The haze that seemed to cloud your minds after you had closed them for what felt like the very last time soon gave way to the sight of an unfamiliar ceiling. The mattress upon which you lay was stiff and the blanket covering your body had a thin layer of dust upon it—one oddity among many, and far from the last. The room itself is rather rustic, if not unkempt; wooden floorboards and rough-hewn stone make up a majority of the workings of the room around you, and there is not a single piece of modernity in sight even as you rise and take stock of the situation around you. A glance out the window reveals some rather grim sights; even from this distance you can make out what appear to be rusted weapons and skeletons bereft of flesh lying on the streets... As well as some odd figures barely visible in the shaded alleyways nearby. But it doesn't take long for the focus to shift from your surroundings to yourselves in turn.

Your bodies feel no worse for wear in the briefest moments before you examine them, but once you do it is rather evident ere long that you aren't in your own—or, at the very least, the one that you used to know.

Regardless of whatever you do to take stock of the situation, leaving these rooms would bring you to a hallway, likewise connected to other rooms—as one might expect. Having woken up alone, however, one might find solace in the presence of others, equally disoriented by the situation though they might be.

@VitaVitaAR@Crimson Paladin@Rune_Alchemist

Ah, jeez...

I wasn't exactly excited about going on a plane ride to the US, but my friends though it'd be a great time for me.

It does make me wonder why they didn't come along too, but right now, I'm pretty glad they didn't.

I'm pretty sure everyone else is going to be okay though. The sound of something going wrong was pretty bad. Probably the scariest experience I've ever had in my life. The oxygen masks dropping down didn't make it any better.

But it turns out our pilot is pretty capable, I guess.

He's gonna land this thing with just one casualty.

I'm not quite sure how it's ended up like this, but this angle that I'm falling towards the wall at is pretty bad. I can't even figure out why I'm so calm.

I don't want to die.

But right now, I don't think there's any other way that this can end.

... Man.

I hope Takeo-san can finish that game he was working on. The version he had me test was already pretty fun. Chisato-chan's already getting some work as an up-and-coming voice actress, too. I bet she'll go pretty far.

There's a lot of things I want to do, still, so I think I'm actually pretty angry.

But---

---

---

---My face feels warm.

Huh.

That's not what I was expecting.

What was I expecting? My mind feels a bit jumbled, and I can't really catch up on my own thoughts.

Wait.

That's right. The plane was going down. Even if it looked like everyone else was going to be okay, I sure wasn't. I probably broke my neck or got a fatal head injury or something.

Even if I lived, I don't think I'd be feeling warmth on my face. At least, not consciously.

So was I actually okay?

I open my eyes.

That's sunlight, coming through a nearby window. That must be why my face is so warm, huh.

I lived!

That's pretty awesome, I guess I worried too much about the fall! This must be a hospital bed, then, since I'm sure I still got hurt. It sure doesn't feel like one, though.

In fact, I've got no pain at all. If anything I feel pretty great. Did I dream about a plane crash or something?

But this isn't my room at home. The ceiling's too rundown for that, and it's made of wood. That's definitely not what a hospital ceiling would look like, either.

It's way too shabby.

Come to think of it, the air is incredibly stale in here too. Couldn't someone open a window?

I sit up.

While that's a good sign, it makes the light shine in my eyes even brighter. Ergh...

I shut my eyes to give myself a moment to adjust.

When I reopen them, and look out the window---

Hold it.

I rub my eyes to try and clear them. Maybe I'm imagining things. Maybe I really did hit my head.

But there's no way.

The rooftops outside aren't anything like the ones back home in Japan. And they're not like anything you'd see in America, either.

Those crumbling rooftops look exactly like the sort of architecture you'd expect from a town somewhere in Medieval Europe. It's not like I have first-hand experience, but plenty of games I play have that sort of aesthetic so it's not hard to recognize.

I can feel everything. This isn't a dream, that's for sure, but how... what...?

Wait a second. When I rubbed my eyes, I saw my hand for just a moment---

Did it look different?

I quickly look down.

The outfit I'm in is cute and feminine. A white shirt and a blue skirt with some kind of cape.

