The fresh air was amazing up here. I'd never smelled anything like it before. One thing is for sure, and that is that this forest was massive. There were countless types of plants and trees, all varying in colors and size. Some trees were taller than four story buildings, while others looked like little bonsai trees. The bark of some of them felt as hard as metal. The various plants and shrubs were amazing too. The flowers on one smelled like I walked into a perfume shop, and each flower seemed to have a different scent. Another bush had a completely different smell altogether. It smelled like a pizza shop, and the stems oozed a dark yellow substance. Did I love it? Did I hate it? Who knows. All I know is that it attracted what looked like bumble bees the size of softballs.

  We'd been walking for what felt like hours with no sign of finding a town. I don't know how long it had actually been, but one of the moons already had made a lap across the sky which made time seem extremely distorted here. I thought I made the big brain choice by following the mountain downhill and in the direction the sun rose, but so far, there were no signs of any real progress.

  On top of that, walking itself felt completely alien to me. My entire balance was different. The redistribution of mass to my chest and back side really threw me off. My boobs were starting to get uncomfortable because of the rubbing from my shirt. Oh, not to mention the long black hair that kept falling down and tickling my neck or obscuring my vision.

  "Geeze, I don't know how girls deal with having hair like this!" I whined.

  I finally couldn't take it any more and picked up a little twig off the ground. I had no idea what I was doing, so I just balled all my hair into a little knot on top of my head before shoving the stick into it like I'd seen some girls do on campus. Some strands fell out here and there, but for the most part the rest of it stayed up there.

  "Whatever, that'll do."

  Rose had just been observing me the entire time, laughing playfully at me when I stumbled or tripped due to my new weight distribution. I wanted to be offended, but I just couldn't manage to get upset at this little girl who had been keeping me company, and somehow managed to completely heal all of my wounds. I had no idea why she was being so friendly, but I was very thankful.

  "Say, Rose, now that I think about it...why did you bother helping me? I mean, I'm a complete stranger. You had no reason to go out of your way like that."

  The little fairy looked at me curiously before fluttering off my shoulder. I cupped my hands together in front of me, giving her a place to land. For a moment we just looked at each other. It seemed like she was observing something around me. After a moment more, she smiled and nodded before marching across my hand hugging my thumb. Despite her size, she was very warm. She just looked up at me again before letting out a little 'Teehee' and fluttering back into the air.

  "Well that did not answer my question at all..." I muttered, "Maybe you could show me how you healed me instead? I thought I was done for, how is it even possible to heal wounds like that?"

  She pondered for a second before brightening up and signaled me to wait for a second. I stopped walking as she flew off over to a bush covered with tiny little thorns. She snapped off a spike and flew back to me, then motioned for me to hold out my arm. I didn't like where this was going, but was quite certain I could trust her given what had already happened so far. As I figured, she made a little scratch in my arm with the thorn. I grimaced a little bit as a small trace of blood pooled where she cut. It stung for sure, but it wasn't unbearable. What she did next caught me by surprise.

  She hovered next to where the scratch was before extending out both of her hands. It sounded like she uttered a couple of foreign words and made a small gesture with her hands. The next thing I knew, a light green aura enveloped her hands, and little wafts of sparkles and energy radiated towards the wound. Almost in an instant the pain disappeared, and before my very eyes, the scratch shut closed.

  "That's amazing!" I exclaimed, "How'd you do that?!"

  Rose looked very pleased with herself. She beamed and put her hands on her tiny hips while standing real tall.

  "That's wild! Was that magic?" I asked.

  Rose just smiled and nodded.

  I found myself getting a little excited. If magic was real...maybe I could learn how to do it. If the magic in this world was anything like it was in anime...maybe I could even use it to change myself back to normal. Maybe I was some OP protagonist or something!

  "Rose, you've got to teach me how!"

  I knew that I should have been worrying about more pressing matters. I mean, I lost all my friends, I lost my family, I was lost and hungry, I already almost died, and...I was forced to trade my shift stick for two airbags! But hey, at least if this world had magic, I might be able to fix all this!

  Rose floated down and seemed to observe the air around me again. Seriously, what was she seeing? After a second she frowned and looked at me. She conjured a little ball of that green aura again and then pointed at me. Then, she dispelled the ball and made her arms into a little 'X' while shaking her head.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  I could tell what she meant, and I felt myself deflate a little.

  "Are you saying that I can't use magic at all?" I asked, willing myself to hold back the sting of tears in my eyes.

  Once again she shook her head, conjured another green sphere of aura, pointed to it, then to me, and then made an 'X' again.

  "I don't get it...are you saying I can't use magic...or maybe you mean I can't use green magic?"

  She nodded again.

  "Well that's a relief," I sighed, "Then maybe there is still a chance...are there other colors of magic then?"

  She smiled and gave me a little thumbs up.

  "Well why didn't you just say so first?" I teased, wiping the small tear that had formed away.

  I laughed for the first time since being here, and I had to admit, it was a cute laugh. It was shocking that something like that came out of me. Just then, a loud grumble brought me back to reality. At first I thought it was another monster, only to realize it came from my stomach.

