Daybreak in the forest was a beautiful thing, for all that James has never seen it before. It wasn’t what James would call a particularly pleasant experience, but it was beautiful all the same. The birds would start to sing before anyone else could even see the sun, waking up the rest of the forest inhabitants. Or jerking them out of sleep if they were James. And the air was cold and biting, not yet heated up from the sun. Without any blankets to cover her, or warm tea to sip and hold between her hands, James couldn’t say that she enjoyed it too much. She didn’t even have any way to distract herself like she usually did with her tablet.

But she was awake, and she was free. Laying down against a large branch of a tree, she could still spot some stars through the branches, making her doubt the birds really knew what they were talking about. Because they were certainly talking, the cacophony making too much noise for her to even think about trying to fall back asleep. But she was free. She was seeing the stars and not a ceiling. Breathing in fresh, clean air rather than meal-tinged smoke. So even if she wasn’t totally comfortable, she still celebrated. At least the part of her that wasn’t cursing at the birds.

Falling asleep the night before had been an interesting experience. She was tired from the full day of walking, having never stopped after she left Louis behind. And yet her Permanent Skill Mana Nature had kept her awake once she’d finally settled down. She couldn’t turn it off, or at least still hadn’t figured out how to, so she was constantly registering a lightshow of mana.

And it was beautiful. She still couldn’t get over it. The little whisps of light that seemed to play. The amorphous shapes of color living in each animal. And all the different nuances in tone between them all. But for all its beauty, it was distracting. Falling asleep with that in her mind had almost felt like an exercise in futility.

Another impediment to her sleep besides her Permanent Skill, was her location. She had decided to sleep in a tree, something she wouldn’t recommend without some serious modification.

When she had begun to consider where to sleep earlier in the day, she had concluded that the risk of her moving and falling off during the night was minimal with her improved stats. Which, logically, sounded perfectly true. But when you close your eyes and you can still perceive the world around you without being able to see the ground, issues crop up. Like feeling that you are much higher than three meters off the ground. So not only was James uncomfortable with the bark of the tree digging into her back in weird and awkward ways, but she was also still scared of falling off.

But she had several reasons for sleeping in a tree, all of which kept her on her chosen branch until she did manage to nod off. First of all, James was more scared of humans than goblins finding her. Despite not really owing Arthur and the group any allegiance beyond their shared human race, she had a feeling they didn’t share that same belief that she had already “delivered” on her duties as it were. She didn’t really want to know what Arthur thought of her abandonment.

Secondly, she was sure there were other animals she hadn’t encountered yet on the ground. This was a forest in post-System France. She didn’t know what animals or monsters now filled it and walked in the underbrush. So, tree sleeping it was.

Another problem presented itself, unrelated to her sleep, when her stomach growled along with the birds. All of them stopped for a beat, trying to ascertain whether this new accompaniment was friend or foe, before continuing once again. James wasn’t sure if she supported her stomach in its endeavor to tell them to shut it or was embarrassed that she hadn’t truly considered food in her run-away plan.

She hadn’t eaten or drank since the day before. James wasn’t sure where they got water in the clearing, but she hadn’t seen any yet. She did begin to hear some running water late the night before, but by that time she had to settle down as visibility had become increasingly worse. That would be her first order of business in the morning.

As for food, that felt like a bit of a harder problem for her to solve. Though she did have a Skill she could use for hunting, Mana Blast, she had no way of cooking any animal she killed. No Skill or skill.

James knew that it was possible to strike two rocks to create a spark or spin a stick in a hole and somehow that would result in a fire. But by the time she figured out how to make either of those techniques work she was sure her meat would already be bad. Knowing and knowing were entirely different. Not to mention skinning animals without a knife also sounded impossible. No, she’d need to find a different way to get food.

Finally, it was what James would consider real daybreak, meaning she could see the world around her properly. She decided to ignore that that let her see how filthy her clothes were, with some sweat stains and blood, of both the purple-tinged and normal red varieties, splattered around. Shimmying her way down to the ground and feeling all her sore muscles from the day before in the process, she jumped down the last two feet. Closing her eyes to better concentrate her hearing, she pinpointed the direction of the water she could hear.

Heading there, she played around with the idea of trying out her Mana Blast in a controlled setting. She shook her head in condemnation, though. She’d never be in an area with no animals around to test it. She could try and do it once she solved her cooking situation. Then, at least, their deaths would have a purpose beyond just experimentation.

Within another ten minutes of walking, and the sound of water becoming stronger and stronger, she was at the river. Hard to spot from far away because of the large number of plants around it, James was glad she didn’t continue to search for it the night before. She would have surely fallen in.

And then, James, with all the dignity she could muster, did just that. After all, she needed a shower. Badly.