The River

Having been able to find a way to fall asleep, by curling up her tail and resting on it, Octavia wakes up to a brand new day.

Following her usual routine, with her new appendage she tries stretching it in a myriad of different ways, working out the kinks from the night's sleep.

"I think I'm getting the hang of this tail now. It almost feels like I've had it forever."

Heading to the table, she packs up all her stuff into the backpack and slings it over her shoulder. "Let's get this journey started. Off to the river, then the lamia village and then to the town. No turning back now."

Sorting out the makeshift belt, she slips the small knife onto the side of the backpack and attaches the machete to her belt. Just to be sure she doesn't befall the same fate as Marilyn, she practices drawing both weapons a few times to get a feel for the action.

Once done she heads to the door and turns back for one final look. The room looks a bit more distraught than when she first awoke here, with the floor covered in scratch marks, the chair destroyed, glass shards on the floor and a dirty shovel against the wall. With the machete she now has, taking a shovel just doesn't seem practical.

Its then that she notices the wolves still littering the floor.

"Well, if this is anything like a novel, then the meat and fur should sell quite well. But I don't know how to skin an animal. Not yet at least… What to do?"

Thinking about it for a while, the only options are to either take them with her or leave them to rot. While it could cause some problems bringing them with her, she will need the money when she reaches the town. Also, should trouble arise, in the form of more wild animal attacks, they could be good bait to get away from the situation.

Taking some sting from the backpack, she ties it around the legs of both wolves, and slings them over her shoulder.

"Ooff, heavy little monsters aren't you. Good thing I'm stronger now." While quite heavy, she is still able to move about with ease.

"Ok, time to go. Hopefully this will be the last time I see this place, but I don't think that will be the case."

Exiting the cabin, she heads to the back of the building and looks at the map.

"So, it should be straight, up to the village and before I reach it, I should hit the river."

Moving forward through the narrow path, into the clearing and past the grave, she continues heading straight into the forest.

.

Having travelled for close to a couple of hours, Octavia finally makes it to a small clearing, the centre of which houses the river she had been searching for.

"Finally, now time to get some water."

Making her way towards the river she spots a large assortment of wildlife drinking from it. Creatures that look similar to deer's, aside being dark red and having what look like tusks on their face, to squirrels, that thankfully look like they did on Earth, are all gathered along the river drinking at different spots.

"Well, looks like it should be safe to drink from."

Reaching the edge, she looks down and is able to get a good look at herself in her reflection.

"Well, my face looks the same as before. Must just be the snake tail that's new." where staring back at her was two green eyes, her cute button nose and expressive smile all on a youthful face, with the odd light splattering of freckles on her cheeks. Her ears of average size are covered by the long blond hair flowing down her back.

"Hold on." Bending down to look closer at her refection she comes to a startling discovery. "Does everything have a slight green tinge to it. I don't remember seeing anything like that when I first woke up in this world."

Looking down at her arms and running her fingers through her hair, her skin was definitely showing a green tint to it, while her blond hair, many of the strands were greener than they were blond.

"I'm not sure what to say about this. Is this where it will stop or am I just going to turn completely green."

Deciding that all she can do is put this revelation behind her, to wait and see what happens, she moves onto her important task.

Taking the waterskin out from the backpack, she dips down to fill it up, taking a few good swigs from it to sate her first, before topping it back up.

"Ahh, so refreshing. Now for the other problem. How do I get across?"

The river, while not incredibly wide, is still large enough to prove some difficulty in getting to the other side.

The hope of finding a random bridge is shot down as along the river only trees and animals can be seen.

Looking around, Octavia picks up a nice long stick and checks the depth of the river. Reaching out as far as she can, and pushing the stick down to the bed, the river manages to reach a good height on the stick. Looking at the water level on the stick it would just about reach her neck should she wade in.

"Not sure how well this body does in water, but this is as good a time as any to find out."

Reaching the edge, she starts to move into the river, using the stick to check for anything problematic on the riverbed as she goes. As she nears the halfway mark, she uses all of the strength she has to push her body up using her tail, keeping her torso above the river.

"This is so cool; I wonder how high I can reach."

Pushing upwards some more, brings a bout of wobbling where she starts to lose her balance.