Is there some kind of a pervert with a crossdressing fetish around here, attacking people in their sleep?!

To begin with, there's no way I'd look good in girls' clothing. Takeo-san could pull it off, but I'm no-where near feminine enough. I'd look ridiculous. Putting that aside, I'm not interested in crossplay at all!

...

But that's...

That's not what's going on, is it?

I look at my hand again.

This delicate-looking skin.

These slender fingers.

This thin arm.

Is this really my hand? Am I knocked out and dying after the emergency landing?

---I can rule that out almost immediately. Everything is too tangible and too real. I can feel the rough sheets, the soft clothing on my skin.

But why are my arms so small? Why do my thighs look like that, with those white socks clinging to them?

"What's going---"

I freeze.

Then, in a barely conscious action, my hand flies up to my throat.

My neck is thin and smooth.

What just came out of my mouth isn't my voice.

That's the exact kind of voice I'd expect out of some kind of super cute elf mage character. In fact, it's the exact sort of voice I was hoping Sephily from The Elf Mage Doesn't Approve would have once it got an anime adaptation.

I can feel a sinking sensation deep in my stomach.

There's no way, right? Reality doesn't allow for such ridiculous things to happen, right?

I place my hands to my face.

Smooth. Slight features. Soft cheeks.

The closest thing I have to a mirror right now is the nearest window, so I can only barely make out my reflection.

But that's all I need.

The face looking back at me is a cute, pretty blonde-haired girl's, with long pointed ears and blue eyes.

---Ah.

There's no doubt, this is all too real to be a dream.

And yet what I'm looking at is totally, completely impossible. There's absolutely no way something so ridiculous could occur in the real world.

At least, not the one I know.

"EEEEEEEEHHHHHHH?!"

I can't contain myself any longer.

@FujiwaraPhoenix@Crimson Paladin@Rune_Alchemist

---

---

Whatever the last world had left them with, where they found themselves now couldn't have been further from it.

The light breeze would wash over their skin, accompanied by the gentle warmth of sunlight shining from above. The clearing was mostly filled with grass and other smaller plants, but their surroundings were fairly thickly forested.

The sounds of birdsong and the rustling of leaves could be heard from all around them, filling their eyes as they awakened. It was a thriving, lively place.

And yet not untouched.

For the structure they awakened within was undeniably not a natural one. Even if the worn rooftop had fallen in, even if the grass and vines had grown up and through it, flowers blossoming within the structure from around them, there was no question that it was once some kind of manmade structure.

Its nature was obscured by its age.

But the worn pedestal and the broken stone statue perhaps indicated some sort of place of worship.

Exactly why they had all awakened in an old, abandoned shrine of some sort in the middle of a dense forest was difficult to explain, but they were all there nonetheless.

@FujiwaraPhoenix@Pyromania99@Raineh Daze

… huh. This was… hmm, she didn't remember taking a trip to Aokigahara? Even then, it wasn't the sort of place where you just went and fell asleep in the forest. No, wait, she'd been on a trip across the sea – hang on, that didn't make sense, either. Flight paths went north, there wouldn't have been some huge forest to land in after a crash… at least, she didn't think so? Was this Canada?

As she thought, Hikari's tails swished.

…

Tails? Now, that was definitely something that didn't come with a crashed plane. It was kind of hard to count but reaching a and around made it a bit easier and… yup, nine tails. Huh, that was neat, and it explained why her ears felt so much twitchier. Not, looking down, the maid dress, but there were worse things to be stuck in.

She guessed this was one of those isekai scenarios, then. Although, it would've been nice to be dropped off somewhere more inhabited? She didn't feel like she had many useful skills for being in some dilapidated forest building with… some man wearing a coat, and a lady with surprisingly pretty hair. Ah, which one to wake up first?

The lady was a bit closer. Right, just give her a gentle push. "Excuse me, ma'am, you can't sleep here."

@Pyromania99 @FujiwaraPhoenix

The cutest Doll - Lena

---

Honestly.

Honestly really.

