It took me at least five steps this time to remember Red Fox Girl, her new official name. A wave of guilt washed over me at realizing I'd almost forgotten her again. I ran back to make another landmark. I stepped into the nearby woods to find some branches and ran face-first into a zombie. Startled, I fell back on my butt and tried to shuffle away, scrambling for a branch or rock, anything to defend myself. Then, I realized I was the only one making any noise and looked up to see I'd knocked it over, too. I stopped my awkward crawl and tried to stand up. It was just lying there. Once I'd managed to get to my feet, curiosity won out, and I took a half step forward to get a better look. At the crunch of my feet in the foliage, its head finally snapped in my direction. I squeaked, pointed, and yelled out, "[Sun Ray]!" An orange-white beam no wider than a quarter lanced out from just in front of my finger and hit the zombie's chest, who reacted less predictably than expected - by violently exploding into flames roaring at least ten feet into the air. I leapt back, gasping at the blaze, but it only lasted a moment. When it disappeared, there were only ashes left of the monster. Also, the ground and some of the nearby underbrush were on fire. Maybe I was still in California...? I quickly stomped out the flames as I heard a chime ring out.

* Experience is awarded for defeating a monster.

Huh. Well, I guessed this experience thing wasn’t such a big deal; there was no need to stress about having missed out on some earlier. After that, I started taking more caution and got back to work, slowly and quietly collecting a few downed branches. I made my way back to where the path met the road and laid out my marker and another message: "East to Civilization, I hope - Evie." There was no need to mention almost burning down the forest.

I got back on my way down the road. It was much broader, probably at least twenty feet across. I had no idea how it stayed in such pristine condition, but I was glad for it. This far out, I was starting to hear some bird song, and I noticed the clouds had broken up just enough that I was walking in a beam of evening sunlight. I kept up a good pace to get as far away as possible, but the night was creeping in faster than I'd like. After just an hour or maybe two, it was hard to tell without my phone, and it was already night. Even so, it was odd that it didn't seem too dark. There was more than enough starlight to see by, even though there was seemingly a bit of a storm system in the area. I guessed I just had very good luck. I needed to find a spot to rest for the night, and I didn't want to be on the ground, so I started looking for a sturdy tree near the road. Not many grew very large on the edges, but I found one after a few minutes.

Instead of walking across the soft ground and leaving tracks, I had the ridiculous idea that perhaps I should try to run and jump, catch a low branch, and just climb up. I'm not sure where it came from, but I felt like it was something I could do. I'm pretty sure this is not something I would have ever tried back home, but now it felt oddly right. I took a couple of deep breaths, "Come on me, we got this!" and charged at the tree. I leapt the most graceful leap I'd ever leapt and caught a branch at least 6 feet off the ground that was nice and strong looking. I didn’t account for it being too big around for my now smaller-than-expected hands, but my claws dug in and stuck, and I was able to swing my legs up and around the branch to climb up. Wait. Claws? I looked down at my hands, and sure enough, my fingertips had extended foxlike claws. They retracted back a moment later in front of my eyes. My Claws retracted and then were almost normal fingertips again. If that hadn't happened, I’d have never noticed they were claws instead of fingernails.

"Oh man, why is everything here so weird?" I mumbled to myself as I started climbing up, looking for a good spot to rest. I was a good twenty feet off of the ground when I decided to stop. I couldn't go any higher without the branches getting too small to support my weight. I was already kind of worried about the spot I was in when I realized I didn't really need to be so big. I was more than a little apprehensive to turn back into a fox, but I doubted I could get myself into too much trouble while sleeping. With a deep breath, I focused on my [Fox Spirit Form]. I started to change right as I remembered I was wearing a lot of clothes and accessories. I tried to stop, but once the transformation began, it didn't go in reverse. All of my clothing and equipment vanished. Like completely. I wasn’t a tiny fox with a tiny knife and little fox boots. I was just a fox. Nothing went tumbling out of the tree except my dignity at my moment of panic. I let out an embarrassingly cute sigh, and I curled up in the curve of two branches to process things. I'd been on alert for monsters all day, and I really didn't have time or mindset to just think.

