My heart stopped when I went over the cliff’s edge. There was water below, so I wouldn’t splat. But I couldn’t belly flop either--not if I wanted to survive a fall from forty feet up. I flailed my arms and desperately tried to make myself vertical. There was a moment of flying, and then I smashed into the water.

The world was gray and bubbles. I stared at it, confused, feeling like I’d been punched.

A fish bumped into my back and flicked away. A heartbeat later, it happened again. I dimly wondered if it was trying to eat me. The thought spurred me to kick towards the surface and drag myself out of the water.

I survived the fall, and I was intact, except my right butt cheek was on fire. I looked down and saw ring of pinpricks an inch in diameter in the seat of my pants. I pulled the seat down, and the ring was replicated on my butt cheek, the skin turning red as I watched.

I’d been purposely avoiding my Status screen as I grieved my death, but for this I checked the phone in my head:

Status Malnourished (I), Poisoned (I)

One, apparently a diet of just plums and fennel isn’t healthy. And two, I’d been poisoned. I dropped to one knee, suddenly dizzy, and the world spun around me.

Really, world? I avoided a dragon, survived falling from a cliff, and some little sugar of a bug is what kills me? From a bite on the ass?

I stumbled towards the cave and collapsed on the moss. The muscles around my lungs began to constrict, and I fought for breath, gasping for air. The Status page was the only still point, while everything else revolved around and around.

My Hit Points ticked down from 8 to 5. From 5 to 2.

I felt for the magic behind my mana score, hoping to find a way to cure myself. I banged on the door, hammering it with my will, but the door held. My desperation wasn’t the key to unlocking the magic behind it.

My mouth grimaced, jaw locking. I couldn’t scream, but in my mind, I raged before losing consciousness.

###

I dreamed.

I dreamed that I floated above my body, while it struggled against the poison. It breathed in fast, short gulps. The limbs shook and spasmed. I was dying, but somehow I wasn’t concerned, my thoughts muffled. I was curious about the afterworld. I wondered if I’d see a white light, like in the stories.

Then the light changed, but instead of beautiful white, it was silver in hue. And instead of an angel, I saw an otter walk into the cave. Not so bad as far as dreams went. Better an otter than a baboon.

The otter’s fur was gray and her eyes blue, banded with dark flint. She seemed annoyed by my body stinking of poison. With a sigh, she went back to her pool and returned, walking upright with a small bowl in her front paws. Setting it down carefully, she splashed water from the bowl onto my body.

But my body had somehow transformed into an eight-shaped carapace. And it was on fire.

The otter went for more water, back and forth, until the fire was extinguished. She paused to admire her handiwork, but what she saw didn’t please her. Her nose wrinkled in distaste.

With a nod to herself, she pulled a rock from a fold in her fur. Her eyes glinted as she smashed the rock onto the carapace, cracking and crunching its exterior. Sections fell away, exposing my body underneath.

The body was now bound by silver rope. The otter smashed the rope. She pounded and pounded at the binding, but it wouldn’t loosen. She only stopped when she noticed the body mewling in pain. Her eyes narrowed.

The otter stepped away and came back with my flint axe in her hands. The axe came down. A binding snapped. Then another, as the blade swung again. The silver rope frayed, which only encouraged the otter. She used the axe to cut and chop, to hew and hack.

I suddenly felt like a balloon inflating. Like I’d been emptied out and folded carefully, but now I was being unwound and unfurled. Below me, my body was whole and unfettered.

The otter’s nose wrinkled again, but this time in pleasure. She looked down at the axe, pleased, and tucked it away in the fold of her fur. As for my body, she gave it a pat on the head and left it to sleep.