If she had to have picked a way to go it wouldn't have been...this. Staring death down as time slowed to a crawl. She was vaguely aware of one of her friends shouting something to her, but she couldn't really make it out. She had so much she wanted to do still! Aside from work, she was planning on traveling! Seeing the world! Changing it! Tall orders really, and maybe it was her own self delusions of grandeur but she was certain she was going to! But really though, how could she be upset or mad? Life always through curveballs at people, it was nothing new.

She just didn't expect one that she couldn't defeat to come so early.

At least she'd leave behind a pretty corpse as one may say.

----

Slowly, feeling would return. As dulled and slightly distant as it all was. What was she doing? She had gotten that job, right? She had went to go celebrate with some friends afterwards. She vaguely recalled leaving the place, but she couldn't remember anything that happened afterwards.

"Chepukha...I haven't gotten black out drunk since I found my fathers vodka stash..." She rolled over on whatever she was laying on, not wanting to open her eyes just yet. Weirdly enough she didn't seem to have anything resembling a hangover for having drank that much. Also, what was with this super uncomfortable mattress? Had she ended up drunk, passed out on the streets and ended up in a jail or something? Probably not, but she couldn't think of where another mattress if this clearly terrible quality would be.

"Stas...? Klara...!"

No response, just the sound of someone shouting in the distance. Reminded her of a...screeching car tire...?

"I LIIIIIVE!" It was just loud enough to at least get her own eyes open and to sit straight up in bed...and for hazy memories to at least, become clear enough to recall what happened. "Ahahah, I knew I was too cute to die! Stas! Klara-where...haaah...?" Her hand waved in front of her.

It was...definitely her hand, right? At least, it moved when she told her hand to move, and its delicate, well crafted fingers flexed when she told her fingers to flex. She took one of her 'fingers' and lightly traced her hand along the side and then along the knuckles of her other pointer finger. It was like touching some extremely fine grain, high quality crafted wood with...some sort of odd finish on it that made it smooth, though a bit hard to the touch.

"...hm. Well that's odd." Lena slowly looked around the room, and the bed and mattress she seemed to now be sitting on and slid her legs off the side of the bed, once again noticing the fact that her body seemed to no longer be strictly organic in nature. Doubly so, she seemed to be dressed in some sort of frilly, cute outfit. Well, at least whoever dressed her up had excellent taste. There wasn't much else to go on, though, except that voice she heard a little bit earlier.

Oh.

Right, that. Was someone else here? She could disrobe and intimately inspect her apparently new body later. There may be someone that could help her. Lena briefly looked out the window and frowned, but paid it no mind. Rough neighborhood and wherever she was, it wasn't Russia.

"Helllooooo! Priveeeeet!" Lena shouted, heading towards where she had assumed the sound had come from. "Don't worry! I am friend! Especially if you're cute...eh?" As she passed by an open door to the room, she slowed, tilting her head to the side slightly. "...elf?"

Oh, those were some cute ears...

Given how the last thing he had felt was the one-two of a speeding car and hitting the cold, hard pavement before blacking out, the last thing Nicolas had expected to feel was a mix of grass and stone upon waking up. Sure, there was something between him and that, but seeing as how he had most certainly gone flying through the air like a ragdoll, surely there had to have been someone able to call an ambulance to pick him up.

...Or maybe someone had tried to dispose of his body after the fact? It wasn't impossible, but theorizing didn't mean much if he didn't at least try to move.

With a grunt, the young man attempted to push himself off the ground and into a seated position—a feat that wouldn't have been possible had he actually still had the dozens of broken bones that would have resulted from being rammed into by a ton of steel—as he finally took in the scene around him. There was an odd serenity to the ruins that surrounded them, but shaking that sense of unease that was still poking at the back of his mind was not so easily dismissed. Nowhere near his college were there woods this overgrown, much less ones that housed old stone ruins that looked like they came out of a game or off a movie screen.

It was then, though, that Nick finally chose to examine himself. There was no sign of injury to be found; the pristine clothes (minus a few dirt stains from where he had been lying moments before) and perfectly able body proved that much.

It didn't take long after that for everything to click, especially when he noticed the fluffy-tailed girl poking another unconscious soul nearby.

"Mmm... Reincarnation it is, then. Damn, what a shitty way to go out," he mumbled to himself as he finally rose to his feet.

