//------------------------------// // Chapter 3: A Hairy Encounter // Story: A Kinder World // by PandoraFox //------------------------------// After brushing off some residual dirt from my face (awkwardly, and with a hoof, that is), I reminded myself of what I was supposed to be doing. “Right, I gotta stay focused. My energy is limited and it’s only a matter of time before I pass out from exhaustion. No time to be screwing around while I’m still stuck out here…” Ugh, thinking of myself as a victim felt wrong, but there was no other way to describe what was happening. I was helpless— nearly helpless— and lost in the woods, with no idea of which direction I should even be going in, as much as I hated to admit it. I really wish I still had my phone…  Still, I was determined to find my way out, no matter what it took. Speaking of direction, I scanned over the tops of the trees, looking for any landmarks that I could head towards. Unfortunately, my luck fell short yet again; my smallness and/or the trees’ tallness made it very difficult to see very far in any direction. I considered spinning around and pointing in a random direction, but I didn’t want to risk falling over and hurting myself again. I instead picked the direction with the least amount of foliage, then walked out of the clearing into the dimly lit forest. It was hard to tell how long had passed, with the canopy above blocking a clear view to the night sky. At my best guess, it had been a couple hours since I left the clearing, and I was not faring well because of it. My already aching body was further aggravated by the walk, and tripping over roots and various other forest obstacles was not doing me any favors. My luck had apparently run dry, as I was unable to find anything useful so far. “Unless I can somehow find any use for a bunch of sticks and rocks— not that I’d be able to pick them up anyway,” I thought with a small scowl on my face.  In a burst of motion, I stumbled to the ground once more, courtesy of a particularly treacherous rock. As I fell, a lock of hair was dislodged from its place on my forehead and fell down to obscure my vision, leaving me a little bit startled. I was not at all used to having long hair, having kept my hair short my entire life. I had never really considered the possibility of letting it grow out. “First chance I get, I’m cutting this all off, I swear…” After grumbling a bit, I went to push the lock back onto my forehead, only to strike something hard. A wave of discomfort swept through my skull, almost like hitting a funny bone, but in a place where it should not have been possible. I didn’t even know that was a feeling I could feel, and the sensation left me slightly stunned and confused. Straining my eyes up revealed something just on the top edge of my vision.  “Augh, what the hell— is that…”  I gave the object another light tap. “...a horn?!” Indeed it was. I sat there in the dirt in stunned silence, staring up at the long, dull, tan-ish horn protruding from my forehead. “What— is— am…” I attempted out loud. It felt like my brain had just shut down, finally succumbing to the torrent of new information I’d been struggling against for the past few hours. “I’m a unicorn,” I stated in my too-high voice. “I’m. a fucking. UNICORN. WHAT.” I blinked up at the thing a few times in angry confusion. It took a few more moments for my brain to fully start back up, and I shook my head to clear it of the shock. “Ok.” I took a deep breath. “So… unicorns are real here. Got it. And I’m… one of them. Wow.” I honestly had no idea how I hadn’t noticed the horn before, given how it was sitting right there on my head. Add my inattentiveness to the list of things that could probably get me killed here. I quietly groaned. “Ok, calm down. No more distractions.” I could already feel myself growing weary, like my body was unfamiliar with the exertion of a hike. “Oh, well, I guess it isn’t, is it?” I was never a particularly active person, but I tried to keep relatively fit, and the hikes I regularly went on were always a great workout. Now, as a pony— unicorn, it felt like all of that progress had just been reset.  I probably still wasn’t aware of all of the ways my body was different from what I was used to, and of all the things I lost when I was ejected from Earth, but each new thing was just adding onto the pile at this point. Once a fully capable human male, now just this— inept child. “Not that I know for sure that I’m a child or anything… different universe, right?” Shaking out that thought, I focused my attention back on the task at hand. “Ugh, I must really be tired if I keep getting distracted like this. I can't rest yet though, I’ve still had no luck finding anything useful out here. Either I keep going, or I die.” Invigorated by my newfound determination, I stood back up and continued on my way. Hours had passed, and I was on my last dregs of energy. The amount of breaks I had to take to keep myself going increased as