I woke up to the dull throbbing of my thigh. Then the night's escapades come back to me.

Fucking Hell.

I'm going to avoid thinking about what I saw last night until I take care of some things.

I take stock of my surroundings, seeing the dead coyote still impaled beside me. In the fight I knocked around my campfire. I'm going to have to fix that. Along with doing something about my thigh, and disposing of the coyote. It's also probably a good idea to set up some defenses against more animals. It's going to be a long day.

My wound throbs painfully. I'll take care of that first then. Blood coats the part of my pants that were bitten, but the wound itself has long since clotted up. I slowly get up to avoid using my leg, and then painfully strip out of my clothes to get a better look at it. It's five points about a quarter of an inch deep, and about the size of a dime. They're arrayed out where I assume the coyote's teeth were able to puncture through my jeans. Thank god for getting bit in the leg, where the thick cloth was able to mitigate some of the damage. Besides that, a nasty bruise is developing around the area where I was bitten.

I hobble over to the river to wash my wound and my bloodied pants. It takes a while to get the majority of the blood out of the jeans, and even longer to endure the pain of washing out my wound, but after half an hour I'm done. I gingerly get dressed in my slightly damp pants and consider my next endeavor. Namely, what to do with the coyote's body.

Looking at the corpse closer in the light, it looks slightly different from what I remember of coyotes and wolves. It's head and jaw are wider and the body is taller and bulkier than I remember, despite it's assumed malnutrition. I can easily make out it's ribs and it's musculature looks thin and wiry in comparison to it's larger frame. The coloraton of it's fur is also slightly odd, I don't remember coyotes ever being colored green, even if it is mixed with brown. It does make sense to the environment I'm in. Green fauna and brown patches of detritus abound here. Then again, I know next to nothing about coyotes and dog-like animals in general.

The coyote itself was likely brought here by the fish guts I imagine. I just kinda left them near where I filleted the fish, forgetting to properly dispose of them. I'm going to have to be more careful when preparing food, lest I attract more danger into my camp.

Speaking of food, what am I going to do with the dead coyote? I could bury it and be done with it. However, food is scarce. I don't really want to eat dog, but I'm unwilling to risk starvation for a dislike of the food I have. Plus the body has more usable resources than just the meat. The hide and bones could all potentially be life-saving.

My mind made up, I grab the stones I used for the cleaning fish and set about accomplishing my task.

Three hours later I'm finished. I had to wash my clothes and myself afterward to remove all the blood. A number of usable parts were ruined with a few mistakes as well. I ended up burying the leftovers from the fish and the coyote far away from my camp. The whole undertaking was unpleasant and tedious. My efforts have rewarded me with several pounds of meat, an assortment of bones, a large patch of fur, and some smaller scraps of fur. All of these barring the meat have been thoroughly washed.

The following time was spent with the cooking and subsequent eating of all the meat I gathered. That way there's less of a chance of an opportunistic predator investigating the smell. Lighting the fire was a hassle. I am getting the hang of it, thankfully. Getting a good fire going only took me three tries with the hand drill.

Fucking shit wind kept blowing it out as I was transferring the tinder bundle.

Lighters are OP.

The coyote meat tasted kinda like mutton that had been frozen a couple of times. It was really stringy. Overall a 3/5 fine dining experience. It was a lot of food too. I haven't been this full for while, even before coming here I've always been frugal with food. Breakfast was the only meal I ever filled up on. As a matter of fact, I was making toast when I was transported here. I wonder if anyone noticed the burning toast in my apartment.

My neighbors might have. The nosy bastards.

I came here on a lazy saturday morning, which means It's monday today. My boss has surely noted my absence. It isn't uncommon for me to go completely radio silent when I get really into a game or book and I have time off, so it'll be a couple more days of missed work, texts, and phone calls until my family, co-workers, or friends send someone to investigate. Whoever comes will be in for a shock. I wonder if I left a scorch mark or something. That'd be kinda cool. My family would think I spontaneously combusted or got kidnapped or something weird. They'd have to conclude I was dead after a while. Hopefully they'll be able to move on.

"Sigh."

That's enough reminiscing for today. I think I'll distract myself with some musings. Here goes nothing.

"Inventory."

That didn't work. Well, if it's worth doing once, it's worth doing again.

"Menu."

Hmm?

There was a flicker of blue and something inside me felt weird when I said that. I might be on to something.

"Menu."

Nothing this time. Odd. One more time?

"Menu?"

Still nothing. I'll move on.

"Character screen."

The blue flicker and the peculiar feeling happens again. This time it's more perceptible. Maybe I'm getting closer?

"Character screen?"

Repeating the same words doesn't seem to work. A small variation still might.

"Character sheet."

The flicker and feeling happen once more but they're even more muted than the first time I felt them. I'm getting the feeling I need a specific word, something that embodies what I'm looking for.

Hmm.

"Status."

As I utter the word the odd sensation becomes strong enough to overwhelm me. It feels as if something is drawn out from my chest. The feeling is somewhat comparable to the reverse of drinking something icy, when you can feel the cold seep into your body. It's a peculiar sensation, though not as peculiar as what I'm seeing.

I figured messing around like this was a long-shot at best. Only my genre-savvyness led me to considering that this was even a possibility. Thinking about my situation in hindsight though, it was obvious. I was transported to another world. Another world with two moons. Of fucking course there would be an game-like RPG system here.

General Information Name: Derrick Finigan Species: Human Sex: Male Age: 24 Titles None Stats None Skills None