Awakening, Part 3

In what felt like innumerable razors scraping her limbs, Rie tumbled through the stretching branches of the trees that made up the carpet of green she had seen from above. Bouncing off tree limb to tree, each impact knocked the breath out of her.

After what felt like ages of blows, she fell onto solid ground. The cool dirt felt nice against her pained body, as she gasped for breath. When the pain faded enough, she slowly sat upright, and took stock of her situation.

The trees were imposingly tall, stretching high enough that she had to crane her neck to see their tops. A haze of sunshine streamed through, illuminating the area, and the veritable sea of trees completely surrounded her. Patches of green, low bushes were interspersed throughout, with dark purple berries hanging off them. A layer of grass, wildflowers, and moss carpeted the ground. The smell of damp earth, leaves, and the cool air calmed her slightly. She began to take notice of the sounds, of sharp bird calls, the breeze through the branches, and distant barks and yelps of what sounded like dogs.

Raising a hand to rub her head, she encountered something soft and fluffy. Rubbing it, it tickled slightly, and she then put her other hand up to the side of her head to feel an ajacent fluffy something. Feeling out their shapes, she was reminded of that purple cat she saw at the crosswalk right before she died. Fearing the worst, she put a hand to her backside, and pulled foward a long, furry tail, with fur the same color as that cat.

"So it was true," she mumbled, feeling quite odd. Partly, she still felt as if she'd wake up in a hospital bed anytime now, but the pain had been very real. Rie couldn't remember anything about coma patients talking about feeling pain in their dreams, and this world felt as real as life had ever felt before she died. She felt a twinge of regret, too, as she thought about all the things that might not even be in this world. No convience stores, no modern medicine, no internet, nothing she was used to being able to rely on.

"And on top all this, I'm not even human anymore." Rie said, out loud to herself. The pain she felt when she tried to pull her own tail, was indeed real. She supposed she was a demihuman, as other fantasy stories called them.

Snapping her out of her thoughts, her stomach growled at her audibly.

Pouting a bit, she rose to her feet unsteadily, and resolved herself to search for food.