“Where am I?”

Everything is black. A menu appears.

+~*-_YOU HAVE DIED _-*~+

“I died…?” she mutters, feeling both confused and disappointed, before her voice grows quiet for a time, as she begins to realize what her situation is. “Oh… So… is this it? Am I… Am I dead-dead?”

She sighs. Oh well. She gave it a good shot, right? It looks like the universe, or the cosmos, or whatever it is that stretches between these different existences of hers; it looks like that thing just doesn’t like her in particular. What can you do? Maybe now, maybe now that she has finally learned her lesson, maybe now it will let the darkness come to swallow up this last little bit of herself, so that she can go back to sleep? Maybe now she could finally re-

*BAKAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAW*

The girl jumps up in shock. Her eyes shoot wide awake, as she stares out at the world before herself, coughing and spluttering out the cold water from out of her lungs. She pulls herself out from inside of the fountain and falls down to the grass below, panting and heaving. Her body feels weak, her legs feel wobbly, as if she were a newborn fawn.

“Where- where am I?” she asks the world, already knowing the answer. She lifts her eyes to meet the rooster’s. It is staring from the other end of the clearing, looking straight towards her.

*Bak…* *Bak…* *Bak…*

It takes slow, careful and methodical steps towards her, its body tense, its head turned sideways to always keep an eye on the girl.

She rolls around, lifting a hand. “Ah… no! Stay there! Good rooster! Good uh… boy! Good boy!”

*BAKAAAAAAAAAAW*!

The roster explodes into a flurry of feathers and kicked-up dirt, charging towards her. Scrambling, she jumps to her feet and runs down the path. How?! Why?!

“LEAVE ME ALOOONE!” shouts the girl, running around the familiar bend, crossing over the three-way crossroads. The rooster stops again as before, just at the edge and glares her way with venom in its eyes, before turning around to return down towards the clearing.

She leans against a tree, panting, water dripping from her sweaty face and soaked clothes. She died. So… did she come back to life again? Obviously. Between heavy breathes of the evening air, she looks at her shaking hand and squeezes it. The fist closes, but it feels weak and it tingles uncomfortably. She looks down the road, towards the city that the sun has already passed over, to set itself down for the night. So… she did respawn, back here at the fountain. But it looks like time didn’t reset. She left in the morning and now the sun is almost gone by the looks of it. That means she lost… what… a few hours, maybe? That made sense to her.

Was that the only price? For literally dying? A few hours? No. There has to be something more. Something more precious that she has lost. “Why? Why did I die?” she mutters, as she walks back towards the city. A vision of the menu returns to her mind’s eye. Three ‘HP’, three health-points. The creature had had twenty, if she read that right. What does this mean? That was the first floor of the dungeon, wasn’t it? Was this maybe a harder dungeon, placed somewhere in some more advanced section of the world?

No. No, it couldn’t be. That mushroom creature looked absolutely pathetic. There’s no way that was supposed to be a difficult encounter. Her legs shake beneath herself from weakness.

So is something wrong with her? That has to be the problem, right?

The thought doesn’t surprise her in the least, of course. But it does sting a little with an old, familiar pain. Some things never change, apparently. No matter what dimension you’re in. She stands there, thinking and as she loses herself for a moment. A sound becomes vaguely present in her mind. The sound of the trickling fountain that she had just escaped from.

“Wait!” she gasps, realizing. The menu! The menu… She thinks about it. If there was a menu in the fight, then surely she can activate it outside of a fight too, right? That’s how these things work, right? She thinks about it. As if answering her question, a small chime catches her ears and she looks towards the direction, at the glass-panel that has appeared. This looks like the right thing! Maybe there’s a hint here.

~*+- PROFILE -+*~ HP: 2/2 "FRESH" SOUL: $%§ / §**+'# LEVEL: 1

STATUS: ???

CLASS: NONE

OBOLS: 00

SUB-CLASS: NONE RACE: HUMAN

[INVENTORY]

STR: 01 WIS: 02 LUK: 03 DEX: 02 INT: 02 LOV: 01

“Fresh?” she mutters. Is that her new name? Fresh fidgets. That's a weird name. What about the rest of this? These are stats for sure, like in some kind of game, but… with no context, it’s hard for her to say if these are any good. Perhaps more out of a spiritual ‘muscle-memory’ than anything else though, she thinks that they probably aren’t. But… why is her health so low? And why is this one stat, ‘soul’, so janky looking? Why…

She narrows her eyes. Her health. Her maximum health is down by a full point. She only has two now, instead of the three from before. Her gaze scans the menu. There has to be a mistake somewhere. Something that she’s missing. The mushroom creature had beaten her in one hit when she had three health-points. What’s she going to do with even less than that?!

This was the price that she had paid. Death had cost her a full point of her maximum health, maybe even some of her other stats. She doesn’t know, she hadn’t seen them before. Fresh feels weak on her feet, but that could just be from literally being reborn twice in one day.

She sighs, swiping the menu away and shuddering as she realizes how cold it’s getting rather abruptly. The sun is starting to fade behind the horizon and the evening breeze begins to shift into a soft gale, which runs over her bare shoulders and wet robe, chilling her body. Clutching herself, she walks through the giant gate and into the city for the second time today.

The city is much less lively now that the evening has come. The streets, which were packed full before, are now sparsely trodden at best. Instead, she sees a new sight. Heartfelt, shining, orange and yellow hues leak out of the many glass windows of the city’s houses. Laughter and dulled voices carry out together with the shine, surrounding her with warm sensations that she isn’t allowed to be a part of.

“It’ll be night soon…” she says to herself and wonders what she is going to do. The wind picks up, seeping through the gate and flowing over her, now with a more frigid bite. Taking the hint and holding herself, she walks down over the empty plaza and then the following darkening street alone. Why didn’t she think about this better? She was so determined to rush in, so blinded by her desires to be, to feel, that she had sabotaged herself yet again.

As always. Nothing ever changes.

Laughter and warm, muffled words ring out all around her as she walks along the main road. She isn’t sure of what else to do, so she simply keeps on walking. Fresh doesn’t have any money and now that it is getting late, she feels her stomach growling in protest at having been ignored all day. “Guess I still need to eat…” she mumbles beneath her breath.

The darkness is setting on faster and faster and with it comes a deeper cold that is surprisingly strong, given the very hot mid-day sun that was above the world just a few hours ago. Her body begins shaking wildly and her teeth chatter before she reaches the second plaza. Now what? She looks around herself. There is still nowhere to go, nowhere to find shelter. There is nowhere where she would be welcome, especially with no money. Some new life this is turning out to be.

“I miss my bed.” Her eyes fixate on the dungeon and she walks towards it again. Where else is there to go? She’ll freeze out here. Hesitating for a moment, Fresh steps towards the blue-mist a second time and lets it envelop her; unaware of the small figure that was watching her in the distance from a window.

Passing through, she sits down at the top of the staircase and leans back against the wall, beneath a torch. It isn’t warm-warm, but it also isn’t frigid, like it is outside either and there’s no wind here. That’s something, right? Her eyes wander down the staircase. Would the mushroom-monster attack her? She hopes not. Maybe if she stays up here, maybe it won’t wake up then?

“Whatever,” she thinks and leans her head back against the wall. Even if it does get her a second time, what does she even have left to lose?