"Sure hope being gone doesn't mess everyone up too badly. It was bad enough when gramps died, so I can only imagine how everyone else feels right now..."

Some thoughts, however, were still left unspoken.

"...Right, can't linger on that too long, though. It'd be stupid to die twice in a row," Nick sighed, rolling his shoulders a few times before walking over to the two girls that were probably in the same boat as him and squatted down. "Any luck getting her to wake up? As pretty as this place is, it's not somewhere I'd like to stick around in the long term."

@VitaVitaAR@Raineh Daze@Pyromania99

What was she even doing? A university lecture? She had work on her latest book to do but she had agreed to guest lecture for a few mythology sessions for a number of weeks. Only for her to be ran into and accidently hit her head just right on a lamp on one of the campus walkways. An embarrassing way to go for sure. She didn't even really need to go... But what was done was done. And what was done was her life. At least it didn't hurt.

"Excuse me, ma'am, you can't sleep here."

"Ngggghh...." She would complain. She had just been sleeping? Well, she felt tired still. In fact, she needed to sleep a bit more. "Five more minutes." There were no blankets on her. That was weird. She slept with three blankets on her at any time that wasn't summer. And even then.... She'd reach out for a blanket, only to grab the hand that had pushed on her to wake her up. "Hmmm? Wait a sec. I've not lived with someone else for years." It was then that she opened her eyes and saw the cute fox girl trying to wake her.

There were so many thoughts flowing through her head. First, what was this adorable creature in front of her? Second, why was she in some... random looking forest? Third, was there a man just laying there too? Oh, no. He wasn't laying. He was getting up. "Hmm. Hmm. I see, I see. Yes, I remember now. Once a fleeting life, I have fallen into the cycle of reincarnation. Or something like that. Maybe." She smiled brightly and stood before grabbing the small fox girl in front of her and hugging her.

"Hello there adorable fox girl and the random man I don't know. My name is... Jormungandr. Just call me Jor, if you please." She hugged the fox girl tight to her chest for some seconds before setting her down. It was then that her tongue instinctively acted. It looked serpentine and it flicked out of her mouth slightly, before retracting into her mouth. When it returned to her mouth her face scrunched up a bit. "That was a small bit unexpected, even for me."

As the oft-repeated saying went, if you can walk away from a landing, it's a good landing. This was not going to be a good landing. Probably not going to be a survivable landing either. Up until right before it hit the side of the hill, he wasn't thinking about his likely imminent death- he was pulling on the yoke trying to regain control of the small single-engined plane, in hopes of at least making a serviceable emergency landing. It was not to be, though.

He just hoped it'd be fast- the prospect of being badly injured and slowly bleeding out in terrible agony in the middle of the Alaskan wilderness wasn't particularly appealing.

Then, just as it hit the ground, he awoke. He didn't feel like every bone in his body was broken, so his first though was that it was just a bad dream. As he stirred, however, he realized that this was not his mattress, and why did he feel fully clothed? Had he fallen asleep without even taking off his cold weather attire? Was this perhaps just a continuation of a dream?

The pilot opened his eyes and saw that this was not his room. He sat up, confused, and even moreso when seeing the strange attire on his body. This was not his clothing, and whatever was on his head was neither his hat nor his headset. His first impulse was to pinch himself. To his bewilderment, unlike every dream he ever had, he felt pain.

What was going on? How did he end up in this cabin?

He took a closer look at the outfit he had. From the look of it, it was...armor of some kind. He removed whatever was on his head and took a look at it. A helmet, from the look of it. Looking at the shape, of it, and of the armor covering him, it almost looked...a dragoon cosplay?

Just how did he get here? And who put him in this outfit?

Thinking that he might be able to make use for it as a cup or perhaps a crude tool, he put it back on his head and stood up. What could explain this? Who could have brought him here, put him in this outfit? Had that plane crash been real? Had he died and gone to some manner of afterlife?

Beneath the armor, his body felt somehow different than he remembered it. Perhaps it would be prudent to remove his armor, see why he felt so different. For now, perhaps he could see his reflection on the window.

