Is this part of the same one from earlier back in the forest? Doesn’t seem like it. This is way too spooky to be like that one before, or maybe that’s because the trees are closer together?

“If there’s any good news,” Olivia grumbled allowed, “the temperature has gone down at least.”

“Cool,” Gipp crooned, resting with eyes half-closed on Olivia’s shoulder. Olivia had finally managed to coax her feathered friend out from beneath her duster when the heat began to wane.

Olivia tried to gauge the sun’s descent. The thick canopy made it hard to tell, and shadows had long started growing on the forest floor. There was probably less than an hour’s worth of sunlight left.

And they had yet to see any sign of civilization; if this entire mess was trying to divert every trope in those books Olivia had read, it was doing an excellent job at it.

Even worse was the idea of sleeping in the wilderness. Olivia wouldn’t have batted an eye back home, but she knew nothing of this world’s dangers or how to deal with them.

Thanks to that scene at the well, I got proof that magic exists. How far a guess is that trolls and dragons exist here too?

She did have a pistol on her hip with extra clips and two boxes of ammo, but that was it. Until she learned just how challenging the wildlife was, magical or not, it would be best to limit firearm use.

I also have a knife in my boot, but that’s only good if something gets within biting distance and I can get to it fast enough. If this is a medieval set world, maybe I could get someone to teach me how to use a spear? Anything that’ll keep teeth and claws away from me would be a help here.

People were a given; magical dangers or not, there was always someone willing to give others a nightmare of a life. Olivia could hope all she wanted, but it wouldn’t take a genius to realize she was a stranger.

And that is I can even speak the language, she thought. Many stories have the main character gain the language from divine intervention or as part of an in-world game system. With the way my luck is running as of late, I wouldn’t be surprised if I couldn’t understand the language.

That all depended, of course, on whether she would meet anyone else. Outside of that small stop with the well and the road she had been on for hours, Olivia hadn’t seen any more evidence of civilization.

At this rate, Gipp and I will be seeking refuge in a nearby tree. Chester can handle himself, and I pity whatever tries their luck with him, but if we don’t find something soon, we’ll-

Wait, was that smoke?

Pulling Chester to a stop, Olivia stood up in the stirrups for added height and sniffed the air.

Yes, that was smoke. Too faint for a large fire, but it was there.

Olivia grinned. “Looks like our luck is starting to change. Let’s hope they’re friendly. Let’s go.”

Gipp’s reply was a surprised squawk before settling back down at Chester’s break into a lope, talons digging for stability.

Surprisingly, the forest ended not long after their run began, opening to a field of –

“Woah!”

Yanking the reins back, Olivia tucked against Chester as the stallion dug into a stop. Gipp squawked at the abrupt halt, wings spread to steady himself.

Once their momentum stopped, Olivia again stood up in the stirrups. A house, smoke billowing out of a narrow chimney, was not far from them. Beyond that were fields of what she had only seen in books; rice paddies.

“You have got to be kidding me.” Olivia groaned, sitting back down. “As if ending up in another world was bad enough, I had to end up in a fantasy Asia? I’m going to stick out like a sore thumb here. I already knew that, but this is not good.”

Worse, there was likely no one with features resembling hers in this part of the world. In a medieval, fantasy-Europe setting, Olivia could have passed for a well-off woman seeking adventure outside of her home life; here, she would come across as downright alien to the locals.

Being a terrible liar, Olivia hadn’t planned to keep the fact she was from another world a secret. She had only intended to keep the number who knew her circumstances to only a handful, but this was a wrench in her plans.

“Looks like I’ll be improvising as I go along,” she sighed. “Here’s hoping they have foreign traders or travelers. Otherwise, I’m out of ideas.”