High above the forest canopy, the sun slipped across the treetops like liquid gold. The leaves—each broad as a shield and veined with faint, pulsing luminescence—shivered with the energy they absorbed from the daylight. In the distance, something massive moved, its footsteps rolling through the earth in slow, tremoring waves, shaking loose petals the size of a child's palm.
Sunlight speared through the thick foliage, fracturing into beams that painted the forest floor in stripes of amber and deep emerald. The air itself seemed alive—damp, warm, and dense.
Amid that raw and untamed wilderness lay a woman who didn't belong there.
On a patch of moss as soft as velvet, Lavayla slept with the serenity of someone who had never faced hardship in her life. Her raven hair spilled across the ground, and her skin was a smooth, fair contrast against the earth.
She was swaddled in a blanket that enveloped her, curled around a pillow. Her breathing was slow, steady, and persistently peaceful—as if the forest weren't watching her with several hungry eyes. The ground around her bore claw marks larger than her hands. The bark of the nearest tree still steamed from the heat of some gigantic beast that had passed hours earlier. Even the insects here were bigger and more aggressive.
Yet she slept on, oblivious and utterly defenseless.
The carnivorous plants and animals surrounding her didn't come to use her as a snack yet, as if they were wondering what sort of soft, fragile creature had dared to fall into the forest's jaws.
Suddenly, Lavayla stirred, shifting and stretching her arms as she mumbled in her sleep,
"Mm… don't touch that— that's my limited-edition Dior tote… yeah, the one with the gold hardware… put it in my walk-in… no, my walk-in…"
She let out a dreamy sigh and hugged the blanket tighter, a lazy smile spreading across her face.
"Mm, and the Louis Vuitton runway gown… yes, the one you losers said was 'too much'—ha… watch me wear it to the company dinner…"
Her fingers twitched, reaching out as if plucking invisible luxury items from the air.
"…Actually—wait—give me the—"
A thorn suddenly pricked her palm. Pain flickered through her half-conscious haze, pulling her upward like a fish on a hook.
"Ugh—what the fu—"
Her voice caught as her eyes finally snapped open. The fog of sleep peeled back, replaced by startled clarity. She wasn't in her plush bedroom—just cold earth beneath her spine and a mess of tangled vines rustling barely a meter away.
She froze in shock.
Then she squeezed her eyes shut, opened them again, and repeated the process to confirm she truly was where she thought she was because she wasn't staring at her ceiling.
She wasn't in her penthouse bedroom.
She wasn't anywhere remotely civilized.
She was on the ground, surrounded by giant plants, inside a forest.
It was technically daylight, but the trees were so impossibly tall and broad-leaved that only muted rays of light slipped through, casting a perpetual, dawn-like dimness over the area. Lavayla swore she had never seen trees this large — not in nature documentaries, not in movies, not even in CGI-heavy fantasy films. It was almost fucking terrifying.
Her breathing picked up as she looked around. Thorny vines wrapped tightly around the bushes beside her, and it was one of those damn thorns that had stabbed her awake.
She shut her eyes again, mentally chanting, Please, please, please, oh God! I want to be back in my bed with its Egyptian cotton bedsheet. I want my ceiling-mounted rainfall shower. I want to wear my new Chanel outfits and go to work at my company like I do every day. Let this be a nightmare. Let this be a nightmare.
But when she opened her eyes… she was still in the same cursed place.
"Oh fuck me."
Lavayla closed and opened her eyes again. And again. And again. Then she abruptly sat up and whipped her head around.
She was really in a fucking forest. How?!
She looked down at herself and saw she was still wearing her Morgan Lane Ruthie top and Yana Pants in midnight pajamas. She touched the blanket wrapped around her legs — it had come with her. Her pillow was here too.
But her bed? Nowhere. Why the hell wasn't it here? She had been lying on it right? No, that was not important right now. What was important was–
"Where the hell am I?!"
As she stood, something slid off her blanket and hit the ground with a thunk.
She looked down, eyes widening before she frowned and tilted her head.
"What the hell is my BOTTEGA VENETA Arco tote bag doing here? Why are all my high-end luxurious things appearing with me?!"
The blanket and pillow made sense — she had been holding them.
But her bag? That was on her bedside table before she slept.
Still… having it wasn't the worst thing right now.
As weird as it was.
She sighed loudly.
"Great. Fantastic. Just me, my pajamas, my blanket, my pillow, and a designer tote bag. What the hell am I supposed to do with this — block a tiger?"
Then she shook her head aggressively.
"No, Lavayla. Focus. Focus! What you should be concentrating on is the fact that you suddenly appeared in the middle of a forest that definitely doesn't look like anything you've seen before except—"
She froze. Her eyes went wide.
"Except… I might not have seen it, but I've read it." She clutched her head with both hands. "Oh my God. Don't tell me. No, don't tell me."
She was in her late twenties, not old by any means — and she read novels. A lot of them. Paperback. Kindle. Web novels. Everything. Of course, she was familiar with the concepts of transmigration and reincarnation. And she had read Beastmen novels too — where worlds were primitive, wild, and everything was twice the size of Earth. Twice as sweet, twice as dangerous, twice as terrifying.
"No, no, no, no. Not you, Lavayla. Not you!"
Her breathing hitched and her eyes stung. She bit her lip, trying not to lose her mind.
"Calm the fuck down, Lavayla. Control yourself. You can't have a panic attack now. Not now."
When she finally steadied her breathing, she opened her eyes and scanned the forest again. Trembling, she rubbed her arms, her neck, then gripped her hair as reality slammed into her for the third time.
"Oh my god!" she whispered. "Oh my god — oh GOODNESS! This is not happening, no, please…"
She bent down, shaking, staying like that for several minutes trying to steady herself, find out where exactly she was before jumping to a conclusion, and find a way to get out of here when—
A faint cry echoed.
She shot upright instantly.
Her eyes darted around, wide and shadowed by her tousled hair.
She had heard a baby's cry.