As he got a good look at out the window, it was clear that this was not Alaska, nor was it heaven. Skeletal bodies, medieval weapons- just what was this?

Just then, before he could get a decent look at his reflection, the pilot was startled by a girl's scream from another room. As he tentatively approached, he could hear another woman's voice speaking. The sources of the voices were a white-haired young woman and...an elf?

Between that, the scene outside, and the armor on him, it appear that wherever he was had a theme that he'd ordinarily associate with "fantasy".

"Who are you two?" he asked. "Just what is going on here?"

@VitaVitaAR@Rune_Alchemist

---

---

Okay.

Calm down.

Take a deep breath.

Think rationally.

This is a fantasy world, and it's not a dream. That much is abundantly clear.

At this point, there's no choice, is there? I thought these sorts of things could only ever happen in fiction, but actually experiencing it before my eyes makes it clear that assumption was wrong.

The only possible explanation is that I did, in fact, die when I fell during the emergency landing. That I was given a new body in a new world.

To put it simply, I've wound up in a genuine isekai situation.

There's not exactly another explanation for it. I clearly remember my original life, and I have no memories of any prior existence in this world. I can remember faces of people I know. I can remember the emergency landing clearly.

Undeniably, this is me. These hands move when I move. Every motion I make, the cute elf girl in my reflection follows. Every little twitch of my facial expression.

Seriously?!

I was isekai'd and I ended up as a girl!? Why?! Why did it have to be the most awkward possible outcome?! How am I supposed to deal with this?! The mere fact that this new form is exactly the sort of girl that I'd like---

Someone just spoke behind me.

Erk.

On one hand, it's probably not for the best to be alone in a potentially dangerous new world when I have no idea what's going on.

On the other, I would really have liked a bit more privacy to come to grips with this new body.

But that's going to have to wait. There's no reason to hesitate any longer, I might as well turn to face the person who just spoke to me.

---

She's not a human. She's certainly made to look like one, but I can see those jointed figures. She's like some sort of moving bisque doll, complete with a frilly, fancy dress. And of course, she's taller than I am by quite a bit.

Is she someone else in my situation? It's not like becoming something not normally considered to be alive is unheard of in isekai. Or is she native? I have no idea. I don't know how to even start asking.

On top of that, someone else just showed up too. He's armored from head to toe, and seems completely lost.

That makes it more likely he's in the same predicament I am, at least.

Well, probably not exactly the same...

This is seriously a fantasy world. I'm seriously a tiny elf girl.

From my slender limbs to my small, frail frame, my pointed ears, my long hair, my smooth skin. This is really me.

I can't have a breakdown. I can't freak out in front of these people. I'd look completely insane. It's not like they know what's going on. It's not like I want them to know what's going on.

"... A-and you're a doll," I manage to stammer, in a dull and useless response towards the. Ugh, I'm totally freaking out. I can't hide it well at all. My hands are shaking. I'm breathing unevenly. My heartbeat is hammering.

I'm trying not to think about every aspect of my new body and how it's different from my old one. I'm failing that task.

I suck in air deeply, and try to clear my head, my gaze briefly drifting out the window.

...

There's a few things I missed before. There's fortifications on the street, some of them having been smashed open. A lot of the buildings have been broken into too. The streets so signs of some overgrowth and disrepair.

But worse then that---

There's bones. Shambling figures and bones.

On top of everything else, of course I couldn't be isekai'd to some kind of peaceful starter town. It's the aftermath of some kind of warzone, and I don't like the look of the wandering shapes out there either.

I take another deep breath as my attention returns to the other two.

I don't know how to answer that question about my identity. Who would ever want to be open about this kind of situation? So I'll put that aside for the moment.

What's going on here?

"A-as for what's going on, I don't know any better than you."

I managed to at least speak a full and coherent sentence that actually contributed to the conversation. Go me. You're doing such a good job.

Erk.

"H-how did you get here?"

It's a blunt question and I can't say I didn't ask it clumsily. But sometimes being blunt is the only option. I can't see any other way to broach the subject.

If they're also from a different world than this one, then at least I'm not the only one. If they're native, then maybe they can tell me what's going on.

