Faelyn's last thought before dying was: 'Fuck you! And your food poisoning!!! '
Not heroically saving a kid from traffic. Not peacefully in her sleep at ninety. Not even choking on expensive food she couldn't afford.
No.
A deer. A goddamn deer was about to cave her skull in, and there was absolutely nothing she could do about it.
Five years. She'd survived five years as a zookeeper. Cranky capybaras who bit without warning. Territorial peacocks who attacked anything shiny. That one memorable incident with an escape artist otter and the CEO's koi pond that nearly got her fired.
Not once had she considered a deer a legitimate threat.
They were the chill ones. The easy assignment. The animals they gave to summer interns so they could feel useful without risking dismemberment.
Which was why, when Marcus texted her at six in the morning claiming food poisoning, and she got stuck covering the deer paddock during feeding time, Faelyn didn't think twice about it.
Big mistake.
The morning had started normal enough. She'd grabbed coffee from the break room, complained about Marcus's convenient illness to anyone who'd listen, and trudged out to the enclosures with a bucket of feed.
The deer paddock was peaceful. Quiet. Three does grazing in the early morning light like they were auditioning for a nature documentary about inner peace.
That should've been her first warning.
Animals were never that calm.
"Alright, Bambi's mom," Faelyn muttered, unlatching the gate. "Let's make this quick so I can go yell at Marcus for faking the stomach flu again."
She stepped inside, bucket in hand.
The largest doe's head snapped up.
Its eyes were wrong. Glassy. Wild. Foam dripped from its mouth like something straight out of a zombie apocalypse, and Faelyn's brain finally caught up to what her instincts were screaming.
Rabies.
'Oh.'
'Oh hell no.'
The doe charged.
Faelyn threw herself sideways, but her boot caught on the fence post. She went down hard, and the last thing she registered was a hoof coming at her face at terminal velocity, and the distant thought that Marcus was going to feel so guilty about this.
'Fuck you! And your food poisoning!!!'
Then everything went black.
ฅᨐฅ ⚞ • ⚟ ฅᨐฅ
Dying at twenty-seven because a deer had a psychiatric breakdown was not how Faelyn thought she'd go out.
She floated in absolute nothingness, consciousness drifting like a balloon with a slow leak. No pearly gates. No river of souls. Just darkness and the faint sensation of existence unraveling like a sweater with one loose thread.
Then the void started glowing.
Golden text materialized in front of her face like the world's worst video game tutorial.
[WELCOME, TRANSMIGRATOR!]
Faelyn blinked. Or tried to. She wasn't entirely sure she still had eyelids.
"Transmigrator? What even is that supposed to mean?"
[CAUSE OF DEATH: Workplace Incident (Deer-Related)]
"Oh, come on. That's going on my permanent record?"
[NEW WORLD ASSIGNMENT: Beastworld]
[SPECIAL ABILITY GRANTED: ¶∆≈§‡★☆■□●◇◆♪♫]
[COMPANION ASSIGNED: Puffball]
[GOOD LUCK! ♡]
"Wait, hold on, what does any of those symbols even mean? Hello? HELLO?"
The darkness yanked her down like a riptide, and Faelyn's scream dissolved into rushing wind and blinding light.
ฅᨐฅ ⚞ • ⚟ ฅᨐฅ
She woke up choking on dirt.
Not the gentle, cinematic kind of awakening where you blink prettily at the sky and contemplate your existence. No. This was full-on face-planted-in-the-ground, lungs burning, body screaming 'what the hell just happened?'
Faelyn coughed, spat out something that tasted like moss and obviously grass, and rolled onto her back.
Above her stretched a canopy of massive trees she'd never seen before in her life. Leaves shimmered with bioluminescent veins, casting everything in eerie blue-green light. The air smelled like rain and wildflowers and something vaguely animal that set her zookeeper instincts on high alert.
She sat up slowly, taking inventory. Arms? Present. Legs? Functional. Face? Still attached, no hoof-shaped dents detected.
But her clothes were wrong. Her uniform, dirt-stained khakis and zoo polo with Punch-kun the baby macaque cheerfully printed on the chest, was torn and filthy like it had been through a blender. Her boots were scuffed beyond recognition, laces half undone.
And her hair.
Faelyn grabbed a strand dangling in her face and stared.
Pure white. Like someone had dumped an entire bucket of bleach on her head while she was unconscious.
Her hair had been brown. Boring, mousy brown that she'd never bothered dyeing because who had the time or money for that?
'Okay. Okay. This is a dream. Has to be a dream. Or a coma. I'm in a coma right now in some hospital and this is my brain's way of processing trauma.'
She pinched her arm.
Hard.
"Ow! Fuck!"
'Not a dream. Shit. Okay. Maybe it's a hologram? The zoo finally upgraded to those fancy VR training modules they kept talking about? This is some kind of immersive workplace safety simulation about... glowing trees and white hair?'
She looked around the bioluminescent forest.
'Yeah, no. The zoo's budget couldn't afford this. We can barely afford to fix the penguin enclosure's filtration system.'
'Wait. Is this a prank? Did Marcus set this up? Is this payback for that time I told everyone about his embarrassing karaoke night? Are there cameras? Is this some elaborate movie set?'
