Hesitant Hospitality

Chapter 1

After a few hours passed, the girl finally woke up- rubbing her tired eyes as she observed her surroundings. Sure enough she was still in the middle of the goddamn woods, She felt something wet roll down her cheeks yet again, and sure enough they were tears. She didn't care if she looked pathetic.. It's not like anyone was around to judge her or anything. She stood up and brushed the dirt off her pants, a frustrated groan escaping her lips. Sure enough she was famished, but she figured she should save her food supply in case she was stuck here for any more than a day or two, deep down the girl knew she wouldn't be able to find an exit easily nor quickly, but she dreaded the thought and kept it stored away in the back of her mind.. After all, she would not survive out in the wild. The girl was about to start walking again when she noticed a flash of white zoom past her.. she found that pretty odd, but her confusion was quickly replaced with fear.. that was definitely no small animal- it was as tall as a horse at its smallest. Survival instincts immediately kicked in and (y/n) grabbed her bag. She broke into a sprint in hopes of getting as far away from the creature as possible, not that it was chasing her or anything.. she just didn't want to stick around anything that might be predatory. Running in a blind panic over something so trivial wasn't the best idea, and (y/n) had to learn that the hard way. Sure enough she dropped her bag mid sprint, but she didn't realize that until she was far away from the area. She turned around, prepared to run back and grab it, but she was too late.. The distant white silhouette crouched by the bag, seemingly inspecting it,  and (y/n) could do nothing as the creature grabbed it and ran off

"Shit-"

(y/n) muttered to herself

"Well there goes my one chance at survival"

She pulled at her hair in frustration, just what the hell was that thing!? She'd never seen any white cougars or anything, and she's definitely never seen an animal that tall, and it didn't pick the bag up with its mouth either.. they seemed to have picked it up using their arms. This was freaking her the hell out, like- this was some horror movie type shit. At least it didn't try to attack her, her previous sorrow was replaced with relief.. This situation could've turned out much worse had she not dropped the bag, Though she was definitely a lot more anxious to get out of the woods.. for more reasons than one

She continued walking forwards, now fearful that she'd run into something dangerous on the way, It may have been childish, but she was genuinely terrified and lonely, so she picked up a rock off the ground and pulled a sharpie out of her pocket, Drawing an ugly smiley face onto it.

"Hah, my new good luck luck charm, Your new name is Roxy"

She murmured, a light laugh escaping her lips, she could definitely use some luck at the moment.. she was going nuts, it didn't take her long to decide against walking forward until she found an exit, after all- that would probably take at least a week.. and she would probably die in the process through dehydration or overexposure

Keeping that in mind, she started building a structure, gathering up a bunch of the large sticks sprawled out on the ground and leaning them up against a large tree.. That one trip she'd taken in elementary school to learn basic survival techniques was finally paying off, she never thought she'd say this, but thank god for the school system. After placing a decent amount of sticks, she grabbed a bunch of dry leaves to use as insulation and placed them around the top of the structure, She just hoped this wouldn't attract spiders. She ducked inside of it, checking to see if she would fit inside. Sure enough, there was just enough room for her, she just couldn't stretch out her legs inside the structure. She curled up, making herself comfortable inside as she admired in her work, that is before her leg spasmed, a stroke of bad luck, sure enough she'd kicked one of the larger  branches that were supporting the structure and half of it came tumbling down, whatever.. (y/n) was so done with this shit, she'd try again later. She crawled back out, famished, and as if on instinct,.. reached towards her side to grab a granola bar, but sure enough it had been stolen less than 10 minutes ago. If she was going to be alone in the woods, She'd have to think like the other omnivores that resided there -if I were a bear, what would I do.."

She could always go searching for a bee hive.. but that would probably not turn out so well for her- she didn't fancy the idea of countless bee stings. ok, next best option!... Berries? Yea, berries would work, these were the woods.. and it clearly held both small and large creatures, so they were bound to be some berry bushes around, she'd seen some orange ones on her walk, but whether or not they were poisonous was debatable, and she wasn't willing to take any chances.

And so the quest for berries began, she made sure to stay close to where she'd originally placed her shelter, so that she wouldn't get any more lost than she was already, and looked around for any berry bushes, keeping away from the ones she didn't trust.. There were many suspicious orange ones, and a type of berry she recognized as 'dolls eyes' protruding from hardwood, shed read about them before, and they were said to be highly poisonous and sedative. She made sure to stay far away from those. She pulled the rock from her pocket, already missing her friends.. She wondered how they were doing, they were probably roasting marshmallows, they probably didn't even notice she was gone, she abruptly shook her head. She couldn't think like this! It was sure to drive her mad, and that's the last thing she needed right now.

"Roxy? Do you think I'll ever be able to find any berries or am I just making a fool of myself?"

She knew talking to a rock was stupid, but it brought her some comfort in this stressful situation. The  rock was of course, unresponsive.. (y/n) laughed at herself

"Figures.. I bet all this effort is for nothing-"

(y/n)'s mouth was agape at the sight before her. She felt as if the gods themselves had sent her a blessing from up above. Sure enough, in the distance, was a large bundle of raspberry bushes, she barrelled forward, gathering a bunch in her hands before stuffing them in her mouth, she let out a moan of satisfaction when the berries made contact with her tongue, flavour bursting through her tastebuds as she gulfed them down. She dove into the bush, she didn't care that she was getting pricked by the bushes, she just kept stuffing more and more into her mouth.. she finally stopped when she heard a shrill, panicked, animalistic scream echo throughout the forest