was, it was clear to me that I was in immediate danger.
Time seemed to slow as its body shifted, and I saw clearly the transfer of weight onto its back legs. Intuitively, I knew that if I took another hit like that first one, it would be over for me.
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>> STAT GAIN
>> INT [ + 1 ]
>> INT: 4
I shifted my weight as well and very clumsily kicked off from the ground. The action threw me sideways, just as the creature lunged into the space I’d occupied a split second before.
Within that split second, strangely, my eyes caught onto the very black substance that coated the claws of its front paws and the tiny wisps of smoke that wafted upwards from it.
My body crashed into thick foliage, which further dug into my wound – so very painfully so.
>> DAMAGE TAKEN
>> HP [ - 4 ]
>> HP: 21 / 60
The feline did not land as inelegantly as I did, and by the time my head snapped in its general direction, my sight locked onto yellow eyes that drew rapidly close.
I felt fear. I could do nothing. Then – not that it mattered anymore – I had the sense I’d felt this before. Perhaps in a previous lifetime.
Instinctively, I threw my arm out to shield myself. A useless action. I did not close my eyes when large jaws closed around it. And tore.
>> DAMAGE TAKEN
>> HP [ - 12 ]
>> HP: 9 / 60
“Ah, ah.”
My voice could not properly convey the severity of my pain. Internally, I cursed the time-slowed perception I had. I did not want to see – the skin, the muscle, the tendons, the ligaments, the splintering of bone – yet I could not look away.
And the blood. It was so… black. It held the same sort of lack of color that my hair did. I watched as it soaked into the maw of my killer, into its wet nose, its white fur, and it smoked.
A screech rang into my ears. The creature released my mangled limb.
I flinched, and the hand of my other arm found its way to cover one of my ears. I laid there, paralyzed by the noise and the pain.
It was thrashing itself against the trees before me, the creature. Violently, it flung its head about in such a way that I thought it might break its own neck.
The screech continued to increase in volume into horrific screams. The feline laid now on the ground, smoke still rising, from its claws, its face, and its now convulsing form created patterns of white trails in the air.
>> DAMAGE TAKEN
>> HP [ - 1 ]
>> HP: 8 / 60
Dark fluid flowed liberally from my wound, onto the forest floor, and finally, I noticed.
Expanding out from where my blood made contact with the ground were rapidly decomposing plants – grass and weeds browning, insects that ceased writhing, tiny flowers wilting.
I focused once more on my would-be killer, once its screams grew weaker.
The area around its mouth incited rising bile in my throat. Its tongue was blackened, teeth degraded. Once-healthy white fur fell out in tufts, the skin underneath dry and gray. Those clear, predatory eyes dulled. Periodic shrieks devolved into quiet cries.
And then there was silence.
>> DEFEATED Deadwood Tigress [ Lv. 4 ]
>> LEVEL GAIN
>> Level [ + 2 ]
>> VITAL GAIN
>> HP [ + 30 ]
>> MP [ + 10 ]
>> STAT GAIN
>> All Stats [ + 2 ]
>> SKILL GAIN
>> Physical Prowess [ + 2 ]
On an empty stomach, I could do nothing but retch. Tears stung my eyes, as I finally had the space to process the pain and the cold that assaulted my body. In one jerking motion, I twisted my torso to lay on my side, before carefully, with my uninjured arm, I pulled myself to my knees.
The ground beneath me was completely devoid of life. Gray, black, and still. The blood from my ravaged arm would have killed some more, if there had been anything left alive.
I nearly dropped back onto my stomach when the hunger hit me. A impenetrable fog infiltrated all my senses, and my mind lost grasp of all thought.
I reeled from the loss of my mental facilities.
Then, only one object burst into clarity. It lay there, dead before me.
With shaking limbs, I crawled towards the object that would alleviate this fog. Even my mangled limb ceased to bother me, hyper-fixated as I was on my hunger.
The moment my fingers touched white fur, I began to eat.
The way the tigress grayed, then blackened, then decomposed was indescribable. Physically, my fingers did nothing but touch. However, it was my very being – the only part of me that existed in that void – that grasped and ate.
By the time I finished my meal, the arm that held on by a thread of tendon to my body and the bone-deep rakes across my back… Both had knit themselves back together.
With burning and blurred eyes, I took in the ugly scarring on my arm. It was mutilated once in function, now only in appearance.
I was no longer cold or injured or hungry, but I knew nothing. I knew not who I was, where I was, or what I was. I sat there, with death spread all about me. My blood still dripped, and the earth continued to blacken within a radius underneath.
Tears rolled down my cheeks. My shoulders shook. Unable to properly vocalize my anguish, I let out very quiet “ah, ah” sounds until exhaustion forced sleep onto me.
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RACE Fleeting Spirit LEVEL 3
HP 90 / 90 MP 30 / 30
CON 5 DEF 3 AGI 9 STR 4 INT 5 WIS 4
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ATTRIBUTES Keen | Toxic
SKILLS Physical Prowess ( Lv. 3 )
TITLES The First Of Its Kind