  "Great..." I mumbled, "Just another problem to worry about."

  I quickly looked around to see if there was anything that might be safe to eat. Nothing immediately caught my attention.

  "We better keep going, Rose. It's starting to get dark again, and now I'm hungry."

  She nodded and got back on my shoulder. I walked for another couple hours, only stopping when I thought I heard movement or when Rose pulled me behind a tree as if she sensed something. There were lots of critters scurrying about, but none seemed confrontational yet. I'm sure there were many things out here that would enjoy having both of us as a little snack.

  The downhill trek was hard, and it was made even harder while travelling through areas with dense trees that blocked the light from the now rising moons. Our pace had slowed as I made every effort to avoid making excess noise. The last thing I needed was for another hungry creature to decide I'd be its next meal.

  My new breasts were now painfully uncomfortable because of all the rubbing. My pants pinched tightly around my waist, my feet hurt, it was getting colder, and the rumbles from my stomach were becoming more frequent. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't starting to get a little worried.

  Finally, we entered a small clearing in the forest. It was on a hill that overlooked the expanse of trees. As I scanned the treetops, I saw something that filled me with a rush of energy. About a mile down, the dense trees thinned out and stopped. It looked like I'd nearly reached the edge of the forest, but that's not the only thing that got me excited.

  There was a cluster of wooden structures--- houses that ran along side a narrow river. The glint of the moonlight reflected off a large body of water that connected farther down. In the windows of the houses, I noticed a faint glow of something. A flood of hope filled me.

  "Fire! Rose, I think we made it!" I whispered, barely able to contain my excitement.

  She did a little cheer on my shoulder, which had become her new perch. Excitedly, I hurried through the small field that we were in. I was about halfway across the field when I caught a glimpse of something darting into the sky on my right. At first I thought it might be the owl creature again, except that this time I could hear it flapping...loudly. I stopped very briefly as I strained my eyes to see what it was.

  In the pale moonlight, I could see that it had huge leathery wings that created a hypnotic thrum in the quiet night sky. Its fur was matted and grey in color, and its mouth hung open wide with gnarly looking teeth. It also had two long legs with hooked claws on the end. It resembled a bat...or a bat that got hit with a bat, only it was the size of a shopping cart. My body went on red alert just looking at this thing.

  "Oh for Shelly's sake!" I yelped as it made a beeline towards me.

  I'm sure it wasn't on its way to give me a hug. I turned and started running, but as it got closer I began to feel my head spin. I almost tripped as my head started to get foggy. The constant thrum of the creature's wings was causing me to lose focus. They must have had some sort of hypnotic effect. I nearly blacked out again, until I felt my focus return out of nowhere. The brain fog I'd started feeling dispersed.

  To my right I heard a quiet little chanting and saw a faint little glow as I regained my focus and started sprinting again. I looked over. It was Rose! She had her little hands held out and was concentrating on projecting a thin green aura over us both. She must have cast a protective spell or something.

  "Way to go, Rose!" I cheered.

  She just smiled and nodded at me while continuing her concentration. We were almost to the end of this clearing with only about maybe fifty more feet to go. The heavy flap of wings was right behind me. I could tell the bat creature was almost upon us. Suddenly, it let out a loud gut churning shriek that chilled me to my bones. It was loud, high pitched, and made my ears ring. I don't know what came over me, but out of nowhere I started feeling emotional. Feelings of hopelessness and despair washed over me as the scream echoed through the forest.

  Just as I reached the edge of the clearing, I felt a little thump on my shoulder as I strained to keep running. The light green aura that had surrounded me faded, and when I looked over, Rose had toppled over nearly falling off my shoulder.

  "Rose!" I yelled as I reached under to catch her before she fell off.

  I caught her in my hand, which caused me to trip as I tumbled just past the first couple trees. I landed hard on my shoulder causing me to cry out in pain. The tome I had kept tucked under my arm the entire time flew off to the wayside. Sadness flooded my mind.

  * No, no! Not like this! Why am I so useless?? If only I had taken some martial arts or something before coming here. Poor Rose is going to die here because of me! If only that dang Muganno had taught me how to use a simple spell or something! *

  The bat hurled past the trees, hunching over to lean on its wings as it landed. It let out a shrill hiss as it lumbered over to us, saliva dripping from its fangs. Tears filled my eyes as I stared at the vile creature before me. I glanced at Rose who was completely unconscious. She must have used all her energy trying to ward off the hypnosis.

  I couldn't just let Rose die here. After all, she'd helped me in my time of need. I had to at least save her. As I set her down to the side, with the last of my resolve pushed myself off the ground. Picking up the nearest branch I could find, I raised it up over my head and charged at the bat.

  "Leave us alone you dumb beast!" I cried.

  I only took a few steps before it unleashed another horrid scream. My strength failed me, dropping me to my knees. The screech seemed to suck the will power right out of my soul. Tears streamed down my face as I looked up at the creature one last time.

  * This is it. So much for all of Muganno's precious entertainment. I hope he's happy! *

  Its mouth quivered with dripping saliva as it leaned back and lunged.