"The warrior has returned."

Mai had fallen into a deep, cool, peaceful sleep- which was incidentally dream-free. She almost wanted to see the weird star lady so she could stick her tongue out at her and say: 'See? No dreams. No responsibilities. No STUPID prophecies'.

"She's coming."

But... then there was this voice, irritatingly emotionless and distorted, as if she was hearing it through water.

"Closer."

And then suddenly her body was on fire, and she was trying to scream but her voice wasn't working, she was trying to inhale but she couldn't breathe, she was trying to claw her eyes open but everything was black, black, black.

A sharp sting in her neck made her roll over and try to claw at it, fingers digging and scratching into her skin desperately, trying to make it stop make it stop MAKE IT STOP.

"Closer..."

And then she rolled over and was falling, wind whipping her face through the dark, the pain in her nerve endings going away and then coming back again all at once.

I'm on fire I'm dying I'm dying I'm DEAD-

Was being dead supposed to hurt this much?

She screamed as another bout of pain hit her, and she curled in on herself- but this time, she could hear her scream.

"Closer..."

And then she hit the ground with a thump, but it was soft, gentle, as if she hadn't been falling from a distance but rather just off her bed.

The pain was gone, and something was tickling her still-closed eyelids.

"She's here."

Mai inhaled and exhaled slowly for a while, breathing deeply to rid herself of the horror she had just gone through. THAT was truly terrifying. Her dreams? The ones with the star lady showing doom and destruction and death? Those were scary. But this was just TERRIFYING. She thought that she was DEAD. DEAD!

My goodness.

But no. It must have been a couple of really bad cramps that decided to attack her in her sleep because she had been running around, having fun all day when she should have been working on that essay-

Uh oh.

Mai groaned and debated opening her eyes, but they felt weighted down. And she felt sore and her face hurt and she just didn't want to. Maybe...

Her breathing sped up.

Calm down. You just had a nightmare and you fell off your damn bed. Calm down.

"Ugh, goddamn," Mai groaned as she rolled over, eyes still closed. She held her breath for half a second before inhaling sharply and opening her eyes.

...this isn't possible.

Staring dumbly up at the beautiful canopy of overlapping leaves that spread careful patterns of sunlight across the grass she lay on, Mai wasn't afraid. Or surprised. Or scared.

And then she was, all at once, and she scrambled up, spinning around kicking the grass underneath her and gasping, panic flooding her brain. She raced to the nearest tree and rapped on the bark, wincing as a small scrape appeared on her knuckles, red swelling over it.

Is it?

"What is this? No, seriously. Star Lady? Are you here?"

Mai yelled into open air, too terrified to feel self-conscious.

"WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?"

The veiny, summer-green leaves above her wafted in a cool breeze teasingly, as if saying: 'You dumbass. Figure it out'.

Mai looked around. Well, this was MOST CERTAINLY not her bedroom. Tall trees surrounded her, some branches gleaming snow-white with darker bands, some a textured, deep brown. The grass below her feet was lush, light green, soft and tickling her ankles in places and cropped short in others, with little white flowers dotted here and there.

"Is this a dream?"

Mai's (and probably very exasperated by now) mind answered her own question.

No.

She was here, like the star lady said she would be.

Oddly, the most dominating thought in her mind was probably the fact that now, she would have to deal with the insufferably smug look on Star Lady's face next time Mai saw her.

Mai was wearing the same clothes she had been wearing yesterday, but wrinkle-free and clean. Well, her white sneakers were a little scuffed from the way she was kicking the ground, but otherwise, exactly the same. With a look around, Mai realized that her backpack was right beside her- and her bow, arrows, quiver, and knives were there as well.

Fingers shaking, she fumbled with her shirt and pulled out the necklace Emi had given her from underneath her shirt. Mai thought she had taken it off last night... but there were weirder things going on. Mai didn't give it any thought.

"This is so weird," Mai murmured to herself, eyes raking over the clearing.

Mai took a deep breath and prepared to start yelling into empty air.

"LISTEN, MISS STAR LADY, DON'T YOU THINK YOU COULD HAVE DONE THIS A BETTER WAY? HUH?" Mai yelled, ranting into empty space, "Like, maybe instead of a WEIRD CRYPTIC THING you could have told me 'Oh yeah, tomorrow you're gonna be plonked into a clearing here and this is what you gotta do-' I MEAN, IS THAT SO HARD? LIKE-"

Mai continued to yell at the air while she fastened her bow to her quiver and slung it on her back, above her backpack. It felt really clunky and weird, so- while she was STILL YELLING- she took both off and tied the quiver to a couple of loose straps on her backpack. It fit surprisingly well and felt way less weird. She adjusted it a bit so it left the pockets free to be opened quickly and, satisfied with her handiwork, slung it over her back again.

"-RIGHT SO THANKS A LOT, THANK YOU SO-"

A crack behind Mai made her whirl around, knife sheath dangling from her hand. She quickly fastened it around her left arm. She had been about to put it on her thigh, but this would have to do.