And why we're in a place like this.

@FujiwaraPhoenix@Rune_Alchemist@Crimson Paladin

---

---

Out of everywhere someone could awaken after quite literally dying, a pleasant forest clearing surrounded by nature wasn't exactly the worst. As the trio awakened and got their bearings, they would be continuously serenaded by the song of various birds, and the gentle breeze and warm sunlight would provide them with a rather refreshing environment with which to come to grips with their situation.

To put it simply, it could obviously be worse.

The ruined building was definitely some kind of place of worship, though so long abandoned that it barely resembled a coherent structure at all.

Far above them, one one of the tallest remaining peaks of the ruins, a single raven alighted and peered down at the unusual set of people below with its shiny, dark eyes. It seemed quite curious about these people who just appeared from no-where. It's not as if that happened with any kind of frequency, so perhaps it was only natural for one of the local animals to be confused.

It let out a single, sharp caw, before taking flight and flying off and away from the ruins.

Aside from that, nothing in particular seemed out of the ordinary.

There was a somewhat distant scraping now, like something dragging along a tree, but that was probably just some kind of animal.

@FujiwaraPhoenix@Raineh Daze@Pyromania99

"Hm, so we've all been reincarnated? At least this won't be a lonely isekai." Hikari wondered… after being put down from the hug. Now, wasn't that an odd situation? Nobody was likely to have been able to just pick her up and do something like that before this, and quite certainly nobody had tried since she was a child.

Now that everybody had stood up, she could see that, indeed, it was more than being a cute fox girl that had changed in her death. Ah, this was going to be an inconvenience later, wasn't it? Still, if she was a fox, and had nine tails, there must surely be the potential for shapeshifting so she could get a more adult body for when it would be useful. Until then, maybe she should just try and get something to dissuade weirdos.

"I'm Abe Hikari. Ah… I don't suppose either of you know how to navigate? I only left Tokyo for a few business meetings…"

The cutest Doll - Lena

---

"Woke up on the bed." Lena cast another glance out the window but quickly turned her attention towards the man in black armor next to them. "Just got my first engineering job after Uni and was going to celebrate with some friends..." The dolls mouth turned down, just slightly at the edges as much as the joints would allow before she'd shake her head and offer the other two a smile. "The names Lena, armored friend. If I had to hazard a guess, I think we three are in the same situation?"

She had never really been into video games or fantasy stories. She never really had time for the things between university and her other pursuits. Well, that wasn't exactly true. The times she did get into fantasy or science fiction things she always tried to come up with ways to build the things in the setting, heh.

Ah she missed her Lego bricks already.

"Lets see...its probably not the best idea to move around for now outside. I don't know about the milyy elf or you, mister, but I don't have much to defend myself with so I'm going to take a look around and see if I can't find anything useful. If nothing else, I can probably jury rig some weapon or something..."

Once the other girl had awoken from her slumber, Nick let out a small grunt as he pushed himself back to his feet and nodded his head in mild acknowledgement. Seeing as how this was a fantasy world, the name Jormungandr, while certainly a mouthful, did obviously bring to mind the world serpent of Norse mythology. There were... A lot of things that could be said about the girl in the moment, but seeing as how he was quite evidently out of his depth on almost all fronts with regards to the pair he was with, the young man chose to keep from making any comments on that matter in particular.

The small kitsune, however, was a different story. There was no meandering about any 'what-ifs' when it came to her assertion of the situation, and seeing how she was quite confident in claiming that it was reincarnation of some sort at play, Nick could only assume that she was in much the same boat as he was...

Which meant that the snakelike girl was probably much the same. In a few ways, it was convenient; a shared background meant that there was at least some expectation of social norms that he could use as guideposts. On the other, well...

It was a bit awkward, once he considered the situation a bit more, that he seemed to be the only guy here.

"Well, if we're all introducing ourselves," he chimed in before slipping his hands into his pockets, "my name's Nicolas Li; feel free to call me Nick. As for navigation... Sorry. I was born and raised in the city; never had any interest in even hiking, much less camping or anything like that. The best I can do is offer vague factoids from survival videos, and I'd rather not gamble on that if we can help it."

