Eyes. So many eyes. Glassy and bulbous, and Rosalyn might have been able to convince herself that they were mechanical if she couldn’t see the bloodshot veins spiderwebbing out from the irises. She’d clawed herself out of a living thing.

A living thing with a metal chassis, or something akin to metal that she’d punched through. She tore her gaze away from the plethora of dead eyes to stare at the creature that was dead because of her. Maybe it would have died anyway on its journey, but maybe it would have survived had it not had a human inside of it.

She looked down at her hands, digging her fingers into the dirt, her clean fingers. She felt like she should be covered in blood, something, some kind of proof that she’d torn in the innards of this thing that had carried her away from her captors. She dug them into the soft earth, willing muck to erupt and cover her, give her something to wash away.

Smeesh skittered up her back, curling around her neck, nuzzling under her chin.

“Don’t,” Rosalyn croaked. “Don’t comfort me.”

The critter didn’t listen, rubbing his soft fur against her, and she dissolved into tears, reaching up to thread her fingers through it, holding his tiny fluffy body against her once again, taking the comfort she didn’t feel she deserved.

“You think I deserve it, but you don’t know any better.” Her words came out hoarse, wet with sputtered tears. “I don’t know what kind of intelligence or emotional capacity you have, but you just wanna snuggle me. I don’t know what this thing is, but it’s dead because of me. And nobody could even avenge it if they wanted to because I don’t fucking die.”

Smeesh bumped his head against her chin again before dropping to the ground, turning in a circle and feinting to the right. She wasn’t sure how she knew, but she felt like she was supposed to follow him. She didn’t trust her legs quite yet, having been curled up so long inside the...thing.

She shuffled in the dirt down the large bulbous body. It looked like something out of a cartoon, almost. Like a comic book alien. What was strange was that the metal pieces didn’t seem like they belonged. Was this thing a hollow weird alien creature with metal grafted to the outside of it? Was—

Rosalyn’s breath caught in her throat in horror as she came around the back, and Smeesh inclined his head towards what he’d wanted her to see. Along the spine of the creature, or where a spine would have been on a living thing that she could fathom, wings had been bolted in. The metal fixtures along the back were clearly attached, as in, with screws and bolts...into a living creature.

Her gut convulsed, but there was long since nothing inside. Her body ached, the throbbing of her joints melding with the burning palms and smarting foot. Exhaustion settled down on her shoulders like a weighted blanket, and she wanted to let herself fall, face first, into the dirt.

In the back of her mind, she mused that the critter had shown her this to show her that it wasn’t her fault the creature had died. That Rhizaid had done this, had grafted mechanical parts to this thing and sent it off for, what, to find the heir? How could this be useful to her?

The factory. The factory that screwed machines onto living things. Something morbid and sick inside of her wondered if they’d hollowed out the creature to avoid making a mess, or if it came that way and they’d made the most of it.

Her stomach heaved again.

“I can’t,” she sputtered a deep groan. “I can’t.”

Smeesh scuttled closer, standing directly in front of her, staring her down with his giant dark eyes. The thing had nothing going for him except fuzz and eyeballs and somehow she knew, just knew this was the stern face. This was the glare that screamed YOU CAN.

“You’re free now, just go off and live your best jungle life.” She dug into the ground again with her fingers, enjoying the feel of the cool soft earth against her skin. She felt stronger some how doing that, rooted, making it easier to resist her body’s need to melt down.

The look that furry guy gave her could have come with a snort and she wouldn’t have questioned it.

“Why are you so invested in me?” she asked. “I am not a safe person to be around.”

He did another one of his Pomeranian-style bounce spins, but she didn’t see anything in his eyes this time that answered her question. Maybe that was answer enough. That he didn’t have one.

She wished she knew whether she was assigning him characteristics in her loneliness or if he was actually intelligent enough to have this conversation.

“It doesn’t really matter at this point, does it?” Rosalyn quivered, struggling to stay on her hands and knees and not collapse to the ground. “I’m here. You’re here. Wherever here is. And I have something in my gut to deliver.” Her stomach clenched as if in response, and she wondered how the hell she hadn’t thrown up the thing that the servant had unceremoniously shoved down there. It had been long and thin, so she figured it must have been sideways or something. She was lucky it hadn’t gotten stuck anywhere.

