(A/N: I do not claim the be the best writer, nor do i hold the title for best at punctuation and spelling. If you see a mistake, please let me know! Nicely, of course. And yes, chapters will be short for faster updating until I get over whatever writer's block is plaguing me.)
Shutting the door behind her with her heel, Rohna let out a sigh that ruffled her long bangs and closed her eyes, shutting out the memory of her classmates laughing at her when they realized how poor she was. She hadn't expected to run into Clarissa when she was leaving the church that had bought her groceries. She'd barely sat down on the public transport bus before her phone started buzzing like crazy. It had taken a few seconds for her to fish her phone out of her back pocket, and when she swiped the screen on, there was a information box telling her that she had almost twenty notifications on a picture she'd been tagged in. With a sinking feeling in her gut, knowing from experience just how vapid Clarissa, the self-named Queen of the University, could be, Rohna stiffened her back and touched the box on the screen, watching as the picture was pulled up.
Her worst fear was confirmed when a candid snapshot of herself, struggling to carry her few bags of donated food and school textbooks. Even though she was looking down and her bangs threw a shadow over the top half of her face, it was obvious as to who it was. The comments ranged from scorn and derision to mockery and full-blown hatred, and with each line she read, her heart sunk. People who had once claimed to be her friend were now whispering behind her back, snickering with each other.
Snapping her eyes open, Rohna shook her head and headed to the small area that she'd claimed as her kitchen. Her apartment was tiny, basically a thirteen foot by thirteen foot square with a smaller one attached for the itty bathroom, and she'd managed to arrange her few pieces of furniture to make it seem as roomy as possible. Putting everything that needed to be kept cold in the refrigerator and everything else above the sink, Rohna kept a can of soup out as a reminder to cook it later for dinner.
Sinking into the one chair set at her small dining table, she sluggishly reached for the backpack she'd tossed on to it and unzipped it, pulling out an overflowing binder and notebook. Flipping the binder open to the syllabus page, Rohna groaned as the list of next day's assignments took up half the page. Resigning herself to the fate of pulling another all-nighter, she pulled her waist length hair into a sloppy braid and shrugged out of the thick tan cardigan issued by the school. Stretching her arms with a sigh, she grabbed a pen and opened her notebook to a blank page.
Several hours later, most of them after nightfall, Rohna winced as she stretched out a cramped hand and pushed her chair away from the table. Staring at the pile of completed homework, a rumble from her stomach had her looking down.
"Yeah, yeah." She muttered dully, creaking into a standing position after hours of being still.
Padding across the floor in worn socks, shoes long since toed off, she pulled open a kitchen drawer open and grabbed the can opener. Yanking open a creaky cabinet, a saucepan was brought out next, followed by a chipped bowl that had seen better days and soon enough, Rohna was leaning a hip against the counter and idly stirring the soup, eyes blankly staring at the bubbling liquid.
Transferring her soup from saucepan to bowl, Rohna crossed the room to where her bed laid nestled in the corner and set the bowl on the bedside table. Shuffling out of the required school uniform, she yanked on a pair of black shorts that were a little to short, a large red hoodie that made it seem as though she wore no shorts and kept the knee-high socks on, knowing that without heat, her room would become frigid. After making sure her phone was plugged in, Rohna drew the many blankets on her bed around her, grabbed her soup and settled into the corner. Accessing a popular movie streaming app, she scrolled through different options until settling on an anime show she'd just started the night before. Having only barely made it through the second episode, she was intrigued enough to stay awake another hour, even if she was exhausted.
With the apartment only illuminated by the light of her screen, Rohna giggled at the antics of the short man, sinking deeper into her bed as she finally relaxed. As she did, she curled up into a ball, eyes fluttering shut as she fought to stay awake. Knowing her phone would shut itself off after an hour of no movement, Rohna's last thought was of how much she wished she were in the fictitious world she was seeing.
Her toes were warm, and Rohna curled in on herself with a happy sigh. A slight tickle to her nose caused it to twitch, and with a heaving gasp, she bolted upright just in time to let out a massive sneeze. Opening her eyes to blinding sunlight, Rohna slapped her hands over her face with a sharp cry. It was then that the ever-present noise of the city wasn't there, instead there was the sound of a breeze rustling though trees, the high-pitched whistle of a happy bird.
On instinct, Rohna took a deep breath, and memories of her childhood flipped through her mind, the clean, fresh air reminding her of the farm she'd grown up on. Lungs filled to the brim with unpolluted air for the first time in ten years, her hands slowly slipped down her face and with her heart thudding in her chest, she blinked and the scenery around her took her breath away.
With something between a laugh and a sob, Rohna propelled herself off the bright green, grassy hill and stared at the view. High-rising mountains on one side, the ground evened out into a rolling plain, clusters of forests and a winding river took the other side. The green continued on in every direction, as far as Rohna could see.
Hands pressed to a wildly beating heart, Rohna forced her lungs to breath as they threatened so seize up in panic. This was nothing she recognized, and with a sudden start, the fleeting memory of her last words before falling asleep crept towards.
"No way!" she cried out, wheezing as her lungs tightened.
Before she could get her breath back, a shuddering beneath her feet had Rohna stumbling and her eyes widened in fear.
An earthquake?
A few seconds passed after the first ripple before it came again. Forcing herself to concentrate on the thuds that were now heard approaching, the task proving difficult thanks to the thundering in her ears as her heart sped up.
Soon, the thudding and the ripples of aftershock matched up, and Rohna gulped as she realized something was coming over the hill off to her right. Two figures were all she could make out, and frozen in place with fear and the fact that her lungs were about to give out on her, Rohna squinted as she tried to figure out if she needed to run.
Everything in her was screaming to move, but there was a small tug at her heart, almost puling her in the direction of the fast approaching figures. The figures became clearer and clearer with each heartbeat, and when her brain could make sense of what her eyes were seeing, Rohna dropped to the floor, knees aching as they hit the dirt.
Gasping and clutching at her chest, Rohna swayed as the extremely tall female and giant green pig with a hat came closer. Eyes rolling into the back of her head, Rohna gave a last wheezing attempt at breathing before she collapsed.