Faye puffed out breath after breath as she ran full-pelt through the trails around the gargantuan, rough-barked trees in the forest she had somehow stumbled into. The tree branches sometimes came low to the forest floor, apparently allowing the animals that nested in the trees here easy access to the ground… and anyone walking underneath the boughs.

Her mind raced almost as fast as her legs. She held her sheathed sword in her left hand, up by the cross guard and the point facing down, concentrating more on keeping it out of her way.

How did I end up… wherever this is?! she thought, again and again, as she ran. Unfortunately, she was a little too preoccupied by something else to figure that out.

The screeching sound of yet another furry attacker signalled for Faye to change directions. She skidded to the left and turned as much as she could, putting a hand out to vault over a branch. She got her legs up easily enough, and the flowing material of her hakama style trousers swished over the tree. One of the cat-like creatures that were pursuing her got its claws caught in the material and was pulled off balance.

Spitting out a curse, Faye stumbled a little when she hit the forest floor again, her shoes slick on the soft, loamy soil. The cat-thing had been caught up in her legs, its own spitting hiss a counter-curse to Faye’s own words.

“Get off, get off, get off!”

It tried its best to rip her legs to shreds with its claws. Faye cried out in pain as its paws batted through her trousers like they weren’t there.

Seeing something in the corner of her eye, Faye grit her teeth, took a proper grip of her sword, drew it and swung it in a horizontal slice, a hand’s span above the branch she’d just vaulted, in one smooth motion.

A second creature was caught in the midriff and, with a high-pitched screech, was smashed to the side.

“God damn it, you little monster!”

These things had sharp claws, whatever they were. The one on her leg had latched on with every paw and was trying to sink its teeth into her shin. Using the pommel of her sword, she rapped it on the head, hard. It didn’t do much damage, the screech and rapid scramble away from her showed that much, but she was cat free. For now.

The hostile sounds all around her were getting louder. Looking up into a massive tree, what might be the last true giant in the forest before she was in open grassland, she saw the leaping forms of more of these cats.

She had no idea why they were quite so violent, but she knew she wanted as far from them as she could get.

Turning, Faye started running as fast as she could, again. She rested the sword on her shoulder as she ran, though she wasn’t worried about cutting herself — it was blunt after all.

Her breathing was laboured, but she thanked her lucky stars that she was the kind of person that actually enjoyed running. If she hadn’t been, she would never have made it this far.

The pain of the scratches on her leg wasn’t too much for her, though the cuts stung like mad. She had the sense that it would get much worse when she stopped to think about it.

Running through the grass, Faye had time to scout out the area in front of her. The gently sloping ground ahead dropped into a wide, open valley of pale green grasses. It was easy to see across to the other side, a few miles distant, and the grasses and plants between here and there. If she wasn’t mistaken, that was a river or a stream running through the middle of the valley as well. She was hoping that whatever these cat things were, they would like water as much as her childhood cat had.

Which wasn’t at all.

Looking back over her shoulder, she could see a veritable horde of creatures slinking over and around the trees, coming for her. There were even more beasts arrayed across the branches of the trees, howling at her.

Trying to put the rest of them out of her mind, she focused on the ones gaining on her. The animals were fast, and they were almost on her.

Breathing hard, Faye set her feet in a ready stance — something she could move in and out of with ease. She pulled her longsword around and up into a high guard. Narrowing her eyes, she tried to get her breathing under control with steady, deep breathing techniques.

There was hardly any time before the cats were too close.

The first one to get close jumped, claws outstretched. She waited until it was in reach at the top of its arc before bringing the blade down in a slightly diagonal cut with a tight explosion of motion from her shoulders, arms, and hips. She exhaled sharply as she cut, letting out what breath she’d captured in a single blast.

She didn’t care how blunt a training sword was, anything the size of a family tabby could be easily hurt by the steel of an almost metre-long blade slamming into it.

The blade was thin enough to break skin when moving fast enough when it hit, evidenced by the blood on the top ten centimetres of the sword. Before the other cats could get close enough, Faye heard a notification ping, loudly playing in her ears, demanding her attention.

Congratulations! You have killed a level 2 [Leaping Treecat].

For displaying good knowledge of your weapon, you have unlocked a class skill: [Sword Fighting — Basic].

For unlocking a class skill before reaching level 2, you have been awarded a bonus to experience.

“What the hell?” she exclaimed.

The second cat — a leaping treecat apparently — launched itself toward her, pushing all thoughts out of her mind.

She moved on autopilot.

Swinging her sword in a rising slash she caught the treecat in its soft underbelly. The blunt blade connected with a dull thwack, eliciting a harsh squeal of pain from the animal.

Following up, Faye slashed downward, catching the cat on its head.

The cat dropped away from her, lifeless.

