Chapter-1
My eyes fluttered open, the glimmering sunlight falling onto my face.
"...Where am I?"
The memories were all across my head. I remember the plane I was traveling in crashed somewhere. I looked around only to find abnormally huge trees and dense foliage towering above me.
"What was happening, where was I, where were others?" I muttered to myself, my voice trembling slightly.
Immersed in my thoughts I felt a presence beside me. I turned my head to see Zei lying beside me. She was sleeping soundly or perhaps unconscious.
Staring at her face shining in the glimmering sunlight the memories started coming back. The memories of what should have been my last moments before I died.
"How am I alive?"
I looked at Zei and noticed something implausible, her right hand—which was all mangled up last time—was perfectly fine now without a single scratch or blemish.
I quickly examined myself and sure enough, not just her but my leg was completely fine as well, not just my legs but all the bruises and cuts on my body had vanished like magic.
"This…doesn't make any sense"
Shaking my head, I stood up
I needed to figure out where we were and what was happening. I looked around only to find nothing, we were stranded in the middle of nowhere in a dense forest.
Venturing a little further into the forest I soon found a river stream nearby, the cool water sparkled tempting me to drink it, however, I hesitated.
I needed to check on Zei first since surviving in this jungle all alone seemed like a horrible idea.
I returned to where she was lying and knelt beside her,
"Zei, wake up, wake up Zei" I nudged her gently but to no avail
Annoyed, I started using force, shaking her vigorously."Wake up you sleepyhead, wake up or I will have to resort to violence"
Still nothing
With a sigh, I resorted to violence and slapped her across the face. Maybe a little too hard.
Finally, she opened her eyes and stared at me, wide eyes and confused.
"Are you awake now?" I asked, a relieved smile painted on my face.
Before I could react however she suddenly pulled me into her embrace, catching me off guard.
"W-what are you doing?" I stammered
She didn't respond. Lifting her face, her calm blue eyes—sharp and piercing like the ocean—locked onto my gaze.
Finally, coming to her senses as realization hit her, she pulled away abruptly, her ears turning slightly red.
After some time, she looked around and then fixed her gaze on me. Her lips finally parted.
"Where are we?" She murmured
I could still feel my heartbeat racing, after taking a few deep breaths I replied.
"Somewhere in a dense forest, I can't seem to find any signs of any civilization around us"
Her body relaxed as I uttered those words for some reason. Seeing her reaction I let out a soft sigh, deciding to disregard her sudden bold actions. Her mind was most likely still disoriented after waking up.
"How did we end up here?" she asked
"I don't know I am just as confused as you are", I replied
All of this was very bizarre. Just a while ago we were dying–engulfed by fire and now we are in a dense forest with all our injuries healed and no signs of humans as far as I could see.
"Just where in the world are we?"
Countless possibilities rummaged through my brain as I tried to find a logical reasoning to our situation.
However, nothing came to my mind.