//------------------------------//
// The Endless Forest 
// Story: Return of the Savior! Wait ME? 
// by NnoDragonEclipse 
//------------------------------//

Stop it sun, I don't want to wake up, your shining is unappreciated here. I still have a few minutes if my alarm clock hasn't gone off. Wait alarm clock, didn't it not wake me up yesterday? Maybe I shouldn't trust the thing to get me up. Wait what happened yesterday?

I shot up immediately to confirm my thoughts. This day just got worse as yesterday's event showed to not to be some hallucination or fever dream. Fuck, don't you know I have a job to get back to? I went to school to get my degree and I still have to pay it off. Wait, if they can't recognize me does that mean I don't have to pay it off, because if it did this would be a good trade off maybe.

Quit that, get your priorities straight. I look like a nine tailed fox and the first thing you think about is work. I did like my job, good pay too. Shut up, get back to the no longer hallucination fox you have become. I was still in the moon covered room. I could probably get a better view of what I looked like in the mirror. Nothing really changed for my body or face from when I took a look through the helmet, but I have striking bright blue eyes. I always wanted bright blue eyes but having bright glowing cyan that were very anime like instead of more human like brown eyes was weird.

First thing first, I'm still inside the castle and have no direction to know where to go. The castle seems to have no goodies for the trip and no maps. This is fine, I could just walk until I find a river and follow it downstream, hopefully finding civilization. Do I even want to be found? I would be most likely hunted but I don't know how to hunt without my rifle. I guess I would either learn really quick or survive of scraps people drop and hide when they get close. The problem with that is that I seem to be rather large as the bed was only able to barely fit my new body so I must be huge if that is a king-sized bed.

Okay, so maybe hiding would get very hard in a city. Next is maybe posing as like a demi-god or something and eating some of their offerings. Yeah, not a good idea, that is where the government just snags me away and experiment on me. I guess the best option is to go with hiding in a small local village that has a forest nearby until I at least learn how to hunt. May God have mercy on my soul, I could barely shoot at a deer without almost bursting into tears and the thought of doing it now really makes be uncomfortable.

Fuck, this seems like my life just got a lot worse. What other curveballs will life give me to make any worse. Shit, Murphy I'm sorry, please I didn't mean it! I just somehow know I just made my day worse. I have to get out of here though and actually find a river before I starve to death. Back at the throne room there seemed to be a door that led to the outside, that seems to be a good place to start.

The hall seems more or less the same but greyer than they did last night. That's good I don't want this to be some maze runner like thing where it shifts at night. The way to the throne room was uneventful, the paintings still made me think of the culture this place once held. The suits of iron were very medieval European looking along with the architecture. This place looks old, so I somehow crossed an ocean to Europe. I hope I at least ended up in Great Britain where I can understand the language fully. 

The throne room was the same as the first day. The entrance was still open, so I snuck a quick peak outside. There was still a huge forest but also a mote or ravine with one bridge I didn't want to cross with my new body or my old one if I had it. I just had to invoke Murphy. With my luck so far, this bridge is going to be my only way across, great. I'm wasting daylight, get walking and find another way across if there is any.

The entrance had steps down, crap. Well, at least they were like five steps so it can't be that bad. Getting down was no problem but I think I have found my new nemesis in the upcoming future. The grass needs a good mowing but other than that it had no flowers or bushes. The pathway even seemed to be in good condition, not too overgrown with only a few patches of long grass here and there. The path led me to the bridge but as I got closer, I could see that it, unlike the path, was in very bad condition. I looked along the large ravine that now is in front of me. If I fall, I will most likely die or break everything in my body. 

I don't even see the ends as it curves in around the castle. I'm going to have to cross it at this very run-down rope bridge that might snap once I put any weight on it, fuck me sideways. Breathing in slow and then slowly letting go, I put one foot/paw thing on the first plank. It held, so I put my weight on it and still did. This is a surprising turn of events. I tried another, then another and then another. They all held pretty well with just a few creaks along the way. the worst part as when I got to the middle the wind started to pick up and sway the bridge making crossing it sketchier than it was before. Holding one paw on the railing I managed to get across fine. I really hope this is not a regular occurrence. 

Now I had an entire forest to get lost in, wonderful. The path was way more overgrown once you got to the trees, but it looked passable compared anything else. Looks like I'm being driven down a certain path, I really hope I don't get jumped. The tree blocked the sky from my view only letting in very few rays of light through giving the atmosphere a very scary movie like vibe. That is one way to describe this place, it is a set of a scary movie in a forest. Ha I could be set in the Blair Witch Forest, she does things at night so as long I get out of here before than I'm good, right?

This place is more peaceful than I thought it was going to be, I can still hear the birds and crickets so there seems to be no predators nearby, or at least I think that is what it means. There is still no river in sight though which could be bad, but this path must lead to somewhere if it was made in the first place. I don't like walking; I wish I had my Monte; I wish I was home; I wish I was with my family right now. What would my family think when they saw me? Mom would probably baby me more saying that I shouldn't have never left her side while dad would yell at me for not being careful then give me a hug. Avery would give me a makeover because I was now cute enough for her bows. 