And then reality caught up to her, sending a sudden rush of blood up to her brain.

Where was she? What was she doing here? What was going ON?

Her breathing hitched, sped up, and then came out in pants. Her head began to pound as she felt tears welling in her eyes (that was strange) and she tried to hold them back because SERIOUSLY? She could be in mortal danger and she was about to start CRYING?

Tear ducts, if you don't stop it, I will RIP YOU OUT NERVE BY NERVE.

Her very peculiar existential crisis was interrupted by another crack and a rustle and something like dead leaves and twigs snapping and knuckles cracking and a wolf growling.

Wait. A wolf-

And then something leaped out of the shadows of the forest, at first on two legs, then stumbling down onto four.

Mai screamed.

Mai wasn't easily scared, or if she was, she didn't usually show it. But seeing this unfamiliar creature (that was PROBABLY out to kill her, just a guess) in this unfamiliar place just broke something inside of her.

Haha I'm broken hehe.

It was possible that she was going slightly insane.

Pushing her thoughts out of her mind, she focused on the life-or-death situation at hand. The creature in front of her resembled a wolf with matted, coarse gray fur streaked through with an odd, amorphous, brackish red. Two twisted white horns spouted from it's head, and it's lips were covered in black, sticky drool. It's sinewy front legs were longer that its hind ones, and it occasionally rose off the ground on its shorter two legs to swipe dangerously at its prey.

Or in this case, Mai.

Mai shrieked as it hurtled towards her throat, only registering a shadow of its huge, hulking body before snapping her head out of the way, it's fangs missing her neck by a couple inches at most. It missed her neck, but it still rammed into her, making her tubld to the ground with a loud thud. Mai groaned and then freaked out as she realized that the thing was still on top of her. Where its fur met her skin, she could feel it... burning? Her skin was BURNING?

Panicking, Mai shoved the thing off her with a force she didn't even know she had, kicking at its horns as it tried to leap up at her again. Mai felt a sting in her back and touched the offending arena gingerly, realizing that the thing had managed to land a wound on her. The creature fell, whining, thrashing on the ground as if in a lot of pain from the kick she had given its head.

Hmm...

Mai gave the wolf-thing a careful look as she warily crept back away from it, flinching as a cool breeze met the ugly, red burn-slash-rash on her arm. The thing let out a snarl and fell back, shaking its deformed, wide-snouted head and then glaring at her with pure white eyes that she didn't even realize it had.

That's CREEPY.

Mai judged the options in her head, thinking fast. She didn't have enough time to untie her bow and grab an arrow, as there was probably only a few seconds before the thing would attack her again and RIP HER THROAT out, and that was not a chance she was willing to take, thank you very much. She could dodge again, but she'd just get more hurt and then have an even lower chance of surviving.

The thing leaped, and Mai, going by pure reflex at this point, staggered back and punched it between its horns, wincing as one of them caught on the skin of her hand and left a gaping gash, blood pooling in her palm.

The howl the thing gave was unlike any other Mai had heard as it shook its head, Mai's blood dripping into its eyes. Without giving Mai a chance to react, it lunged at her legs this time, locking its jaws around her calf.

At first, it didn't hurt, and Mai wondered if she had imagined the entire thing. She watched with detachment for about half a second, tilting her head, fingers twitching as she moved to have it release her. It didn't hurt-

And then it did, like the ocean bursting through a dam, and Mai screamed, screamed as she felt bone and razors dig through her skin and through her flesh and OH MY GOD she thought she had known being on fire but now she really was on fire and THIS WAS SO MUCH WORSE. She spasmed, the pain having her fall limp, her head hitting the ground before she realized she was falling because there was nothing else nothing else it hurt it hurt it hurt so BAD-

The thing was still locked onto her leg and it was biting harder, but before she let the darkness cloud her mind, her fingers slipped a knife from one of the sheaths on her arm. She was limp on the grass, looking straight at the wolf-thing that should DIE because its fur was burning her entire leg and of course, its teeth were still INSIDE HER and-

Mai thrust her arm out, aiming for between its horns, but her aim was foggy and slippery and- and she stabbed it in its right eye instead.

It finally let go, and it was howling in pain, black blood pouring from its eye socket and it was spinning in circles-

-and the DAMN THING REALLY DESERVES IT-

Mai flopped on the grass, gasping heavily and she forced herself to stay awake, to stay conscious because the thing was still alive. She could barely move. Her arms felt like lead, her head pounded so hard she could barely breathe. And then there was the small, ever-so-slightly concerning fact that she was bleeding out ALARMINGLY quickly because of the HUGE FREAKING BITE THING IN HER LEG THAT WAS SURROUNDED WITH THAT WEIRD BURN and it HURT.

She inhaled and exhaled a couple times, every second wasted making her increasingly aware of the fact that she was running out of time. Trying very hard not to make a sound, Mai rolled over, still on the ground (much to her dismay), and had her trembling fingers untie her bow from her backpack.

You have one shot, she thought, her hazy mind even recognizing this very simple fact, so don't mess it up or you will most probably be dead.