She tried not to think about what she was doing. Her breath would hitch at the back of her throat every couple of seconds, but she swallowed it harshly, ignoring the cries of the attacking cats.

A pair of cats leapt towards her, a third close behind. Each one had claws outstretched as if they were aiming to grab her in a cuddle.

The incongruous thought made her frown.

Stepping backward, Faye swung her blade in a slash once more, then retreated another couple of steps to avoid the cats that she had missed with the blow.

Once again, Faye heard that same notification ping over the sounds of the snarling and hissing cats, her own heartbeat, and the rush of blood through her head.

Congratulations! You have killed two level 2 [Leaping Treecats].

Bonus experience awarded.

Another treecat leapt at her again, this time not towards her upper body, but straight at her legs. She hadn’t expected it, and her swing went too high. She knew better than to swing towards her own body, so she used the momentum of her blade swing to lift her left leg and pivot in a slight hop to land a step away.

She’d somewhat hopped over the cat, but its outstretched claws were still shockingly close.

The vicious snarling of the treecat sounded incredibly loud in her ears. It sent her body into a panic. She danced away from the animal and finally managed to bait a leaping attack out of it. She was able to chop savagely down on the treecat as it landed.

That notification ping sounded again, but no words accompanied the sound.

Faye shook her head, putting a finger in her ear and wiggling it a little.

“What on earth is that?”

Her heartbeat was still through the roof, but as she panted and looked around, she realised she did have a moment to breathe — literally.

There didn’t appear to be more treecats nearby. Faye checked her pockets for her phone. These trousers had wide openings, though, and she had been moving erratically through the woods. She didn’t expect to find her phone, but what else was making the sounds?

In fact, her phone had still been in her gym bag, hadn’t it?

That hadn’t come with her here… wherever here was.

She only had her clothes — the hakama style trousers, a slim fit tee shirt ideal for training, and her slip-on training shoes — and her training sword, a blunt but deadly-to-small-creatures steel longsword in the German style.

Dropping the sheath and stabbing her blade into the soft earth, she intertwined her fingers behind her head; letting the stretch open her lungs wider.

Taking the moment to just breathe, Faye looked back up towards the trees where the cats had come from.

The rest of the treecat horde were still in the branches there. She had a feeling that they were reluctant to leave their boughed home, barring the few that had chased her.

Most animals were willing to leave humans well enough alone if you didn’t go near their nests. Perhaps these cats were the same?

A faint breeze had started up and Faye could feel her sweaty skin cooling rapidly. Suppressing a shiver, Faye rubbed her arms and put the trees to her back. She felt the desperate need for something to drink, so the river was as good a destination as any for now.

As she trudged towards the river, Faye couldn’t help but think more about those notification sounds and the words she’d seen or heard...

Every time she thought about them, it was as if her memory was playing tricks on her. She couldn’t remember if she’d read them or heard them. Even the words themselves weren’t fully clear in her mind’s eye.

Something about levels, killing the leaping treecats. How did she know what those things were called? Had she thought it up herself, subconsciously?

Where am I? The one thought she didn’t want to dwell on rose from her subconscious repeatedly.

She shook her head. That was something she’d be able to wonder when she was sure she wasn’t surrounded by things that wanted to hurt her.

The grassland levelled out soon enough. As she had noticed from the tree line, the valley was relatively wide and easy going. The breeze smelled fresh, much fresher than any she’d smelled recently, with a faint hint of flowers and grass. No smoke, no fumes, nothing to suggest human life. She didn’t even detect the subtlest hint of farmyard smells, either. Manure and pig barn scents were a somewhat regular occurrence in her hometown, on the outskirts anyway.

Ahead, the river that she’d seen, or suspected she’d seen, wasn’t visible. The land was too flat for that now. But she could see the tall grasses and small bushes and trees that lined the waterway. She wasn’t sure what it was about this place, but something was a little off. She couldn’t place what it was.

Despite the feeling that there was something wrong with the landscape, it was a truly wonderful place to be. It reminded Faye of her favourite hills of the Yorkshire Dales or walking the beautifully rugged landscape of north Wales. Somewhere that was still wild and free.

“Truth be told, it could be either of those places, and I wouldn’t exactly know.”

Muttering to herself wasn’t the best sign of sanity, she knew, but it was comforting to hear her own voice somehow. And without access to her phone, she really could be anywhere in the few truly wild places left and not know that only a mile away there was a warm, dry, and safe hiker’s pit stop with hot chocolate, flapjack, sandwiches, or a good cuppa.

Looking around this valley though, Faye saw nothing that suggested she would find that easy and familiar place of life and civilisation. The gentle wind blew the grass in waves. From here, it looked like there were white lines of light gliding silently across the land. The sun high above was bright, but the wind and the air were cool. It was as if summer had given way to autumn in a single day.

“Seriously, not cool, universe. Where have you taken me?”