I was wet! I was cold! I was bored! And I was hungry!
'To put it in simpler terms, I am very upset!'
It was night, and I was on a leaf floating in a random river with zero food, going who knows where!
I'd been holding myself back from eating the leaf—it was my only hope of not drowning. 'How is that going, you ask? Very, very poorly, as you can see, there are chunks missing from it!'
'I can't control my hunger! Blame this body, not me!' Although, on the plus side, I didn't think I needed sleep anymore. 'Maybe it's a caterpillar thing? Don't quote me on that.'
'Okay, I seriously need to calm down. Stress isn't good for a young body. Get a hold of yourself!'
'Good. Now that I'm calm, I can focus on finding a way off this river before I end up in the sea or something and die of starvation or drowning...'
'Yeah... I'm so dead.'
'No! Stop being pessimistic! Be optimistic! Like a con artist when they spot their next victim. Yes, think happy thoughts.'
'Good. Now, what can you do to escape this situation?'
'Well, not a lot. I could try paddling, but my arms aren't long enough, not to mention my small size adds to the inevitability of the situation.' Sigh.
'What to do, what to do...'
I paced around the leaf, forming ideas in my head.
'Maybe if I could create silk, I could shoot it towards the bank and pull myself out. But even if I could, there's no guarantee that I'd reach the banks from this distance.'
'If I jumped, I could swim to the banks. That is assuming that caterpillars can swim. If they can, I don't know that, and I'd be taking a chance with my life, so no.'
'Aghh! What am I supposed to do!'
'Please! Someone help me! I'll do anything!'
As if on cue, a gust of strong wind blew past me, violently pushing the leaf towards the river bank. I held onto the leaf with my mandibles as tight as I could.
The leaf was flung onto the bank, and I tumbled into the wet earth. Covered in mud, I pulled myself up.
'Oh, sweet land! How I've missed you these past few hours!'
'Although, that gust came out of nowhere. Could it be that someone heard my totally not desperate call for help?'
'Am I being watched? Give me a sign if you are listening!' All I heard were the sounds of crickets in the night.
'Okay, rude!'
With that whole situation resolved rather anticlimactically, I could actually focus on where I was.
I looked at the sky first and was met with five moons. One of them was red, one blue, one white, one yellow, and the last was gray.
'Okay, I don't really know my science, but I do know that should not be possible. Unless the rocks those moons are made of are made of different materials, making them the colours that they are.'
'Other than that, I have no clue why they are like that.' Turning my head towards the forest closest to me, I saw an absolutely horrifying sight.
A dark and grim-looking forest. The trees were black and crooked, the flora looked wild, and there were strange lights in between the branches. You could even feel a sense of dread from this place.
'Yeah... no!' I grabbed the leaf with my mandibles and dragged it back to the water. 'This is exactly the type of forest that people in horror movies die in!'
'I think I'll take my chances with the river, thank you very much.' A gust of wind pushed me back, and thunder and lightning ignited the sky. Clouds rolled in quickly, completely covering the sky in minutes.
'Okay, fine! Jeez, you are so dramatic!' I marched away from the river bank, and the coming storm slowed—not completely stopping.
'Stupid mysterious entity, using deus ex machina crap to get me to do its bidding! I'm not doing this because I'm afraid, by the way! I can take you on any day, just try me!'
Lightning flashed in the sky, followed by loud thunder. 'Oh, shut it!'
Entering the forest, a chill ran up my spine. 'Do I even have a spine? Whatever, that's not important right now.'
'What is important is that I can finally eat! I've been hungry for the past few hours; it was absolutely devastating!'
I picked up a black blade of grass and immediately started devouring it. The taste was slightly different from the grass I'd been eating before—a bit sour—but it was still tolerable.
'Well, at least I get to taste something different for the first time.' I heard something move and immediately turned towards it.
It was a creature that looked like a white tiger, stalking in the trees. It moved so silently that most wouldn't be able to notice it. I wasn't really scared of it, as I was sure that even if it noticed me, it wouldn't bother with something as small as me.
It looked around and sniffed the air. It turned its head in a certain direction, and I looked there as well. In the bushes, there was a boar, asleep.
