Chapter Text
“I'm sorry, I do love you. But you have to know this can never work out.”
“Please we can make this work, just give me some time!”
“I’m leaving. It will be better for both of us if I just go.”
“I’ll find a way! I swear to you I’ll find a way. Even if I must fight fate itself I will make sure we can be together Kiara! Just wait for me.”
As the girl awakens from the strange dream she faces a pounding headache, as though her skull was about to burst. She closes her eyes and tries to marshal her thoughts. Her name is Kiara. She is… She used to… She is from… No matter what she tries she cannot draw any details forth from her mind aside from her name. What happened to her? At least the headache seemed to have receded a little, maybe now she could tolerate paying more mind to her surroundings.
She carefully cracks open her eyes and is briefly disorientated by the sudden return of sight. She carefully sits up and sweeps her gaze over her environment to take it all in. She sat in the centre of what was once a glade, now scorched beyond recognition, all that remained was ash. At the edge of the glade was a truly grand forest spreading out in all directions. The trees reached up to the heavens and Kiara had to crane her head skyward just to see the canopy. Now looking upward Kiara could also see the sky, it was dreary and overcast with only a faint glow behind a path of clouds showing the sun's position, the sun seemed to be near its zenith. So it was close to noon, but she would have to wait to figure out on which side of the divide they sat on.
As she stumbled her way up to her feet she took a moment to observe herself as best she could. She was clothed in a simple set of leather clothes along with a travelling cloak. Her hair was long and when she pulled it before her face she could see it was orange, with tones of cyan blended in. What a strange and exotic colour, was it natural? As she feels about her face she makes her strangest discovery yet, behind her ears was feathers. Not threaded in or attached as earrings but genuinely growing in from behind her ears to hang forth.
Any musings about the strangeness of her findings was cut short however as she realises something that sends shivers down her spine, since waking up in this clearing in the woods the only noises she has heard was the blowing of leaves in the wind and her own movements. Otherwise it had been eerily silent. Kiara tried to steady her breathing and began flicking her head in different directions trying to keep her eyes on the treeline as she tried to shake the feeling she was being watched.
Unfortunately for her Kiara finds her instincts proven correct. A loud growl is all the warning Kiara receives before she turns to see a giant wolf bounding at her from the tree line. Without A second thought Kiara sprints towards the edge of the glade as swiftly as her feet would carry her, Thankfully the leather boots she was wearing proved to have a solid grip as she quickly burst into the thick forest, scrambling over roots and ducking through foliage as she used the trees to block any direct line of attack from the wolf.
Sadly even with her superior agility the beast was simply too fast, its sheer muscle mass giving it immense speed albeit hampered by its lack of manoeuvrability. She could hear the beast only a few strides behind her. She veers left suddenly as she passes a tree forcing the wolf to stagger to a stop to reorient itself before resuming the chase buying her some precious time.
As she passes deeper and deeper into the dark forest she spots a small glint of light amongst the darkness. With little other options as given her pursuer was closing further so she decided to make a break for it. As she closes she realises what it is she is running towards. A skeleton, picked absolutely clean with a sword set loosely in its long rotted hands. Seeing her opportunity Kiara dives for the weapon, ripping it from the hands of the corpse and quickly getting to her feet as she turns to face her pursuer.
And not a moment too soon as she turns to see the freakishly large canine leaping at her. Reflexively she raised her right arm to shield herself only to feel the beast fangs sink into it and she collapsed to the ground barrelled over by its sheer weight and momentum. She felt a searing lance of pain as the wolf tried to shake its head back and forth while her arm was still caught in the grip of its jaws, with pain fogging her judgement and in a terrible situation Kiara could not muster up the presence of mind for conscious thought, instead she acted instinctively.
She hears a meaty thud and the wolf's jaws slacken releasing her arm. She looks down at the beast's chest to find she had plunged the blade straight into its throat. By the time she pulled the blade free and staggered to her feet the last life had drained away from its eyes. Now free from the threat Kiara takes a moment to look at her arm.
Thankfully the wound was not nearly as severe as it initially felt. The fangs had failed to sink in deep leaving a lot of surface level damage and leaving a lot of blood all over her arm but the bleeding had already slowed greatly.
Still it would be foolish to leave it untreated in an environment like this. But with neither the expertise or supplies necessary she was going to have to somehow find someone with medical knowledge in this seemingly endless forest as even if she was in no imminent danger of bleeding out there was still a real risk of the wound being infected. After all, who knows what that mad mutt could have been carrying.
She spares one last look at the now dead creature before being taken aback. In her panic she had fled without much regard to the beast's size beyond that it was huge but now that she had observed closer she couldn’t help but be shocked. The thing was near the size of a horse! Memories missing or no she was pretty sure that a wolf is not meant to be that big. She has to hope that it will be the only uncommonly sized wildlife she encounters on this journey. She quickly wipes the blood on her new sword on its hide to clean it before stowing the blade in the loop of her belt.
Still, for now she needs to find some kind of civilization to get this wound treated.
In the absence of any other idea she picks a direction and walks.