Zarine and Tyna fled into the forest as fast as they could to escape the hoard of lizard things. The woods were dense old growth with lots of fallen trees covered in moss making it hard to travers. Zarine stumbled and nearly face pnted several times but miraculously kept her bance. They ran past several other animals of various kinds, spooking them in the process. One of them, a ten foot tall boar-like creature with antlers and a what looked like face armour, squealed at the and crashed straight through several trees before disappearing off into the woods away from them.

  What do YOU have to be afraid of? She thought to herself. Many of the animals they saw were almost familiar, but had something that set them apart from those back home. That deer had wings, some bird with a prehensile tail and a cat-like creature with scales and huge eyes just to name a few. It all unsettled her more than she expected. Sure this was technically some alien world, but things were just a bit too familiar and that made it so much worse.

  They fled for several minutes before Zarine had to stop, totally out of breath. She could hear the croaking of their pursuers growing again. More animals passed them, fleeing the same group no doubt. She tried to crawl behind a tree for cover but her body was barely responding. Tyna was flitting about in a panic trying to urge Zarine to keep going but she just couldn't get up.

  “Rina! You gotta get up, they’re almost here!” The Tixie said, pulling at her colr.

  “Can’t…Exhausted, give me a minute.” She said between breaths, feeling way more tired than she should. Surely she wasnt that out of shape? Rei had forced her to go on regur runs back on the station and it was never this bad. “It's good for you, now come on!”

  Before they could reach them, several cans nded between them and began to expel smoke. Most of the creatures stopped and scattered but several jumped through. The closest one shot its tongue out at her and she braced herself.

  The bite never came however. She heard a soft thump followed by a shunk and then guttural screaming. Standing between her and what was left of the swarm was a beast woman. Zarine couldn’t help but stare. This dy looked tough. She wasn’t much taller than herself, standing at about five ten, but she could see the muscles glistening on her and damn she was fit. Her clothing was made of a mix of animal skins, furs and leathers with a small hole in the back of her pants for her long tail. Her top was a mixture of leathers and furs that left her tanned midriff and arms bare. Her brown hair was a mess of brown curls with small braids that almost hid the fuzzy round ears on top. Her hands though, stood out being bck and heavily scarred. She held a spear with a big red fluff at the tip as though ready to strike anything around her in an instant.

  One of the remaining few critters shed its tongue out at the woman but she deftly caught it with her spear and used its own momentum to fling it off into the bush. Another leapt at her but in one fluid motion she hit it down with the butt of her spear before skewering it with another visceral shunk. The critter squealed weakly before colpsing, its long tongue rolling out all the way to Zarine before spping her thigh.

  “Eeek! Gross!” She squeaked, spping the tongue away.

  The woman quickly turned to her with a hiss, her face scrunched up looking very intimidating, before quickly smoothing out upon seeing her. Zarine recoiled back a bit but was already against a tree. The woman considered her for a moment, her ears twitching back and forth as the rest of the critters scattered into the woods. She could feel Tyna quivering on her shoulder, trying to hide in her hair. Dunno how she expects to not be seen, she’s bloody neon! She thought to herself.

  “Uh, hi?” She tried, but before the woman could answer, there was a huge roar that shook the ground. Zarine felt it shake her entire body. Whatever it was, it was way too close.

  The woman shook her head and quickly recovered. “ Nope, greetings ter, we leave NOW!” And without asking, just picked up Zarine and slung her over her shoulder like a sack of potatoes.

  “Wa-Hey!” she squealed, struggling feebly kicking her legs back and forth. In the commotion, Tyna slipped out and was flung down with a small “Oof”.

  “Keep up sprite, HE doesn’t discriminate between meals.” The woman said ignoring Zarine’s protests and taking off at a full sprint through the woods away from the roar.

  ~~~~

  Tyna almost panicked when Rina was hauled off, nearly leaving her there alone. Whatever was behind them was only 31.426 meters away. She sped off after the other two, weaving her flight through the trees not so gracefully. She tumbled into a rge leaf and smashed right into a big fruit easily three times her size.

  “Ugh! Yuck!” She was covered entirely in a sticky thick juice. 98% match with Earth Mangos, 1.5% Suli La Mora, 0.5% unknown. Non-toxic to Humans. “Ooh, wait, that's tasty!” There was a loud crash close by. “Eeep!” She quickly shook herself off and leapt out of the fruit flying off away from the noise. She couldn’t see Rina though and but estimated the direction their new companion had fled in. North 39.6 degrees. “There, that way!”

  She quickly caught up to her friend(s?), the area had opened up into a rge field. They were heading towards the center rather than the edges. “Where are you going!? It’s gaining on us!” 12.583 meters and closing. She could finally see the monster behind them, it was huge. 27 feet, 3 inches tall. Quadruped, Green and Yellow scales, possibly reptilian. Large jagged horns, probably male. Est. 35000 psi bite strength. Energy buildup from life form detected. Cssification: Dragon css. Extreme Danger. Her friends were still there! She had to do something!

  “It’s now or never!” she said to herself turning towards the towering behemoth while straightening her green dress. She used all of the power she could to conjure a giant white digital hand next to her aggressor and brought it down on its head like a karate chop. The beast, caught off guard, closed its jaws at just the wrong time belching out white hot fmes. It staggered and unched a jet of fire that missed her group by mere meters, before falling to the ground with a crash. Power down to 6%. She turned back to her friends but they had disappeared. She felt woozy. She flew in their st known direction but completely lost track of them.

  “Rina! Where are you?!” she called out desperately. The dragon was beginning to get up, her time was running out. “Rina! Don’t leave me!” She cried, this time digital tears running down her face.

  “Over here!” she heard a faint call from her friend but couldn’t pinpoint where it came from. Below, no life signs detected. Power at 5%. She went close to the ground but couldn’t see anything. She began to despair until a hand reached out of the ground and caught her, quickly pulling her down. She felt a strange energy wash over her, taking some power with it. However there she was, held by her friend.

  “Come, this way. We need to get further down where it's safer. He won’t be able to find us, but we also don’t want to be around if it caves in.” The beast woman told them.

  “Alright but you haven’t told us your name yet. I’m Zarine, this is Tyna.” Her friend gestured to her. “Thanks for the rescue by the way.”

  “No problem. Name’s Kivalo Emberfist, Kiva for short.” She said pcing one of her bck hands over her chest. “ We really need to be going though.”

  Power at 4%. “Rinaaaaaaa, I reaaallly neeeed to sleeeeeep now.” she groaned. Moving and talking got really hard. She curled up in Rina’s hands and promptly conked out.

  Power saving mode active.

  Power at 3%.

  Network detected.

  Attempting to connect…….///

  Failed.

  Attempting to connect…….///

  Failed.

  Attempting to connect…….///

  Failed.

  Data Corrupted. System entering rest mode.

  Est. Time 37 hrs until complete shut down.