And that's the story of how she let me go.

Just like that! Now I was alone at who knows where, in a forest, clearly nowhere near the orphanage!

In the little time I had closed my eyes during our kiss, she had molded the space around me. Next thing I knew, I had a big canvas backpack laying at my feet with a piece of parchment sewed to it; on it only two sentences were written:

Create your masterpiece.

I'll keep Ellie's legacy safe until then.

I read those short sentences with abandon. What more could I do, after all? She'd just dumped me out, giving me only those strange indications of what I should do next. I knew she was usually cryptic, but now I understood her even less than usual. She had used the word "create", so I imagined she was referring to something to do with Snow, but I just...

...stopped.

It was pointless to drag things out that I couldn't change anymore.

I allowed myself to sit down and then took a long breath. After a minute, I was relaxed enough to analyze what I knew: I was alone amidst a large forest similar to Colony 32's no man's land, but its vegetation was very different from the usual birches, maples, and cedars. I found myself surrounded by various kinds of birches, but also oaks and... if my knowledge of Earth flora was correct, hazels and auburns. Wherever I'd ended up, I was much further south than ever before. Still, the climate was chilly, so I decided I was probably in the highlands. To confirm this, I bounded to the nearest tree and climbed my way up to the top. As I had imagined, I was in a forest valley surrounded by tall mountains. I scanned for the horizon, but the cloudy and misty weather blocked me from seeing much further.

Once on the ground, I looked inside the backpack and found some equipment. Considering the luxuries Anaissa regularly created, the tarp, ropes, and blankets I found were... a bit disappointing. Or not? Seconds later—enough time to change gears in my head—I returned to my usual half-savage, forest-girl mindset. Whereas other people might describe this patch of land to be some meager refuge, I was now seeing it as my own little miniature palace. Heck, I'd traveled hundreds of kilometers away from Colony 32 whenever I had vacation time, and I was even less equipped than this.

Some matches, a flint, some cord, two multi-tool knives, a survival kitchen set, beeswax, pine resin, some fresh and canned food... and two books.

Until I was captured, I'd been studying Medical Science with brutal discipline. I also knew I'd be applying that knowledge through Snow, rather than directly with my own hands. So with that in mind, I had learned pretty fast. I once told Hisa I was, at least, a pretty hardcore nurse. I had learned pharmacology as I should, found some curative techniques along the way, and filled my mind with lots of anatomical information, mainly to aid my knowledge of traumatology. Biochemistry was becoming second nature... I could do much more than put bandaids on drunks now, that's for sure. But I also knew that, in the last few months, I was only learning the most rudimentary knowledge of how the human body actually worked.

And now, what was this book I had in front of me? Whatever it was, it didn't feel like a medicine book. It was big, thick, heavy, bound, and sealed with a leather strap. And, above all, it was way too "noisy" Snow-wise.

"Auxilium – Non nocere" was written on its cover. I knew that was one of Earth's dead languages, but I didn't know its name, nor what those words meant. However, the strange vibe of the book gave me the answer: "Aid – Do not harm". As noisy as it was, I could interpret the "smell" of medicine.

For some reason I felt compelled to keep the book closed for the moment. An ordinary person wouldn't have noticed anything strange, but as someone sensitive to Snow, the thought of touching that book filled me with dread. Whatever was written inside, I sensed it was utterly filled to the brim, like a balloon about to pop.

The second book, on the contrary, seemed pretty normal. Smaller, thinner, lighter, but with a strangely thick spine. All its pages were blank, as if it were a bound notebook. Its cover had space for a title, but nothing was written on it. Weirdly enough, I started feeling Snow radiating from the book's spine. The Snow told me that was "ink", but with so many adjectives, I couldn't pinpoint exactly what the book's purpose was.

And... that was that.

I was still alone, nowhere, under a cold and cloudy sky, well equipped, with one book I didn't want to open, a useless empty one because I didn't have anything to write with... I let out a long, heaving sigh. I needed to do something I didn't understand, and I wouldn't be able to return home until I did it.

I started thinking through my priorities. First was finding food and water. Next was shelter, and then maybe people?

But what I really sought was, in the first place, that "masterpiece" Anaissa had ordered me to create.

I kept the word in my head, as I walked along the uneven terrain. Absent minded, I walked up and down, hill after hill, for hours surrounded by the forest, lost on musings I didn't even understand. Even when I reached a peak, I couldn't get a good sight of my surroundings but, luckily for me, I found several clean water sources.

Aside from the usual garbage of the pre-colony times, I didn't find any recent signs of humanity in the forest. Some rusted barrels crumbling to dust, wooden planks that were once whole, but that were now termite nests, clean cut cliffs that were once quarries... yes, the brand of humanity couldn't disappear so quickly. Maybe in another hundred years the remnants of the times before colonies would be buried fossils.

After climbing my fifth tree on the third hill of the day, I still wasn't able to find anything on the horizon. If not for the bad weather, I could probably see the nearest colony. A space elevator, typically illuminated like a Christmas tree, wasn't something you could miss in the distance.

But, as I kept walking, my thoughts started to flow counter-current. Soon, I didn't think of Anaissa or masterpieces or colonies... or anything, really, aside from the simple step by step of my survival. I didn't create anything, but found an old stick to use as a walking cane. I didn't ruminate on what to prepare with the food in the backpack, and focused instead on gathering blackberries. I wasn't searching for a city to return to, but a dry floor to lay my tarp onto.

I stopped being the earthly Renate. I returned to my survivalist Thaebian roots. Civilization abandoned me and I embraced the wild once again.

Now, left to my own devices, alone in nowhere, I was once again my surname: "The Coward". And I started to enjoy every second of it. No pressure. No pointing fingers. No words. Only the world around me. No real objective. Just the huge forest I was now part of.

I started as a noisy human, but in a matter of hours I had become a cautious, stealthy animal. Silent, not peaking my head out from the bushes, focused on the basics, finding routes where before I only saw shrubbery, stopping every time I heard a boar far away; comprehending the birds' songs; noticing the movement of the moles where I placed my feet; interpreting the little marks on the ground and the fall of the leaves...

...then I heard noise, as subtle as the one I would have caused. I kept my head still, carefully moving my eyes in both directions, and then I found it: a deer trying to keep hidden. I felt primal fear and pain coming from it, so I assumed it was wounded, having escaped a nearby predator. It must now be recovering from both its wounds and the alarm I had caused.

Then, promptly, I returned to my Renate persona. I was just seeing some "big game" and remembering the reason why I was here to begin with. I discreetly sighed again and approached the deer's position. I didn't want to put it into further danger, so I walked through some bushes to avoid detection.

Soon after, I found tracks of what almost certainly made the deer go into hiding: dogs. And, among their padded steps, human boots. I moved calmly to get a better look at the markings. I counted at least six large dogs and two humans, a young man and an older one, according to the size of the footprints. I deduced, by the humidity and shine of the tracks, that they were still nearby, but the absence of barking told me they couldn't be too close.

Or so I was thinking, until I heard a very distant "click". Soon enough to notice that the Snow around me was signaling something. I heard a thunder in the distance as I tried to decipher what the Snow was trying to point out.

My own head.

Then, everything fell dark.