I wake up with a startle, my eyes darting back and fro. That… is new. Not even in my youngest, most innocent of years did I have the ability to fall asleep within seconds of lying down. This has to be some magical skill of some sort, even if it was never mentioned on the screen. Of course, it could just have been a quirk of my new bod-,

Something makes me freeze in place. Some little sound, or maybe just the thought of seeing something makes me lie perfectly still, my eyes blinking and my non-existent heart pounding.

And for just a few seconds, I lie here, unsure of what the Hell is making me feel so… Afraid.

But there’s nothing. My frantic eyes scan the surroundings and find only a falling moon outside and a black hole further inside. There isn’t anything to be afraid of.

Ah… Heh. I’m really pathetic, aren’t I? Can’t even man up to face the-,

My eyes are again drawn to the depths of the hole.

The darkness…

It’s moving.

Red Fox(E+)

Stage: Juvenile Health: 50/50 State: Groggy, Suspicious

It’s a fox.

Reastically, I shouldn’t be afraid. Foxes don’t eat moss. Deer eat moss. Furthermore, the fox isn’t moving towards me specifically. It doesn’t seem to have noticed me at all.

And still, when you see a predatory animal the size of a house moving towards you, you really can’t help but freeze up.

In my heart, I want to do something. Anything.

Fight, damn it! It’s just a fox! Am I really hiding like a chicken from a creature whose main prey are mice and berries?

And still, my legs just won’t move.

Slowly, moving with sweeping strides, it passes mere inches by me. Exiting the hole, it glances around for a few seconds, sniffing the air before turning around again. Somehow, it looks like a zombie neighbour going out to find whether that sound was a burglar or a raccoon. But the sun should be rising anytime now, and since foxes are nocturnal it must have had some other purpose in mind.

Returning to the hole, it seems intent on heading back into the depths.

But then it stops, right by the entrance where I lie in hiding. I can hear the way it drags air into its nose, sniffing the air. It puts its snout to the ground, sniffing curiously around the entrance. I lie still. It’s nose swings past me and I breathe a sigh of relief, only to realize that it is returning right to me.

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

The large, black nose - around the size of a bed - is pressed into my small body. The fox’s green eyes, framed by graying fur, train on me. And all of a sudden I realize that I’m about the size of a small, delicate mouse.

-Gargh!

In a sudden fit of movement, I fly to my feet and swing one of my legs at the nose, hoping to make it back away to give me some time to hide again. But instead, the fox swiftly dodges by retreating its head. I stand there, looking up at it while it stands there, looking down at me with large, curious eyes.

A paw crashes into my side like a barrelling truck before I realize it and I fly across the clearing, bouncing a few times across the ground before finally settling down by a nearby tree. I can already feel how a large part of my body has been removed.

Mossling(F-) Lv.3/10

Stage: Juvenile Health: 3/5 State: Myccorhiza, Scared, Hurt

Yeah, thanks, real accurate assessment there of yo-,

Before I even have time to get to my feet, the fox stands above me.

Another paw brings me off the ground and into the air. I don’t have time to hit the ground before I’m battered into the air yet again.

Plaything to the whim of the fox, I fly through the air, feeling how every car-crash of a paw tears off just a little more of my body. After what seems like an eternity of being played with like a mouse by a cat, doomed to death as a distraction, I finally see out of my one good eye how the sun rises. The rays peek through the opened glade and hit the fox, which turns around, seemingly startled.

With it distracted, I fall to the ground. My body is in tatters and I can barely see. I’m pretty sure my right leg is gone. I can’t feel anything. Is this really how I die? Uselessly played with by some kid fox?

The fox glances back at me and I stare at it through my one good eye, trying telepathically to tell it to go burn in Hell.

I approaches me. Ah. So this is it, then? How useless. This all has to have been some setup. Whoever did this to me couldn’t possibly have expected me to survive.

It presses its nose into my dying body and gives one good sniff. It leans back out and looks me up and down before finally giving a snort and turning around, returning to the hole.

…

…-Yeah, just you leave, you damn-,

A shudder runs through my body and I spasm violently, feeling how my loosely connected tendrils of moss write in pain and agony. I wish I had a mouth so I could scream. Or a pair of arms to flail violently. Or some hands to grip the ground painfully.

Just… Anything. But I don’t have it.

So I lie here, still, in my endless suffering.

Mossling(F-) Lv.3/10

Stage: Juvenile Health: 1/5 State: Myccorhiza, Resigned, Dying

...Yeah. Alright. If that’s what you say.

Before me, the dawn rises, framed on all sides by the childish pines of spruce. The darkness retreats, replaced by a baby-blue and brilliant yellow and a gorgeous pink eating up the gently rowing clouds.

If this is to be my last sight, then I guess it could have been worse.

But as the rays of light settle on my broken body and the morning dew gently coalesces across my body, I don’t feel like I’m dying. No, rather, it feels as though I’m being rejuvenated. The dew, specifically, gives me the impression that I’ve been thirsty for days and only now have been able to quench it.

...I didn’t drink anything yesterday, did I?

I didn’t eat anything, either. But maybe eating is optional.

Mossling(F-) Lv.3/10

Stage: Juvenile Health: 2/5 State: Myccorhiza, Hopeful, Recovering

For once, it’s right. I do feel as though I’m getting better, albeit slowly.

My body is pulling itself together, regrowing lost parts… Hell, I even got my right leg back. In other words, as unlikely as it seems, I might just survive this. Somehow.

Right as I think that, I see movement to the side. Just on the edge of the clearing. But it isn’t a fox or a bear or anything big like that, it’s small. Like me.

It approaches.

Forestmouse(F+)

Stage: Adult Health: 16/16 State: Normal

A mouse. It’s a mouse.