Mia wasn’t sure how long she sat there, in the blood, and guts and viscera. She smelled it, but it was rotten. Repugnant. And she still couldn’t bring herself to ignore it. Murder. In self-defense, yes, and she knew, deep down, that one day she’d probably forgive herself for it. Come to fully understand that in that moment, it was him or her, and- even inadvertently- she’d chosen to live, even at the cost of his life. It was an understandable choice. She even imagined, in flashes that she didn’t want to admit to, that it might even happen again. Wherever she was might be violent to the point where that was the only reasonable decision to protect her life.

It didn’t mean that she’d just shrug her shoulders and get OVER it, though. Another shiver ran through her, although it was warm out. Really, the whole environment was near traitorous. It wasn’t a gloomy night, cold and matching her feelings. No, the daylight was strong, and it was warm and calm. Perfectly fine day, really.

She kinda hated it.

However, even she couldn’t sit here and waste away forever, despite part of her wanting to. She…needed to do something, right. ‘What was it, again?’ In her self-loathing, she’d honestly forgotten. ‘Oh, right. Civilization somehow. Although now she wasn’t even certain that it was a good idea.

She was able to speak properly, at least- after thinking over (and over and over and over) about her first meeting with the man, she’d come to register that he’d indeed understood her, and had simply dismissed her words, as opposed to not comprehending what she was saying at all. That was a…well, it was both a good sign and a troubling one that she seemed to naturally speak the local language. It DID feel familiar on her tongue, at least, so perhaps it was just a coincidence anyway? She wasn’t sure, but this was one mystery she didn’t mind leaving alone.

Even so, she still wanted to find…something. Finding something about herself…if there was anything good left to find.

She sighed. ‘I really have no direction, huh? Except for a vague voice that told me to look for a temple.’ She didn’t even know WHAT temple. Just her ‘last temple.’ That didn’t give her much clue as to how she’d even START looking, though, well, ‘last’ indicated she likely wasn’t popular or anything. She’d have to ask questions…and THAT meant trying to talk to people.

It was a bit thin on the ground as far as excuses went, but she went with it anyway. And there was still plenty of daylight left…

Hoisting herself up, she took a look around. She wasn’t any sort of tracker or knew how to trace footsteps or anything, but she knew where she was coming from, at least. Presumably she’d be best off going the direction his back was facing? It was a longshot, but again, not like she had much more to go on. However…a situation like that happening again? The idea of it chilled her.

And as her eyes slid over the corpse, much to her private dread, she noticed the sword that had fallen nearby. It was crusted with blood, and she had not a single clue how best to use it, but…well, it was something that wasn’t her natural body. Something she could swing in front of her and hopefully ward off anyone trying to attack her. It’d have to do.

As she picked the weapon up, she found that it was surprisingly light in her hands- the blade wasn’t very long, mind, but it would certainly function well to poke at anything she needed. All that blood had to be bad for it, though…she’d have to find a way to wipe it off. The grass didn’t do a great job.

Silk did, though- she made sure to keep it to the non-sticky threads, however. Still, they were thick enough that after wrapping a couple short threads together (during the production of which she figured out a neat trick about her rearmost legs that allowed her to cut off the web without needing the use of her hands), she was able to more or less produce a halfway functioning rag.

Honestly, the fact that she got uses out of her own silk was…surprisingly pleasing. Every time she managed it, it made her feel a little less helpless. A little more certain.

Having cleaned it off the best she could, she gave it a once over once more. A bit more thread spun, and she had a makeshift belt. The holster she had…borrowed, from the man, to her guilt, but it was necessary to prevent her from getting cut by the thing. It hung awkwardly, but it held the weight well enough. Could she make a full harness for the thing one day? ‘Maybe,’ she thought as she finally snuffed out the fire, and prepared to continue on. ‘But I’ll leave that for when I’m not in danger of starving.’ With the thought of food in mind, she once again set off.

A while later, she had…well, ‘cheered up’ was the wrong word for it, but she was focusing on other things, for now. She’d clambered up and down crag and hill and small ravine, and while her exploratory skills were something she was well used to now- just about any surface was traversable, she’d found, so long as she had enough surface area to actually put a foot on it- she still needed to work on some of her hunting skills. She’d managed a small snack in the form of a fluffy rabbit-like thing, but little else for the moment. That, plus her water pot was nearly empty. She’d need to look into refilling it. Preferably before it was completely dry.

‘I remember I smelled and heard water a couple of days ago,’ she mused to herself. ‘I SWEAR I can almost smell some, but that might just be my imagination.’

Imagination or not, though, she figured there was little to risk that she wasn’t already. ‘Might as well just follow my nose,’ was the conclusion.

The next few minutes involved her doing her best impression of a hunting dog with not a one of the skills (well, okay, perhaps stalking), and simply turning near at random, moving forward at a steady pace when she felt like she was straying from the scent. For a time, she started to think it was just a fit of madness- but she threw that thought away quickly enough. She’d had enough mental stress for the immediate moment. ‘Just need to focus on this, Mia…’

And as she moved through a set of bushes in her path, she soon found her efforts rewarded- by way of a rather large and pleasant looking lake! It was much bigger than the underground pond she’d seen at first, and the water seemed clear and refreshing. She trotted up to the lake’s edge, and indeed, got a good look at herself at last.

Her dusky, sandy colored skin seemed plastered with drops of blood here and there, and her body was- well, not well covered. Her long hair was reedy and dry, matted and littered with dust and other bits.

She couldn’t help a blush when an obvious issue struck her. She’d lacked any covering this ENTIRE TIME. How had she not registered that she was truly baring all for all and sundry? Part of her was impressed the man hadn’t hesitated to attack her. A smaller part was slightly insulted. But then, she supposed that her dirty, ragged look otherwise dulled the attractiveness. Well, BOTH of those problems would be fixed up right here and now!

