Nothing could have prepared me for taking a step onto the hard stone floor after expecting carpet. One moment I had gotten up from my desk and then I was looking at a stone corridor. In a panic I started tapping the side of my head, checking to see if I’d idly put on a VR interface without thinking about it. Nothing but the coarse fur that framed my head was to be felt. No matter how real VR felt there was always a head bump to connect you to the real world.

  I started to call out “What is this?!” Hoping it was some weird dream or a prank. That was when a long rope-like being slithered from around the corner and hissed at me. It’s jaws opened wide showing off several long fangs and other smaller but no less sharp teeth. Four arms reached out as it moved quickly on what looked like a long-thick tail. Without thinking I kicked out, connecting with the creature’s chest. In a panic I took off down a long stone corridor.

  I felt the cold of the smooth stone as I bounded. I’d been in my room on a nicely carpeted floor so hadn’t bothered with sandals. This fact did not stop me from moving. There was a creature of some kind behind me, one that looked like it could tear my throat out without a problem. I focused on my goal, the light that seemed to pour in at an angle at the end of the hall.

  The closer I got, trying not to think of the creature behind me, the better I could smell fresh air. As I came around the corner I was relieved to see an archway to the outside. I didn’t stop, just bounded as fast as my legs would take me, glad the corridor was high enough not to smash into the ceiling at the rate I was going. I just kept my head down as I moved, feet touching the thick grass. That was a pleasure after slapping them on the stone floor inside. I did not stop moving.

  I aimed for the hills I could see not far away. The grasses seemed the thickest there, the best place to hide. They were a yellow-brown color which suited me just fine. While my head fur was darker, blending of my lower torso, with the clothes I was wearing I felt that I could remain unseen. I was wearing soft lounging robe of sorts, the current fashion where I lived. And yellow like much of the grass here, thankfully.

  Once I got to the hills I slid down into the thick grasses, laying low and catching my breath. All this was way too real to be a dream. More detailed than the best sim I’d ever played. Where was I? What was that thing that tried to grab me. It looked like it wanted to eat me but it also could have just been some guy grabbing at me for trespassing or something. Though if it had been trying to talk I hadn’t heard anything but hisses. I don’t speak that.

  After another minute of nothing finding me in the grass I decided I needed to keep going. To put as much distance between myself at that building as I could. I saw the forest close by with trees much like the ones back home. Tall, with brown/gray barks and foliage in a mix of greens and reds. I headed into the deep, taking one quick look at the stone archway I had passed out of. It was connected to a much larger building, stretching higher than the trees. The sky above was much more blue than I had ever seen at home.

  I could ponder that later once I felt more safe. I moved along cautiously, walking slowly instead of my more normal slight hopping gait. My nose was constantly assaulted by smells I could not identify. Even in simulations it was never this overwhelming for a forest. I’d never been to a real one. Even parks back home had maybe one or two trees with lots of rolling grasses to bound through. Being a city boy I’d only ever had simulations of forests and other worlds. Never left home, let alone travel to space. I figured once I had established myself a bit better as a writer I might travel to a few of the more compatible worlds. Try exotic foods and the like. That new world, Earth, was a compatible place that was always advertising travel packages to worlds like mine.

  Remembering the travel packages I’d checked out on VR I realized that the trees around me were much more Earth like than those of home. That made me pause for a moment next to one of the rough-barked specimens. I’d just been pawing through some of the travel package simulations for inspiration for my new story. Was I simply encountering elements in my sleep?

  As comforting as that thought was for a moment my ears flattened at the sound of something crunching through dead plant matter somewhere through the trees. I picked up a musk of some kind that instantly made my heart beat faster. Only if this was a dream would I be ok. If it wasn’t I was in deep trouble. So I ran. Bounding as fast as I was willing to go, dodging around trees till that musk left my senses. I finally slowed before I could bash myself into the bark of a larger specimen. My species wasn’t made for the woods and trees, we liked open plains better. We could, at least, maneuver and trees did have shelter from the elements.

  I only knew the theories of survival. From games. From research for the adventure stories I wrote. In it though the main character was a wizard with the ability to exhale jets of fire. He didn’t need to worry about camping in the woods. I had never set a fire in my life. There were appliances at home to warm food up for me, along with temperature controls for the entire apartment. And in those games it was mostly ‘find two rocks, some dried grasses and thicker plant matter’ then you just activate them and they make a fire. I never went for the hard core realistic simulations. Now I wish I had.