the time went by, and my hooves and legs were extremely cramped and sore, but I refused to give up. I was way too deep into this and I had to see it through. Even still, I managed to trip over myself and fall again. I wearily looked to the treetops, noticing a change in the light. Was the sun coming up? As far as I could tell, it was. But… this feels… way too fast. I could understand a day/night cycle that was faster than Earth’s, but the moon seemed to be moving completely normally while I was still in that clearing. Now, it feels like it’s gone from purely moonlight to nearly fully sunlight in only a couple minutes. What? “God, I’m too tired for this…” I stared off into the forest for a moment. I could tell I wasn’t going to be able to stay awake much longer, and walking around for far too many hours had left me hungry and dehydrated, but without any signs that I was getting anywhere close to any civilization whatsoever, my anxiety only grew larger and my patience grew thinner. And my eyelids… heavier… “No!” I shot my eyes open in a panic. “I gotta… I… need to…” … “Hmm… maybe just… a quick nap…” Poke. I grunted. Poke poke. “Would you quit that?” I slurred. “I’m tryna sleep…” … Nudge. “Pleaseeee, just let me slee—” I stopped. I opened my eyes and turned my head to see a very large brown bear standing over me, watching me with curious eyes. My mouth gaped and my eyes widened in horror, my exhaustion completely forgotten in an instant. The bear towered over me, on the scale that a human would tower over a terrier. How could a bear get so big?  I was terrified. More terrified than I had ever been in my entire life.  This is it. I’m going to die here. And it wasn’t even a horror beyond my comprehension that would kill me, just a really big bear. “No! Get up! Move! RUN!” I scrambled to my feet as fast as I could, stumbling away from the bear. The bear in question seemed to tilt its head in confusion, but before I could see it do anything else, I had already turned tail (oh god, it’s literal now) and bolted away as fast as my little legs could carry me. I was already running on fumes at this point, so what I was able to pull off with pure adrenaline alone was almost miraculous. I dodged around trees, over rocks, through bushes. Anywhere that would take me further away from the giant bear I left behind.  Suddenly, I could hear loud footsteps booming through the air from behind me, shaking the forest floor below. It was running after me! I tried to speed up, but found that my exhaustion was quickly catching up with me. As it turned out, so was the bear. Our sheer difference in size certainly put me at a significant disadvantage in speed. Just the thought of it brought my heartrate up ever faster. Before I could fully process what was happening, there was a sudden change from the monotony of the forest. The trees seemed to be thinning out, leaving splotches of sky visible through holes in the canopy. Through one of these, I spotted a thin line of smoke coming from somewhere close by.  A campfire!  I immediately changed course and sped towards the direction of the fire, feeling fortunate that whoever was tending to it put in enough wood to let it last all through the night. Despite my brief stroke of luck, my carelessness finally caught up to me, as my leg caught on a particularly sharp rock. My foreleg scraped against it, setting my gait off course and leaving me sprawling on the ground in pain. I briefly shrieked, a high pitched, ear piercingly loud sound filling the air.  “God, ow, fuck…” My heart was racing, my breath was labored and erratic, and sweat poured down my small frame. The gash on my foreleg was already deep red with blood. I could feel my adrenaline running out. I knew I wouldn’t last much longer.  “Please, just a little further! The campsite is right there, I can see it through the trees!” The stomping from behind me was only getting louder, I had no choice but to continue. Slowly and painfully, I stood up on my remaining uninjured legs and hobbled as quickly as I could towards the treeline. “Just a little further— ow! Just… keep going…” I was at my absolute limit. I had never felt so completely drained, yet absolutely terrified before. My stumbling continued, and the massive creature grew ever closer, until… Finally, after too many painful steps, my body broke the treeline and I stumbled into a small campsite situated in a sizable clearing. In it were three tents and a small campfire, barely embers at this point but still spewing out a sizable amount of smoke. At the sight of the tents, my relief was unimaginable, and I could already feel my body fall from its adrenaline high. “Maybe I should get… a little bit closer…” I could see faces peeking out from a couple of the tents, but I was far too out of it to make note of any distinguishing features. “Oh right, the bear! I have to warn them!” “Careful… there’s… bear…” was all I could get out before I collapsed to the dirt and unconsciousness took me.