Who knows, maybe it has, and I’ll drop dead any minute. She blinked rapidly, gritting her teeth, and pushed back from her hands as hard as she could, so that she sat back on her haunches. Her calves tingled as the muscles came to life, and she wavered a little, but still managed to stay sitting up.

“I guess we need to find...something.” She looked around at the high canopy of leaves. It was jungle-like, sure, with giant leaves and thick vines, the scent of rain even though the sun was out. But it looked as if a child had painted it, with too-blue hues and chocolatey dirt. Mushrooms stood proudly amongst thick tree roots, the caps like fluffy pillows of pastel pinks and teal, almost giving off an ethereal glow.

Her heart finally settled down into a normal rhythm as she focused on what was around her, taking in the earthy moist scents through her nose and letting her breaths out of her mouth.

“In video games, this kind of biome is always my favourite,” she said, her voice quiet and far steadier than before. “The lush rainforesty-type places with colourful plants and flowers. I guess I should enjoy actually being in one, eh?”

Smeesh seemed to accept her acceptance, and scurried into her lap, curling up into a ball. She absently stroked his soft fur as she gazed around at her impossible reality.

“You need a new name,” Rosalyn murmured. “Something cute, but also badass, because you are definitely badass. The only thing that’s coming to mind is Marshmallow, and that is cute but not badass. And this coming from a chick that named herself Rosie fuckin’ Rainbow, am I right?”

The critter slithered from her thighs and around, weaving through the dirt to a nearby tree. He made his way up the thick trunk and circled around a branch, coming to rest next to a white flower the size of Rosalyn’s fist.

“What, you want to have a flower name too?” She couldn’t help but smile as he whirled in what could only be seen as excitement, and studied the flower. It was massive, and nothing like she’d ever seen. “What’s white and fluffy? Peonies? Dahlias?” She paused. “Or wait, what about Hemlock? I can’t remember if those are poisonous or not but they’re pretty.”

He froze completely, and poofed out his fur, then shook like a dog coming out of water, before skittering down the tree and back into her lap.

Rosalyn couldn’t help but laugh. “I guess that’s a yes, then? Hemlock it is.” She pet his nuzzling form for a little while, trying to live in the moment, stay here, in the sweet-smelling jungle with her emotional support animal.

But as the sky grew lighter and more time passed since the crash, she knew she had to keep moving. “We’re burning daylight,” she quipped, her streaming voice coming through.

Years of playing online co-op games with KC and other streaming friends, especially survival stuff, flashed through her mind. It wasn’t the same as being behind a screen, but art imitated life and she had needs. “Let’s see how well my legs want to work.”

Hemlock scurried from her lap as Rosalyn shifted, putting one foot underneath her and pushing up to the second. Pins and needles still pricked along her calves and thighs, but it wasn’t so bad that it would hinder her walking. Her foot, however, was bruised to hell, and hurt to put weight on.

“I’m not gonna be very fast, so you’ll have to be patient with me,” she said, breathing through a short wave of dizziness from standing up. Or her empty stomach. Or her exhaustion. Or all of the above.

Hemlock wove back and forth in front of her, pointing towards the sunrise.

“East’s as good a direction as any,” Rosalyn said, and ushered him forward. “Lead on.”

Despite everything being wrong with her body, it seemed to pick up on the fact that she needed to run on fumes, and kept her afloat. They reached a stream of icy-cool water, and she only hesitated for a millisecond before throwing caution to the wind and drinking from it. She didn’t have any equipment to even begin to try purifying it.

“If a parasite kills me, I’ll try to come back and find you,” she chattered as she splashed the water over herself, uncaring that the satiny outfit was soaked through. The air was warm enough that she wouldn’t be too chilled. She was just happy to feel a bit cleaner. “Oh, I guess you don’t know about my whole respawning thing. No point in trying to explain it. I haven’t been able to figure out how to explain it to people that can talk to me, let alone a...” she trailed off before saying the word pet, because Hemlock wasn’t really a pet. And if she were being honest with herself, Rhizaid had kind of ruined that word for her forever.