  I’m not sure how long I walked for after running from something in the underbrush. I didn’t smell it again at least but eventually another more identifiable smell met my nose amid the ones I didn’t understand. Sweetness. It was coming from a break in the trees I had been moving through to brand new trunks. These were white in color with black and red stripes faint along the bark. Several of them half ringing an area that was opening to the sky. Here were more green grasses and a few visible stones, big enough to sit on. Hanging from the trees were plump fruits of some kind. Red and lumpy with brown bristles. Broken ones lay scattered at the base of several trees. Inside I could see white pulpy masses with brown seeds. The sweet scent was issuing from them.

  This was a dilemma. I was starting to get hungry and those fruits did smell good, but I knew enough from those games I’d mentioned that plenty of things that smelled good could in survival situations could be deadly. Also, if I was on another world who was to say that I could eat any of this to begin with? The air, gravity and temperature were compatible and while the flora and fauna looked compatible it was possible they were set up differently. It could be toxic, or worse, not nutritious. I could starve with a full stomach if not careful.

  Hungry but not enough to risk death. Fruit might satisfy some of my hunger but meat was a must for my species. If I was stuck in this place I hoped I could eat what was here. If the fruit was edible it would only help keep me going a few days. I’d need to prepare for being stuck here. And for that I would need to learn to hunt. I’ve never done any of that before. In my family we had the standard meal kits, easy to buy, keep in stasis till needed, and heated to the desired temperature. Only holidays with the extended families would there be big roasts. Or times we’d gone out to eat where the meals were made fresh.

  Again, I’d played simulator games with hunting but, could I do that for real? Even the skinning and gutting were taken care of automatically in those games. Well, at least I knew that those were needed if I was to hunt something at least. What should I consider first? A weapon? A safe place to sleep for the night? Groaning about what to do next I cast a better look on the small clearing around me. The green grass grew tall here and seemed pretty hardy, I grabbed and pulled, feeling it stay stubbornly intact to the ground. So I tried another way. I took my short but sharp claws and carefully slide them at the bases of the grasses and that seemed to work. I might not have ever done this for real but even with it done automatically in games I had seen the process done before. I started twisting the grasses together. It failed, miserably. That made me laugh. What did I think would happen?

  I leaned up against one of the big rocks, swished my tail back and sat. In my hand was the badly twisted grass. I had to smile and laugh some more. I wish I was a survivalist. That I’d played more hard core simulations. Maybe this was all just a dream and I’d wake up in my sleep hammock. I wish I had one of those here. Several of the lower trees, the ones with fruit, would be perfect to anchor to. It was starting to get dark up there.

  I doubted I could make a fire if I couldn’t even rope some grass so I decided not to try. What I did do till full dark was move the smaller stones away from two of the bigger rocks that I felt would be good to lay down between. If I could climb I would have tried for a tree but zagarieans are not great at climbing. We’re better at running and leaping.

  I made a pile of stones close to where I was camping down and curled into a ball, tucking my tail for safety and hoped that I would hear something coming that might find me tasty. I hadn’t known how tired I was till sleep claimed me almost at once. That’s when things got even more weird.

  “Ramjack…” I heard my name whispered. I was in the same clearing I had curled up in but the trees around were shrouded in fog. The sounds, smells, even what I saw was much more muted and indistinct. A real dream. “Ramjack…” I heard again, causing me to spin. I saw the rock I had been sitting on but it wasn’t empty now. Instead three objects sat there. A rope, a torch, and one of those fruits.

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  Hunger gnawed at my belly as I stared at the objects there. This was a dream so I reasoned trying one of the fruits now would not kill me so I reached down and picked it up. The exterior was hard to the touch but I found that I could grab hold of one of the bristles, wiggle a bit, and pull out one of the seeds from the pulpy mass. The sweet smell from the pulp overwhelmed my senses so I dropped the seed and dug into the small hole to pick out a bit of the mass. It was a creamy texture in my mouth fresh like this and before the dream ended I had removed every seed from the fruit to enjoy the inside.

  Level 1 [Survival], [Edible Fruits] gained!

