Genshin Impact - One Shots & Small Stories

Collei x Reader │ Writing Woes

<A/N: This chapter ended up releasing the same week that I hit 1000 followers here on Wattpad, which considering the theme of this chapter, I can't help but feel like it was meant to be!
Thank you all for everything, and I hope that we can go even further from here!>

* COLLEI'S POV *

"Hmm... this part of the forest seems even quieter than normal... I wonder where the tigers that are normally lounging around here have gotten to?"

???: "AAAAAAAGH!"

???: "NOBODY SAID ANYTHING ABOUT MAN–EATING TIGERS!"

???: "AND WE THOUGHT LIYUE WAS BAD! RUN FOR IT!!"

???: "WHAT ABOUT THE ONE BACK THERE? ARE WE JUST GOING TO—"

???: "YES! WHO CARES?! THEY WERE THE ONES THAT WANTED TO COME TO THIS PLACE. I'M NOT DYING FOR THEM!"

The shouting voices were only growing closer, until eventually their owners came into view. Four soldiers wearing a lot of metal and coloured in purple had come into view, stumbling over themselves as they tripped and fell over all the bushes and roots of the forest. They seemed to be making a direct path for the cave that led from Sumeru to Liyue's Chasm. But one of them had noticed me as they seemingly ran for their lives.

???: "LITTLE GIRL! RUN! THERE ARE HUGE BEASTS BACK THERE! HUGE!"

The soldier didn't even stop to make sure that I heard him, or that I heeded his advice. Rather he just kept running, happy enough with the minimal effort he made. And not long after, the four soldiers had disappeared from view as they made their way into the cave that led them away from the forest.

With them out of the forest, I no longer need to worry about them getting into further trouble. But didn't they mention somebody left behind? Oh! I should go and see if they're okay!!

And I then made my way in the opposite direction of those soldiers, heading towards the scene that they had all been running away from... And it didn't take long until I could hear the obvious roars and growls of the forest tigers coming up ahead. Eventually, I reached a clearing littered with the broken remains of a luggage cart, the luggage within it all over the floor in tatters and shredded, and the tigers were all crowded around a single tree... They seemed to be clawing at its roots?

* Y/N'S POV *

"The tigers' roaring was all that I could hear, their fur was all that I could see, and the now receding layers of dirt beneath this deep-rooted tree that sheltered me from their attacks on my person was all but dismantled by the ferocity of these creatures.

Any moment now and I would have protection from their slashing claws no longer, in but a few miniscule moments I might find myself deep in the jaws of many a hungry beast, my remains most likely being nigh unrecognisable, if there are to be any at all.

Whilst I cannot fault them for what is, undeniably, nothing more than the cruelty of nature at work. I can fault the guards, the guards that were enlisted to provide me safe passage and yet they fled at the first sign of danger. And I suppose I might also fault myself...

For all those stories I had written, I never had a character escape from such a perilous situation with anything less than supernatural skills or circumstances. As much as I have researched in the past, to make sure I was as accurate with my writings as possible, I never did think to learn about what to do in such a situation for somebody who is not a main character in a novel, immune from such an unlucky death.