"Ohh, careful. Guess I can only push it so far." where she drops down to her previously level, keeping enough of her tail on the bed to give stability.

After several more metres, while managing to keep her backpack, the wolves and her human half dry and she makes it to the other side.

"Ahh, finally, dry land. Probably would work better disembarking from a boat, but I'll take what I can get."

Exiting the water, it ends up rolling off her tail with ease. On the other side a lot of the animals had already started to dart off, fearful of the new creature spoiling their drinking time.

"I hope I don't get the same response when I reach the town." She chuckles to herself at how bad that situation would be. "Right what's next on the to do list"

Searching around the other side of the river, she spots a lot of leaves and mouldy fruit of some kind on the ground. Looking up, rows and rows of trees all bearing the same fruit can be seen, encompassing this side of the river. Interspersed with these fruiting trees are trees similar to that of oaks and willows.

Down the river, the deer's, squirrels and various other wildlife finishing up their drinks, all munch on the same fruit. It's at this point she hears a thud, turning in the direction she spots one of the fruits hitting the floor.

"Ah, perfect timing."

Making her way over to it, one of the squirrel things darts out from the brush, picks up the fruit and dashes away.

"Hey! That's mine." Anger on her face she speeds after the squirrel. "Give that back you rodent!"

Picking up pace she manages to near the squirrel, only for it to suddenly vanish right in front of her eyes.

"What. Where…where did it go." Looking around there is no sign of the animal.

Suddenly, out of the corner of her eye, the squirrel reappears halfway up one of the trees.

"Hold on. Did it just turn invisible? That's ridiculous." The squirrel manages to get away with its prize hiding in amongst the leaves of the tree. "I wonder if any other animals have abilities. Guess I need to be more on my guard, as those wolves would have killed me if they could fly or teleport or something." She wonders to herself, unsure on whether they may actually have some sort of ability and it just wasn't used in her fight with them.

"Right, I am starting to get hungry, and I can't see any more fruit on the floor. I guess now I need to see if I can climb with this body as well."

Heading to the nearest, and as far as she can see shortest tree, she grips the trunk and wraps her tail around the tree. Finding she has a good amount of grip on the tree, even when she releases her hold with her human arms, she starts to climb. By flexing and shifting the muscles along her tail, she is able to slowly crawl up and around the tree very efficiently, where the grip she exhibits actually puts dents in the bark.

Reaching the top of the tree with no problems she, grabs several of the fruits and places them in her backpack, nearly to the brim. With the height she is at, she takes a look at the view, and in amongst the trees she is able to make out spires in the distance. From what she could tell, that is likely to be the town on the map. Looking to where the village should be, she is unable to see anything which makes sense given that it's just a village. With the job done, she makes her way back down.

"Easy." She says as she hits the bottom. Taking out one of the spoils from her quest, a quick examination and she comes to the conclusion that it is similar to that of a green apple, aside from being darker. Taking a bite tells the same story, where the taste and consistency is pretty much the same as a green apple from earth. The very sharp note at the end of the digestion was a shock though. "Whoo, quite a kick to the aftertaste. But not bad."

Going for another bite, she is interrupted by a returning foe. One second she is leaning in to take the bite, the next a furball of a squirrel is in front of her face having flung itself onto the apple.

"Ahh!" the shock causing her to lose her hold on the apple, giving the squirrel what it needed to take it from her hands.

It hits the floor, with the apple firmly in its mouth. It quickly turns back to look at Octavia and she could swear it was mocking her as it did so.

Wasting no time, she chases after the beast again, but fails in her crusade as it follows the same pattern and vanishes out of site.

"Arrrg, what an infuriating pest!" she shouts out to the surrounding trees. "You have not heard the last of me! One day I will find you, and you will wish you never stole from me!"

"…"

Silence follows her exclamation, and Octavia somehow ends up beaming with pride as opposed to the embarrassment she should be showing after making a squirrel her rival for life.

"It felt good to say that. Now I better get out of here before I start eating again in case he shows up a third time to ruin my meal."

Moving onward to her destination, Octavia waits till she is quite far from the river before she takes out another apple. Thankfully, she is able to finish this one, and continues her journey to the lamia village.