During my reminiscing, the forest has grown quiet, as if all life just stopped. This doesn't look like a good sign; I can feel my hairs stand up. Something must be stalking me. I start to look around for anything, but nothing shows up. This is not good; it must be in the shadows where I can't see it. I quicken my pace while diligently searching for anything that stands out amongst the endless forest around me. Now look what situation Murphy put you in when you called his name you moron.

There! Glowing spots of green in a pair of two. What is that? They are surrounding me on three sides! What do I do? Shit this is bad. The opening must be a trap, why would they leave that open if they were hunting. Fuck, I have no choice do I if I want to live, do I. Either way I think I'm boned. I took of sprinting down the opening as fast as I could, dodging trees as I went along. I can hear them chase after, their howls of excitement sending chills down my spine.

They're catching up, I can hear their panting coming closer, wolves are hunting me, a fox, great. There must be some way out of this, I can't die here. Wait I hear running water, a river! How is that going to help me now, I don't know but I make a beeline for it. I slide to a stop along the river, almost falling in, it was fast moving and very wide. The trees break to allow for the sun to shine through so I can now see my attackers. I'm dead now, am I? I turn around to face my pursuers and what I see is shocking. They were wolves alright but not of flesh and bone but of wood. They had glowing green eyes and were larger than any wolf I've encountered.

These wooden wolves have slowed down, now surround any means of escape that didn't involve drowning. They seem to be very smug about the corning of their prey. Damn bastards probably think this is funny with how they're howling. 

"Well bastards, you've cornered me; you happy!" I shouted, "Don't look so smug, I've barely been like this for a day so it's not surprising that this happened, honestly."

The wolves obviously didn't respond to me, but I did get a head tilt from a few of them. What are my options here? It's either drowning or being eaten alive. I hate you murphy. I'd rather have a small chance of living than no chance.

"You fuckers think you got me, but I don't think so. I won't let you eat me," I stated, "In fact I'd rather drown than having my worst nightmare come true."

I began to back up into the freezing water looking straight into the eyes of the wolves. I can already tell the current want to drag me down stream. I turn around fast and jump as far as I can in to avoid the now oncoming attacks from the wolves. The attacks barely miss me, but the wolves also fall in struggling to stay afloat. I also struggle to stay afloat due to the newness of my body but dogpaddling barely keeping above the water line.

I was thrown around the river as the current dragged me down stream and even under. I could only focus on nothing but staying afloat and every time a surface I scream for help, even knowing I'll get none. My nose and throat burn for the water and screaming. The water is even picking up speed, dooming me as I could barely now surface for air.

I was now in shadow as I went deeper in, finally succumbing to the onslaught that wanted to drag me under. I try to find my way back up to the surface, to get some air that I desperately needed. It was hopeless as I even didn't know what way was up in the first place. 

I feel something grab me. Shit, did I just run into the river kraken? It starts to pull me as I struggle against it. It pulls me out into the open air, allowing me to catch my breath with a big gasp. A coughing fit soon followed my newfound luck. I soon notice I could feel and hear wind blowing upon me. I could see the trees below me and hear flapping of wings. I was being held by something with large talons and scales. I screamed and began struggle to get away which might have been stupid from this high up.

It began its decent towards the ground rapidly. I struggled with all my might but was unable to escape. The flapping of wings increased as we went in for landing. It soon landed in a clearing, holding me in one of its claws with the other three letting it stand. It brought me to its face allowing to see its brown lizard like eyes with dark red and tan scales. It growled out something and started to lower me to the ground.

He let me go and I got to my feet immediately, facing him. There before me was large dragon, that there is no doubt. The dragon was spiky along his back and chin. His horns were curled forward. This thing if it wanted could kill me now, but for now it just stared. It just stared at me for a long while before closing its eyes and lowing its front half to the ground in a bowing motion.

"What are you doing?" I questioned.

I only received growling in response, though it seemed confused.

"Hey, thanks for saving me my name is Kevin, What's yours's?" I asked.

Another round of growling, but this time it seemed more frustrated with the way it was clawing at the ground.

"Okay, I'll call you Smaug for now, do you know where any town or city is by chance?" I questioned. I'm calling him Smaug due to its color resemblance to him. 

This only made Smaug more frustrated growling fast and clawing the ground harder. Smaug might not like my questioning, so I better stop. Smaug then lit up as if an idea popped into its head. Smaug tarted to draw a squiggly line, two straight one right next to each other and what I think is me with the multiple tails, or that might be a sideways tree. Looking back up at me expectantly for me to get the idea.

I think I know what Smaug wants me to do now. Pictionary. I start to draw a castle, then road, next a river, then tried to draw a confused fox but it looks really bad and then a house. Smaug looks so confused from this turn of events. It took a few minutes before he stared to draw a fox, then an arrow pointing to the house. I nod in conformation. Smaug seems to get a smug impression on its face and started pointing off somewhere to my right. Smaug even gave me a little push in that direction. I think I get the idea.

"Thank you Smaug, I could have never survived without your help!" I yelled out as Smaug flies in the opposite direction. I guess I have to go where Smaug pointed. 

The trek was not that hard as the forest seems to clear up the closer I got to the edge. I started to see square boxes in the distance, those could really only mean those are buildings, I'm saved! My luck has finally changed, I might live to see another day!