Honestly, she’d needed a good soak- the water was a bit chilly, but she was more than willing to withstand it to get clean. She probably stank something fierce...

She didn’t have anything else to help clean her, so that’d do for now, but some kind of soap wouldn’t go amiss later.

As for the issue of clothing…well, all she could really think of was using her own silk, which she supposed wasn’t the WORST option in the world. ‘I’d really like some proper fabric, though,’ she complained to no one as she tried to make herself the thickest non-sticky threads she could. If nothing else, she’d be able to bind herself up and prevent anyone from getting a good ogle.

With herself now washed up and bound up properly, she felt a bit better about herself. Still a ways from ‘good’, but it was progress! And better yet- a few snacks in the form of fish that’d wandered a bit too close to her. She noticed that her legs were…well, to put it in a word, fast. She’d nearly given herself whiplash the one time she’d lunged with her full body to catch a nearby fish- it was longer than her arm, frankly, so she felt it worth the disorientation. At the very least, she’d learned a bit more about herself that proved useful. The fish was delicious, too.

She took time to fill up her pot, as well; it’d already proved useful for her. Part of her was worried about how safe it was to drink, but she’d drank from the pond water with no ill-effects, so hopefully this would be much the same. Right?

Well, she wasn’t too inclined to worry about that either at the moment. Instead, after washing the sword she now possessed off to the point it actually looked clean for once, she took her leave of the place. It was nice scenery, and she’d refreshed herself a bit. But she’d rather not get caught out in the open like that by anything…aggressive, she figured.

As she resumed her walk through the forest, she couldn’t help but notice, after some time, that the ground had started to get…well, flatter. How far away from the mountains she was, she couldn’t be sure, but she’d been walking, and she could tell that she had a far faster and longer stride at a casual pace now than she did as a human, that was for sure. She’d likely crossed a pretty decent distance by now, now that she thought about it…

It was a bit of time later, chancing upon a small hill when she finally saw something that made her heart leap- in a good way, for once. An old rucksack! Very useful, no doubt, even if it didn’t have anything inside. Nearly galloping up to it, it appears that that was the case- but she was perfectly fine with that. It was old, a bit threadbare in some places, but no big holes, and all in one piece. ‘Maybe my luck’s looking up!’ she thought. ‘Got a storage sack, a water jar…’ A sword, though she didn’t like to think of the source of it. Might actually be a bit more prepared. Maybe that meant she could-

A yell far to her left, and Mia began to think she might be cursed or the sort. ‘Just when I start feeling kinda confident…’ she lamented to herself. Well, this time was a bit different. She had SOME means of defending herself, but hopefully, whatever made that noise- and caused the yelp from some manner of beast a few moments later- wouldn’t mess with her any.

That was when she heard a voice. “Marcus! Hold on, will you? You’re too excited!” A female’s voice, young by her estimate.

“Wasn’t THAT far ahead,” came a male voice- just as young, too. “Besides, I think I found a clue!”

At first, part of her wanted to run clear away. But that voice sounded…well, almost nice. Call her naïve, call her desperate. But Mia was lonely already. And with her first attempt at socialization gone so wrong, she was ironically both frightened and eager to try again. She was out of eyesight of whoever had said that, as far as she could tell- the uneven forest ground did well enough to mask her presence, not to mention the trees, of course.

Crawling up to a nearby hill (or at least doing her best imitation at crawling), she peeked over the ridge to see who’d made the noise.

The first she saw was a young man, standing over what looked like a large wolf. The young adult had midnight black hair, and wore what look to be a combination of leather pants and what seemed to be a metal chest plate- not much, but something in the way of armor. He wielded a shortsword, slick with blood, as well as a simple round shield in his right hand. He had a backpack on, as well. “Take a look over here! Near the tree!” he said as he pointed towards a tree Mia hadn’t noticed; fortunately, it was away from her.

“Right, right…” the other one said. A girl, this was, and dressed in what Mia could only place as white robes; upon them, even at this distance, she could see various markings and patterns running up and down the length of both the top and bottom halves of her dress. Also with a traveling pack, she held what looked to be a short stave in her hands as well, the top of it engraved with the mark of some sort of bird. She couldn’t see the girl’s face from this angle, but the hair spilling over told her that she was blonde. “Huh…this is one of their helmets. Blood’s dry, though.”

“Still, they can’t be far! C’mon, let’s get these guys,” the young man cheered. “Less bandits skulking about, the better.”

Bandits? Was that who she’d ran into earlier? So…they’d been robbing people. Not just unfortunate wanderers.

…it didn’t make her feel much better.

“I agree,” the girl said calmly. “There’s only supposed to be four or five, right?”

“Yeah, there shouldn't be a problem with what we got prepared,” the boy- Marcus- said confidently. “Relax, Junia, we got this!” he reassured her. Nodding, she and he both turned towards the lake that she’d just come from and began marching. “This whole trip’ll still be worth the bounty even if they got got by monsters. So long as we’ve got something to take back.”

“True, but still…” The girl’s voice faded out as they continued on their way.

Great. They were going BACK where she’d just come from. Well, that was fine, right? After all, the fact that they were coming from a direction meant that it was likely that not only was there civilization IN that direction, but that there’d be less monsters since surely they’d have killed anything around there, right? So there’d be no reason for her to risk this.

None at all. Ever.

…but seriously, she was incredibly lonely.

‘I really have to get over myself,’ she lamented as she walked as lightly as possible behind them. She’d have some time to figure out how to approach the duo, at least.