'Wow, it must have really good night vision if it can see that in the dead of night. I wish I had vision like that.' I continued watching and eating; I felt like I was watching a nature documentary.
I suddenly realised something. I could see everything perfectly clear. The tiger, which would normally be impossible to spot in the night, was perfectly visible to me. I could perfectly see all the blades of grass around me. I hadn't noticed it before, as I was busy panicking, but I could see perfectly in the dark.
'New ability discovered! With night vision, my survival rate has gone up. I'll be able to perfectly see in a situation where enemies are at a disadvantage.'
I started celebrating my newly discovered ability before being interrupted by the tiger pouncing on the boar.
The boar started squealing, struggling for its life, but the tiger sank its fangs deep and was not willing to let go. After a few seconds, the boar went silent, and the tiger let go of its vice-like bite.
'Is it weird that I'm completely desensitised to all of this? Meh, probably a good thing.'
'Wait, this is my chance to see if I'm omnivorous. If I can get close, I can take a bite out of that boar.' The tiger began devouring its prey, ripping flesh apart from bone. 'Or maybe I can wait till it's done with its meal and I'll eat the leftovers.'
'Yep! Good idea!'
I waited in the grass, watching the tiger eat its fill. While I watched, I passed the time by eating more grass. By the time the tiger was finished, I'd eaten so much grass that it had created a small clearing around me.
'Man, can I pack it away.' And as always, I still felt hungry. 'I'm honestly concerned that I'll start gaining weight with how much food I'm eating. But wouldn't I just be so cute if that happens?'
'I can see it now: world's chubbiest caterpillar! Come see its ultra big back cuteness!'
I was distracted as the tiger got up, finishing its meal. It began to run into the night, disappearing into the shadows. I wondered if that was some sort of shadow magic or something, as even I lost track of it.
'Now it's time to feast on flesh! Hahaha! Come to me, my precious!'
I made my way to the carcass of the boar. As I got close, I stepped in puddles of blood. It was still warm and sticky. 'Gross!'
Ignoring my disgust, I marched on till I reached a mostly eaten ribcage. Most of the meat was gone; all that remained were the parts of the animal the tiger could not get to.
The strong smell of blood circulated around the carcass, but for some reason, I wasn't repulsed by it. I stepped closer to the ribcage.
'This is raw meat, but I'm not human anymore, so it should be okay... probably.'
'Wait, how does one even go about checking if they can eat meat? Will the taste be horrible? Or maybe my stomach will reject it?'
'I wish I had a super computer skill or something! Life is so much simpler when you have all the facts.'
'Since I don't have that, might as well try it. I mean, what's the worst that can happen? Hahaha...'
'Let's just get on with it.'
I crawled closer to the carcass. Aiming for the ribs, I sank my mandibles into the flesh and took a huge bite out of it.
I swallowed. The taste was very gamey, but other than that, it wasn't that bad. I took another bite and continued to eat. 'Maybe I can eat meat! Just hope this doesn't come back to bite me later on.'
Seeing as nothing bad happened at the moment, I continued feasting on the carcass, savouring each and every bite.
'All that's missing are a few herbs and spices and for it to be cooked. If I can, I should definitely pick up fire magic in the future.'
'However, it's not like I can make meat my daily meal. I just got lucky today finding the tiger. I'm too slow to catch up to anything, so other scavengers could find carcasses before me.'
In about half an hour, I had cleaned the flesh off of the carcass. There were only bones left behind. 'Well, that was something.' I said, wiping myself on a leaf with dew drops. I had to wash myself of the blood to not attract predators.
I felt the wind pick up and rain starting to fall. I should find a place to hide for the night.
I looked around and saw a tree with a small hole. I should be able to fit inside that hole. Crawling up the tree, I reached the hole. It was just large enough to fit two of me in here.
The inside was quite spacious, and as a bonus, there was a bit of sap leaking from a hole in here. Drinking it, I found that it was quite sweet. I filled myself up with the sap.
I suddenly felt tired for some reason. 'Is it the sap, or am I just tired?' I lay down, curling up to conserve as much heat as possible, and drifted off. Sleep took me as the storm continued outside.