"Nnngh… My head…" By the time Azi had come to, night had passed into dawn as the warm sunrise illuminated the forest. Her thoughts were a mess, and it took a full minute until the memories rushed back to her.

  Springing up off the forest floor, she whipped her head back and forth. Where had the men gone? It was hard to tell, but she was sure she was not where they had knocked her out. The hill was too ft and the foliage sparser.

  'Did they dump me somewhere?' Azi stood in a small patch of soft grass centered in an eerily circur clearing in the forest. Despite the daylight, she could only see a few feet into the forest proper, but she was positive. This was somewhere new.

  It was then that another realization dawned on her. Pain, or rather, its absence. Gncing down at her arm where the arrow had hit her, she paused. Not only was the arrow gone, but so was any sign she had been injured at all. But it didn't end there.

  Had her skin always been this clear? Azi had never considered herself ugly by any definition of the word. A few blemishes here and there, a couple of scars from when she was a kid, an average-looking girl. But now?

  Pristine.

  It was the first word that sprang into her mind. Unconsciously she traced a circle on her arm where the arrow had hit. It wasn't an illusion; it was as if it had never happened in the first pce. Something was off.

  It wasn't just the missing injury. Her whole body felt different. All the dull aches and pains she'd grown accustomed to over the years? Vanished.

  "Am I dead?" Azi pondered. It would expin things; perhaps this was that afterlife, and the men had killed her in her sleep. She shook her head; that was a rather dark thought for such a calm awakening. Curious, she felt as if she should be angrier, but she couldn't bring herself to feel such.

  The grass felt amazing between her toes, and the breeze on her skin was like gentle silk. Despite the violent chaos that had nded her here, Azi felt at peace. She wriggled her toes, sinking them further into the welcoming turf. She closed her eyes, inhaling deep the sweet scents of the forest.

  Peace. Or at least, she thought. In her indulgence of the sensations of nature, she had forgotten to ask a simple question. Where did her shoes go?

  Azi's eyes burst open, and she nearly threw herself over, looking down. Gone. Everything was gone. She quickly brought her arms down, desperately trying to cover herself despite being alone in the forest.

  Her hand felt something, something that had most certainly not been there before. Blood rushed to her cheeks, and her brain struggled to find an expnation. She tugged at the object, thinking it might have come off, which only served to worsen the situation.

  "Why do I have…!" Azi's words trailed off. She didn't want to say it. Admitting the obvious would only solidify it in reality, and she was not ready for that. Trying her damnedest to ignore the rising sensation between her legs, she waddled towards the tree line.

  But it was almost impossible to ignore. Her body felt hot and heavy; her breaths became low and ragged. A familiar sensation further between her legs burned with a fervor unfelt before. She needed to get out of the forest, but first she needed to free her limbs.