Scampering. Huh. Well, she will go decapitate it, mercifully as she can.

It makes a sound halfway between a squawk and a chitter when she grabs it, but is not overly inclined to protest otherwise.

She gets underway on a fire. All her electronics are internal and she has no matches but she can rub sticks together real fast.

There's plenty of dry wood, at least. She can have a cozy fire going soon enough.

Good. She skins and cleans and cooks her pheasantwhatever.

It's kind of gamey. A little nutty.

She'll cope.

Something starts quietly screaming in the distance. It sounds like a mouse being murdered, repeatedly.

It might well be an animal. She will climb a tree and squint thataway.

There's some sort of bat-thing hanging off a branch. It swivels its head much further than a bat should be able to, opens its mouth- and yep, that's the source of the noise.

You do you, bat thing. Page noise-cancels the bat-thing and Tarinda sets about arranging the most comfortable shelter she can for overnight.

With the bat-thing silenced, there's not much to disturb her from doing so.

It is not the best bed she's ever had but it's all right.

Later in the night, a nearby branch snaps. Something about the size of a large dog pads quietly closer to Tarinda's sleeping form.

Page hears it coming and wakes her. She opens her eyes. She doesn't otherwise move.

The thing is a cat, with two lashing tails and a strangely elongated face. It must catch a gleam or reflection in Tarinda's open eyes, because it stops short, then sits down.

"Hiss-ss. It has caught us, the toy has. Awoken from innocent slumber by hostile intent, hiss-ss." It grins wide, revealing sharp fangs.

Tarinda looks at it, but doesn't reply.

"Hiss-ss. A quiet little stranger, it is." The cat stretches, pushing its front legs forward and displaying impressively sharp claws before pulling them back. Licking its left forepaw, it begins to clean its face. "We are wondering what it does here, sleeping so lonesome, hiss-ss."

"I didn't have a place in town."

"Hiss-ss. You don't belong here, oh no no. No spirit you, no human either. Nowhere to stay and nowhere to be, hiss-ss."

She doesn't say anything.

"Hiss-ss. We felt your arrival, we did. From a nothing comes a something and from a something comes a change. We don't trust you, we don't. Better for you to be eaten and die and join the cycle that way, hiss-ss."

She can get her sword in less than a tenth of a second from her current position. If it can disable her sooner than that she's not going to win a fight and if she goes for the sword and it wasn't going to be a fight she might invite one she doesn't need.

"Hiss-ss. The toy tenses, it does. Does it think of fighting? We hope so. It is so dreadfully boring in other respects, hiss-ss."

She holds still.