I kept walking through the thick underbrush of the forest, with the hope I would find an unassuming animal I could kill and eat, or maybe one of my numerous traps I set around the forest.
I could hear leaves rustle, but at the moment just dismissed it as wind and wasn't about to stop and check if my assumption was right. Instead my hunger dragged me on, to at least find something edible before night, when I would have to climb a tree to escape becoming dinner to any of the multitude of predators.
Even though I was ignoring it, somewhere in the back of my mind, that wasn't as focused on finding food, I could tell the rustling didn't make sense. It came and went, but always followed me, like a predator stalking it's prey without ever attacking it. The problem was, that in this case, I was the prey. Yet I continued desperately searching for food, as my hunger grew.
When I started my search it was just a mild pang, like when you didn't eat enough for lunch and are really hungry for dinner. But the longer I walked the more starved I felt. As I came to my third hour of walking, my legs suddenly gave out under me and I collapsed to the ground. With the help of a tree I pulled myself into a sitting position, but with little to no energy left. Only then did I realize that I had sealed my own fate.
When I used the spell in the castle I didn't just burn through my magic reserves, but also through most of the energy in my body. Without food to act as fuel, I had just been using up all of my remaining energy walking through the forest and now I didn't have enough energy to even try to hunt down anything.
'There is no way I can move more than a few feet without using up everything I have left, effectively killing myself. The other option is to just sit here and hope I somehow regain some energy, but for that to happ-' I was broken from my assessment of the situation by a low growl.
I slowly turned my head in the direction of the growl, as to expend as little energy as possible, and what came into my vision certainly wasn't a welcome view.
'Ah, this is how I die, hm? Well, it could be worse. At least the thing to kill me is such a beautiful black panther. It is as high as me when I am standing and It's coat is practically shimmering in the setting sun. It's eyes are green like a meadow on a summer day, yet cold and uncaring as the winter snow. Hopefully such a majestic beast will grant me a quick death.' As I thought that, I finally noticed it was carrying a whole deer and I couldn't help but laugh at the irony of it.
The panther stalked closer as I laughed and as it came within the range of my arms, I instinctively stiffened preparing for it to strike and break my neck in one strike. Then it did something that almost made me think I was already dead, although another hunger pang obliterated that thought, the panther dropped the deer to the ground and used it's snout to push it towards me.
I was so utterly confused I just stared at the deer for a few minutes, then turned my gaze towards the panther and did the same. During that time the panther started skinning it's catch, finished and cut off a large slab of meat, that it then dropped into my lap.
After my bout of confusion ended I looked towards the bloody, uncooked slab of meat and there was one thing that popped into my mind: disease.
When I was young, my mother had once told me to never eat raw meat, since it could carry parasites, viruses or bacteria that I am not immune to. Because of that I had never eaten anything raw, but on the other hand, I would die for certain if I didn't eat this. I looked at the meat in my lap and suddenly felt revolted. I didn't like how it looked, I didn't like how it smelled and I definitely didn't like how it felt in my hands as I picked it up. Yet I didn't have a choice.
So I brought it to my mouth and bit into it, and immediately felt like vomiting. The taste itself wasn't bad, in fact it was pretty good, perfectly salted because of all the blood, but the thought of eating raw meat, not even dried was just so revolting. But I still forced more into my mouth and after a few more bites I didn't feel like puking anymore.
After I ate the whole thing, the panther dropped some more meat into my lap and I gladly ate it. Soon my belly was full and I had recuperated a bit, while the panther ate it's share of the deer, leaving only around a quarter of the meat, the bones and the hide.
And then I knew it was time, to find out why the panther even helped me. So ridiculous as it may sound, I asked it: "So, now that you saved me from certain death, what is it you want in return?"
It turned it's head and looked me in the eyes. We stayed in that position for what felt like an eternity, before the panther broke it's gaze and motioned with it's head for me to follow it, before heading off into the bushes and disappearing. I used the tree at my back to push myself up, as my hands were still out of commission, and stood on shaky legs, before slowly moving towards the place, where the panther vanished.
As I slowly walked, the panther came back, and tried to hurry me along by pushing my legs, almost making me fall down and certainly not speeding me up. It then changed it's tactic and deciding that it's way will be faster the panther tripped me with it's back legs, making me fall forward onto it's back, before it took off running.