  ————

  That weird comment in my head, sounding like my own voice, jolted me awake. It was still dark as I pondered the dream. Once more I laughed to myself. Clearly I had survival games on the brain. But normally they have some kind of text pop-up to show such information, not my own voice telling me details like that. Still, as I got to my feet I half expected to see the three items still sitting on the rock. Nothing was there. The sweet smell of the fruit met my nose again though and as I turned to survey them on the trees I was struck with the conviction that they were edible. The insides anyway, except for the seeds.

  I would have ignored it was remnants of the dream but hey, I was in a place I could not explain anyway so why not a dream telling me those were ok to eat? I followed just what I did in the dream, shocked that it indeed tasted as it had. It even helped slake the thirst that was creeping in a bit. While I would need something more substantial eventually, this fruit would keep me going for a time. I just needed to gather some before I started moving again. And maybe some of the stones I’d found. My robe didn’t have many pockets. Just two small ones meant for small devices or snacks since it was for lounging not doing much. They were empty but I would only be able to carry two fruits in them or a couple of the stones.

  My ability to craft from the grass might have failed but I had a new idea. Taking the robe off, leaving me nearly naked but for my undergarment, I got to work. While none of the stones were sharp to begin with I worked for a while to get at least one of them sharp enough to cut through fabric. It wasn’t easy but I was young and full of energy, even after sleeping in a clearing. By the time the sun was creeping overhead I had one sharp stone and took off the top of my robe to form into a carrying sling. I could still use the bottom part of the robe by tying part of it around my tail to keep it from falling off.

  I loaded the sling carefully with fruits that I felt were ripe enough to eat, and some of the still useful stones, including the one I’d managed to sharpen, and headed off. It’s not like I knew where I was going, but I was pretty sure it was still in the opposite direction of the place I had appeared in. It was as good as any other direction as far as I was concerned.

  I walked along for hours, occasionally eating a fruit when I felt thirsty, but I knew if I was still in the forest by tomorrow I would really need to find a river or some other source of water. I wasn’t sure how safe that would be to drink from. Survival sims always had you boil the water unless it was some kind of rushing river or something. You’d get penalized with parasites or something in the game otherwise.

  Holding one of the fruits in my hand I pondered the dream. The words, [Survival], Level 1. It reminded me of RPG games where you gained experience points for doing various things and sometimes you leveled up skills by using them. So this was some kind of RPG? If so, could I level up in survival to find water?

  I stopped and peered around in each direction. Maybe my current survival skill only worked for the gained Edible Fruits thing. I decided to test that out by looking around more carefully at the plants long the way. Much like my own world and a few others I knew of, including Earth, trees and fungus had a co-dependent relationship much like animals and bacteria. On various trees and at their bases I could see fungal blooms of various kinds. None of them looked like food to me though I knew we ate them sometimes back home. But along with the fungus the trees were also home to vines of various kinds. Much of the foliage was up higher to catch the sun but other parts wound their ways around the trees to root in the ground. And it was here down lower were I found small fruits hanging from them.

  Just looking at the ripe purple berries I knew that they would make me ill. It didn’t flash in front of my eyes like a game telling me they were poison, just a bone deep conviction, much like the fruit I had was safe to eat. So if this information could be added to my subconscious somehow why not the ability to find water?

  Before I started walking again I lifted my head and took a big sniff of the air. So many unknown smells. I still didn’t understand them except… the fruit. I could make out the pungent aroma of the berries. Subtle but I could tell from the oder that they were poison just as much as looking at them. There were other things too that I knew on a subconscious level. One direction lead to other kinds of edible fruit, and not the ones I had tucked away in my sling.

  I chose my direction based on smell. Another fruit. If that one didn’t lead to water than maybe it would help my thirst even more than the dwindling supply of the ones I had. My ears twisted as I moved on, listening for anything that might indicate danger. Not that I really knew what to listen for. For all I knew some of the trees or other plants around me could be dangerous as well. There were said to be jungles back home that could eat animals that wandered into the wrong parts of them. That thought made me shiver, glad that the clearing I had slept in the night before hadn’t been one such trap.