If he was offended, he didn’t show it, simply skittering his way through the trees.

“I don’t suppose you know what kind of plants are edible here?” she asked. “I don’t mind munching on leaves as we walk, hopefully if I go slow my stomach can handle it and actually digest something.”

Hemlock paused, looking back and forth, and she wondered if he understood or if he was just trying to figure out which way to go. If he even knew where he was going. She couldn’t yet tell if he had a mouth or a nose, so she had no clue if he understood eating or if he was smelling his way around, or what.

He scurried beneath a copse of feathery ferns, and a moment later emerged, rubbing himself back and forth along them like a cat scratching its back. Rosalyn approached and knelt down, running the small stalks through her fingers.

“These?” She gripped one at the base and pinched it with her fingernails to remove it.

Running it under her nose, it smelled a bit minty, which she didn’t mind at all for her iffy stomach. She took a tentative bite and chewed some of the leaves, grinding them between her teeth to get the full flavour. She wasn’t sure what to compare it to, almost asparagus like with a minty finish? In any case, it was delicious, and she pinched off a few more to take with her.

“Thanks, bud.” She patted him softly and he allowed it for a moment before taking off in the direction they’d been headed. “Okay, I’ve got some water in me, now working on food, and now I’m kind of at a loss here. Shelter makes the most sense, but...if I knew where to even start looking for the—”

She stopped talking abruptly as Hemlock froze stock still. Rosalyn’s heart thundered, a feeling of utter awareness flooding her, stilling even the chewing of her jaws. She didn’t know what it was that was overcoming her, how she could possibly feel—

She wasn’t even sure what it was, until she finally spotted movement with her own eyes. A little ahead of them, the ground dipped, and something flitted through the leaves. She didn’t know what to do, whether to approach or to flee. Everything she’d met thus far in this world she definitely should have fled from, save for Hemlock, but she also was supposed to be searching for the heir.

The sound of a woman’s terrified scream swayed her, and she started moving towards the noise. Rosalyn wasn’t so naive to think that she could protect anyone against one of these demons, but if someone was in deep shit she could at least try to help. She stayed low and kept her feet flat on the soft dirt, moving near soundlessly. The difficulty lay in trying to avoid branches and leaves, and she opted for skirting around them rather than trying to move them without making noise.

It didn’t matter soon enough, however, as a woman tore past Rosalyn, missing her by a hair’s breadth. And it was a woman, not a demon, or at least, had looked far more humanoid being closer to her size and without horns.

She knew she should follow—whatever this woman was running from was likely bad news—but something in her felt like she should stay. Part of that something was Hemlock, standing stoic facing the direction where the woman had run.

Maybe if I trip it with a branch or something, Rosalyn thought, and searched around for something, anything she could use.

Footfalls grew closer, but no, they weren’t footfalls. They were hooves pounding the dirt.

She struggled to steady her breathing. She’d been captive to how many damn demons at this point, and now after five seconds of what felt like safety and freedom, here she was, about to come face to face with another?

Still...it felt like she had to. And she was starting to wonder if maybe that was Hemlock’s feelings somehow bleeding into her own. His soul speaks to mine, the servant demon had said. Was the little critter able to—

Her train of thought careened off of the rails as a hard body slammed into hers. She couldn’t scream as every ounce of air whooshed from her lungs and she landed on her back on the jungle floor. Her eyelashes fluttered as she tried to suck in a breath, and she expected the demon to launch off of her and continue after his prey.

Instead, he grasped a handful of her romper, jerking her closer to him. Something rippled through him, however, and he let her go again, this time flattening a palm against her chest.

“Breathe,” he commanded, in a voice that felt like silk and steel rolled into one.

Rosalyn breathed, a healing lungful of air that brought her vision back to her.

But when she laid eyes on the demon above her, her heart stopped beating. It was a face she knew. A face she’d studied in beautiful painted detail.

It was the demon from the game cover.