She squinted at the trees, looking for hidden cameras or lighting rigs.
Nothing.
Just impossibly large trees with glowing veins and an eerie silence that felt way too real.
'Okay so not a prank. Unless Marcus suddenly has a Hollywood budget and access to genetic modification technology for my hair. Which he doesn't. Because he can't even afford to buy his own lunch half the time.'
"WHERE THE ACTUAL FUCK AM I?"
[HEHEHEHE!]
Faelyn shrieked and scrambled backward, heart trying to physically escape through her ribcage.
Floating at eye level, bobbing gently like a deranged balloon, was a small, round, impossibly fluffy creature that looked like someone had crossed a cloud with a chinchilla and given it the galaxy's most unsettling smile.
It had enormous sparkly eyes that took up half its face, tiny paws that wiggled excitedly, and an aura of pure chaotic energy that made Faelyn's fight-or-flight instincts scream flight.
'WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT?!'
'Okay so definitely not a hologram. Holograms don't laugh. Or float. Or look like they're about to eat my soul.'
'Is this a robot? Some kind of drone? Do drones giggle now?'
[YOU SCREAMED!] it chirped, absolutely delighted. [I LOVE when they scream! It's so validating!]
Faelyn stared in horror.
The creature stared back, wiggling enthusiastically in midair.
'It talks. The floating furball talks. Great. Fantastic. I've officially lost my mind. The deer didn't just kill me, it scrambled my brain first.'
[I'm Puffball!] it announced, doing a little loop-de-loop. [Your assigned companion system! Congratulations on not dying permanently! Well, you DID die, but you got better, so that's a win!]
"I... what... now?"
'System? What system? Is this a video game? Did I get sucked into a video game? Is that even possible? No. That's not possible. That's insane.'
[Welcome to the Beastworld!] Puffball spun in a circle, sparkles popping around it like tiny fireworks. [A super fun fantasy realm inhabited by beastmen who can shift between human and animal forms! You're going to LOVE it here! Probably! Maybe! Okay, survival rates are a little concerning, but you seem sturdy!]
Faelyn opened her mouth. Closed it. Opened it again.
"I died," she said slowly, testing each word. "I died because a deer went rabid and trampled me in the middle of my morning shift."
[Yep! Deer-related workplace incident! It's literally on your file! Want me to pull it up? There's a whole report and everything!]
'This is real. This is actually real. I actually died. And now I'm... where? Another world? A fantasy world? With talking furballs and beastmen?'
'No. No no no. This is still a coma dream. Has to be. My brain is just very creative and also hates me.'
"And now I'm... where exactly?"
[The Beastworld! Keep up!] Puffball bounced. [You've been transmigrated into a magical frontier world full of gorgeous men who turn into big cats and wolves and bears and other animals, and all sorts of fun stuff with a touch of dropping survival rate!]
"Nope! You got the wrong girl. I want to go back."
[No take-backsies! The transmigration process is one hundred percent irreversible! Non-refundable! All sales final!]
'Fuck.'
"I'll take the rabid deer. Send me back. I'll take my chances with the hoof to the face."
[Too late! You're already registered in the system!] Puffball's eyes sparkled with what could only be described as malicious glee. [But don't worry! You've been granted a special ability to help you survive!]
Faelyn's eye twitched. "The weird symbols that looked like my keyboard had a seizure?"
[Oh, those! Yeah, you're not supposed to know what your ability is yet! It's a surprise! Spoilers ruin the fun!]
"I hate surprises."
[You'll love this one! Trust me!]
"I absolutely do not trust you. We've known each other for less than five minutes and you've already told me I might not survive."
'Okay. So. I'm either: A) Dead and this is the afterlife's weirdest waiting room, B) In a coma and my subconscious is a dick, C) Actually transported to another world like in those web novels Sarah wouldn't shut up about, or D) Having the most elaborate psychotic break in medical history.'
'Please be option B. Please be option B.'
[Smart! Healthy skepticism is great for survival!] Puffball giggled. [Anyway, someone's coming, so maybe stop sitting in the dirt looking like you've had an existential crisis and try to seem, I dunno, less like disaster bait?]
"Someone's WHAT?"
[Shhhh!]
'Okay so not option B. If this were a coma dream I'd have more control. And probably better hair. And definitely wouldn't be covered in dirt.'
'Which means...'
Her eyes doubled in size.
'Oh fuck. This is real. This is actually happening. I'm in another world. A FANTASY world. With magic and systems and floating nightmare furballs.'
'I'm going to die. Again. I'm going to die SO fast.'
Through the trees came the sound of footsteps. Two people moving through underbrush with the kind of ease that said they knew this forest intimately.
And then voices. Deep. Male. Currently engaged in what sounded like a very aggressive argument.
"This is MY side of the water source, Roshan. Take your flea-bitten pack and stay where you belong."
"Flea-bitten?! Your clan smells like wet fur and poor decisions, Nyx, so maybe don't throw stones from your glass cave."
"I will END you."
"You can TRY, but we both know how that went last time."
Two men burst through another underbrush and froze mid-step the moment they spotted Faelyn.
Faelyn froze.
Puffball vibrated with barely contained excitement.
'Shit! Shit! Why now? Why me?!'