  I did start to hear a noise the more I followed the smell. More than the steady drone of insects and the call of creatures that flew amid the trees. A sound that perked me up as I was certain I recognized it. The sound of following water! A river, or maybe a small stream was close. I wanted to run as thirst started crawling back up my throat. But an instinct, perhaps something related to the survival level I’d picked up, cautioned me. The water might solve my thirst but it brought out other thirsty creatures too. Some of which might see me as a snack.

  So I slowed to a near crawl, sticking close to the trees, and lowering my body closer to the ground as I approached the sound of rushing water. Ahead of me was indeed a stream. Easy enough to bound over with my legs and deep enough to reach my elbow. My head on a swivel I inspected my surroundings and spotted the sources of the fruit smell I picked up on. Following the path of the stream were either skinny bushes or tall stalks of a grass-like plant. Amid the stalks grew some kind of yellowish/brown fruit. Much like the ones I’d found on the trees in the clearing these were covered in bristles. I felt though that they were edible.

  Much like the other fruit, these ones could be opened with the bristles. In fact, pilling one out pulled out a cylinder of yellow flesh. While a bit prickly on the tongue it satisfied both the rising thirst and the growing hunger. Still, I knew not to rely solely on the fruit for my current fruit. I dipped my hands into the water, washing them clean before heading slightly upstream and simply bringing my face to the surface. The advantage to having a slightly longer than average snouted face is that I didn’t even have to get my nose in to take a drink.

  Since I had no way to carry water with me I decided to collect a few more of the spiny fruit into my sling and chose to head downstream. While up might be cleaner I had the idea that I was more likely to find people, hopefully ones who wouldn’t attack me on sight.

  My legs burned from all the walking I’d done. I wasn’t much for this kind of physical exercise as I mostly wrote and sometimes gamed and that didn’t need much more than a desk and a safe space for VR connection. I could have done my writing in a virtual space too but I liked the feel of the desk more. Being not long off from my schooling I was still young, even if I was an adult now. That gave me a bit of a reserve of stamina when it came to this march.

  I forced myself along, still trying to pay attention to stray noises, until the sun had set. My stomach growled something fierce. I ate the rest of the red skinned fruit from the clearing but I knew that wouldn’t keep me going. I would need meat, or maybe something more substantial than fruit.

  Moving away from the stream I started looking for a safe place to make camp. I didn’t find a full clearing but I did find an area with two downed trees and a boulder. I’d seen others throughout my walk through the trees but not clustered like this. It felt like a safer place than out in the open. I set down the sling and started pulling up clumps of some kind of moss to rest on when I noticed some kind of bug inside the closest downed tree. Bugs really, clusters of white slimy creatures the size of my smallest claw. They wriggled over each other, clinging to the dead tree matter.

  Survival games had taught me that such things, grubs or something of that nature, were probably edible. They did not look all that appealing. If only they were covered in sweet sap and served on a stick. They would help stave off my cravings for meat though. Unless they made me sick. I decided to risk it with just one, hoping It wouldn’t poison me, or cause me other problems. I popped it in my mouth, wincing at the slimy feel before I tore it with my sharp teeth and swallowed the mass.

  It wasn’t bitter and the only rolling my stomach did was at the thought of it still wriggling on the way down. It wasn’t so bad that I couldn’t eat more but it was hardly something I’d have eaten back home. For now, resting curled up close to the rotting log and boulder was what I needed to do. And dream, as it turned out. Much like the last weird dream I had since getting here I was in the same place, looking down at the boulder where three things rested. A bowl with water, a pile of the wriggling grubs and a coil of rope.

  Something clicked in my head when I looked at my choices. Skill trees, a staple of many RPGs throughout the known universe. You are presented with options and chose which to level up in. Usually it is based on a class or something you pick at the start. I had no idea how it worked here but I felt that what I saw before me represented paths I could chose. Last time I picked a fruit and knew what fruits I could eat. Now I had three more choices.

  I hovered over the grubs for a moment but stopped myself. I was in a strange world where RPG logic applied, so I shouldn’t always chose what would be best now. I could wing it with the grubs and hope for the best once I woke up. I was close to water already and had already taken a chance there that it would be clean enough. The one thing I had struggled with before was when I’d tried to braid some grass. What if?

  The rope was in my hand. It was hardy, made of various plant fibers. And I knew then how to make it.

  Level 2 [Survival], [Craft Rope] gained!