@VitaVitaAR@Raineh Daze@Pyromania99

"Navigating?" Jor said, tapping the side of her face in thought. "Well, I don't even know if any of the tricks from our world would work here. The sun could rise from the south and set in the east for all we know. Not that I really traveled more than to university and the store." The snake-like woman would mention before shrugging considering some options before smiling at the two people in front of her "Regardless, pleasure to meet the both o' you. Nick and... Hikari?"

Nick seemed kinda like a normal guy, relatively. After all, Jor had this new serpentine body, one that was a bit bigger now than when she was still a niche author and Hikari was some sort of cute fox girl. Speaking of, Jor patted the small Fox girl on the head. It was soothing to do. Not wanting to leave Nick out, she thought to take a step toward him and offer a handshake but he had his hands in his pockets already so she opted to not offer for now.

With that out of her consideration, she decided to take a look around the area a bit more. See if there was nothing that seemed to be out of place or perhaps stood out. Maybe a sigh of which way they could go. "Well, if we don't find any trail or anything, maybe we should just head in a random direction? It's probably better than staying here. Could find a rock to make marks in trees so we could always find our way back here if we needed to." It was a suggestion alright. She wasn't really sure of survival tips or tricks but it sounded good to her. "And does anyone else hear that noise? An animal?" She asked, concerned about the noise she heard.

---

---

As the three newcomers to this world introduced themselves and spoke to one another, very little seemed out of the ordinary. The forest was lush and verdant, so it was only to be expected that it would be filled with life. The chirping birds sang to one another, the light breeze caused the leaves to rustle---

It was a peaceful feeling, and a peaceful location.

A few small birds with red breasts and dark wings alighted where the raven had stood moments ago, peering curiously down at the unusual trio for a few moments. Exactly what went through their minds was hard to guess, of course. But it was clear they were wondering just where these unusual figures had come from, if nothing else.

Something scraped against a tree again, and the birds took off, disappearing into the forest across the clearing just as quickly as they appeared.

It was a little easier to hear it, now. It was certainly something dragging across tree bark.

Perhaps it had come a little closer?

And there it was, once again.

It was definitely closer, now.

Perhaps it would have been easier to miss, before.

But now that the birdsong had suddenly ceased, the scraping was quite audible.

Along with it was another sound. A distinct thud-thud-thud-thud, faint at first but growing louder.

Something was walking through the forest.

And it was getting closer.

@Raineh Daze@FujiwaraPhoenix@Pyromania99

Ah, she must also be from Earth, Javal concluded when he heard the second woman's reply. It was clear by her answer that she too had gone through the rather unpleasant experience of dying. At first glance her body looked like it had stitches, then a moment later he saw that they were joints- she appeared to be a living doll of some sort.

The elf hadn't given her answer yet, but since she was here, and just as confused as they were, her story would probably be the same. She died, and woke up here. His own body didn't thus far seem as otherworldly as theirs, but there still might be some surprises in store whenever he managed to find a reflective surface.

"Last I remember, my plane was going down in the Alaskan wilderness," he answered the elf's question. "I suppose you can call me Javal," he answered, Javal being a moniker he used in computer games. New body, new name.

The doll was right, from what he saw outside, this place probably wasn't safe. As much as he wished to stop and think, this wasn't the place or time. Judging by the corpses on the ground, the figures moving around outside probably weren't friendly. The trio needed to find someplace safe to regroup and figure out exactly what had happened and where they now were.

"I saw what looked like some weapons lying around outside," he noted. "It's risky, but if those things find us before we can find someplace safe, I'd much rather we have something to defend ourselves with."

"Oh… yes, that sounds… troublesome," Hikari noted after a pause. It sounded big. And while it could just be an intimidating-yet-ultimately-harmless starter monster… she didn't have anything to possibly defend herself with. It didn't appear that the other two did, either? Unless they wished to stay and fight with their bare hands. It was entirely possible that they had reincarnated with some amazing martial arts proficiency, or magical abilities.

She just had a strong suspicion that should could get much smaller. Quite the opposite of a fighting ability.

"Perhaps we should run? In the other direction?"