Okay. I'm a fox again. That’s a thing I'd rather avoid as much as possible, but I guess it's pretty convenient right now. I'll be back in civilization soon, and I can figure out what happened and how I can get home. I'm going to be so late for school! I think. What if time moves differently here? I could be weeks late! Would they drop me? Ok. Calm down. I'm getting ahead of myself. I need to sort out the here and now. So far, there is no sign of civilization. I have no supplies, so I have to find some kind of food tomorrow besides rat, ugh. It was convenient that eating something small in my fox form kept me full most of the day, so that’s something to explore. Do I even call my other form my human form? It's not human. I'm not human…. I’m Not Human! Can I even go home like this? I've got fox ears and a tail! I'm literally weeb bait! I wonder if my face looks the same. I could always get internet famous, I guess? … I'm off-topic again. Ok. I need to survive long enough to go home and be a well-educated marine biologist weeb bait podcaster. To get there, I have to figure out how things work here. Somehow, I'm not home anymore. I'm not even human. I don’t want to think about that flash of memory on how I got here. I'd rather forget that entire night. I'm free now, and I need to stay that way. I have a class. I should figure out what that means. I have skills, and I don’t know what they mean either. They make me sound like a sky pirate. That part is pretty cool. I'm going to change my last name to Shakespeare in honor of the greatest sky pirate ever known…. Wait. Focus. Ok. Oh hey, Bird… and... Gotcha! Ha! Ok. I guess let's get this out of the way and look at my status sheet thing.

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Personal Status

Name: -

Race: Kitsune

Titles: Hero, Demon Slayer, Bane of the Unclean (Displayed: None)

Class: [Hero] Guardian of the Sky

Attributes:

Hit Points:160/160

Mana: 170/170

Stamina: 150/150

Strength: 9

Agility: 20

Dexterity: 18

Constitution: 10

Resilience: 10

Wisdom: 11

Intelligence: 15

Charisma: 15

Arcana: 11

Aurora: 0

Affinity: [Fire], [Lightning], [Nature], [Illusion]

Perks: [Mental Resistance], [Fast Healing], [Heroic Presence]

Traits: [Fire Immunity], [Dark Vision], [Fox Spirit Form], [Spiritual Senses], [Lightning Immunity], [Starlight], [Blessing of the Sky]

Skills: [Curse Resistance] 1, [Poison Resistance] 1, [Acrobatics] 1, [Arcane Mana Manipulation] 1, [Charm] 1, [Disguise] 1, [Insight] 3, [Sleight of Hand] 1, [Stealth] 2, [Airship Control] 1, [Airship Maintenance] 1, [Navigation] 1, [Proficiency: Longbow] 1, [Proficiency: Short bow] 1, [Proficiency: Saber] 1, [Proficiency: Knives] 1,[Proficiency: Spear] 1, [Proficiency: Glaive] 1

Spells: [Control Weather] 1, [Channel Lightning] 1, [Channel Wind] 1, [Sun Ray] 1

Attribute Points: 10

Skill Points: 5

Spell Points: 5

I read through my status, trying to make more sense out of it while I ate. My hit points and mana were much higher, I guess because of unlocking my class and all those attribute bumps I got. That made me feel much more secure in the whole not dying department. My name was still blank. Why was my name blank? In a flight of fancy, I focused on it, thinking "Evelyn Shakespeare," and immediately, the field filled in. "Oh dear. Sorry, Mom!" I was sure she'd forgive me. My stats seemed much higher than I remembered, actually. I was guessing the higher agility and dexterity were why I was able to climb the tree like a squirrel... Or fox, I guess? I had no idea if foxes climb trees, but based on my "jump into the tree like a crazy person" instinct, I was going to assume yes. I apparently had semi-retractable claws, after all. I understood what the words in my skills meant, but I was not entirely sure I understood what they all did.

They almost all had a "1" next to them, so I assumed that was my progress with the skill. I remembered how [Stealth] leveled up while I was sneaking past the zombies in Kingsgrove. [Insight] was already at level three, and I had no idea how that happened. My natural uh. Wisdom? It must be just where it started for my class. Or maybe my race? I didn’t really remember when I picked that up. It had been a very chaotic day. Two days now, I guessed. But I could use my knife and a spear if I found one – possibly for more than shaking it. Bows always looked neat on TV, and it seemed like a much better idea to stab monsters from as far away as possible. I had no idea what a glaive was, but it sounded menacing, so that was neat, too, I guessed.

I liked my skills that were all about not getting cursed and poisoned. Very helpful. And I had spells! I used real magic! Well, sort of. I had been holding that [Sun Ray] at the ready, twitching to zap the first monster that jumped out at me... And though I mostly did do precisely that, it was so quick that I didn't really even notice what happened. I would have to find somewhere safe to practice. The traits were also cool. I guessed I knew why I didn't burn myself stomping out the totally random and entirely not my fault wildfire. I recognized some of them from the notifications earlier and that was really helpful, others not so much. My fox form was [Spirit Fox Form], which seemed odd. I didn't feel exactly spiritual. I mean, I guessed I was a little disconnected from the world. Like these feathers everywhere, I wasn’t even sure how OH MY GOD, I'M EATING A BIRD! WHAT HAVE I DONE!?

That was enough of that. I needed some sleep, so I found a slightly cleaner spot and tried to do just that. I was exhausted from speed walking as vigilantly as possible all day, and I managed to fall asleep almost as soon as I put my mind to it.