An hour later, she was thoroughly and completely lost. She'd spotted a bird, and attempted to shoot at it. But, just as she took aim, a snake leapt out of from behind her and tried to sink it's fangs into her. She used her knife to fight it, but it still took her the better part of twenty minutes to kill the monster and a few of her injuries had reopened. She was now also sporting new gashes and a long history with concussions told her that she now had another one, although this one was slight.

She looked down at the dead animal at her feet. She was fairly certain that this was a new species, despite not having been exposed to snakes very often. This was because the creature was longer than she was tall (even if you doubled her height), and wide enough that it would take three fully grown men working together to hug it (though why three fully grown men would be hugging a gigantic snake, she didn't really know. Sumo wrestling practice, maybe?).

She'd discovered during the fight that the snake had scales as tough as steel and it's body crushed a tree into tiny splinters at one point in time during the tussle. She'd eventually ended up stabbing it in the eye to kill it, but she'd still ended up having no idea where she was, as the snake had body slammed her about thirty feet away from the last tree that she had marked, making her lose her bearings and fracture a few ribs in the process. So she ended up with food, but no water or shelter. One rabbit in the hand is better than two in the bush situation, though, in this case, she'd had two rabbits in her hand and the third rabbit in the bush was vital to her survival, so she couldn't just ditch it, but still.

She couldn't help but think that if Zane were here then this wouldn't have happened. He would've been able to shoot the bird in the sky while she fought off the snake, then come and helped her when it had died, and they wouldn't have gotten lost. They were a great team. She was an expert at knives, while he specialized in guns. The only reason she kept a gun on her in the first place was because he'd persuaded her to learn how to use it, then told her that extra self-defense never hurt anyone and made her carry one around. But enough moping and wishing, she had to get moving. While it was true that lost people should stay in one place, there was no one who would search for her here. She refused to be lost and miserable here any longer.

Then a word she herself had just used penetrated. Miserable. Delusions and hallucinations were supposed to be happy (not true), so if this were really a delusion, then she should be happy. She wasn't happy. Maybe because she hadn't exercised her powers as master of this dimension yet. She closed her eyes and Zane's appearance formed in her mind. Jade green eyes and inky black hair. Serious expression, with an icy aura. A strong, tall, lean body. He's here, he's here, he's here, he's here. She chanted in her mind over and over. Then she opened her eyes. He wasn't there. 'Okay, maybe this isn't just a delusion.’ She thought to herself. ‘So, if it isn't a delusion, then where is this?'

She thought of everything that had happened, trying to find some explanation that somewhat resembled a logical explanation. Maybe someone had perfected a teleportation device and tested it out and it happened to zap her while she fell, or something like that. The prickly feeling against her skin that she continuously felt was the after effect of the blast, and the black space was just what she saw as her particles zoomed through the air. Yeah, that's what happened. She looked down at her prey. She made an explanation for that as well: she had been lucky enough to discover a brand new species. She decided to end the debate once and for all. 'Hey, someone up in Heaven who knows what's going on, send me a sign that I'm not insane, please, and I will be eternally grateful.'

She wasn't a Christian, and her mentality towards God was pretty much just a it-would-be -nice-if-he-existed-but-not-too-much-of-a-problem-if-he-didn't sort of thing, so she didn't actually think that anything would happen and was preparing to leave. But just as she looked down to figure out a way to move the ginormous serpent, she heard a rustle coming from her left.

A boy, around her age, burst out of the bushes and ran, after giving a quick glance behind him. In truth, the best way to describe him was by using the words pale and colorless. He had skin the color of porcelain and pale silver hair. His eyes were a shade of crimson that she'd never seen before. She tried to figure out his nationality, but came up short. He was wearing a white shirt and black vest, coupled with black pants. The material seemed to be both tough and flexible, though she couldn't recognize it or think of what it was. Though she found this strange, all that she could really think, the one thing that her mind kept circling back to, were the words: is this the sign?

Then three things happened simultaneously. The guy noticed her, and started to make frantic gestures for her to move and get out of the way. The ground beneath her began to rumble and shake, and her instincts lit up like a firecracker, making adrenaline pump through her and everything seemed to slow down. A few seconds later, something else flew out of the same bushes that the boy had just run out from. Something big, something mean, and something that most definitely did not belong in a forest.

'Okay, the ones in charge of making and sending me the sign were definitely Phil and Carter. Just what I needed, a rhino. Thanks a bunch, you guys.'