It felt like Rachael had been unconscious for months when she finally came to. Her body ached a hundred times worse than it did before she passed out, and it took a lot of effort just to crack her eyes open. When she finally did, Rachael nearly had a heart attack to add to everything else. She was in…well, she didn't know where she was.

She'd woken up in a clearing surrounded by trees with a small stream flowing just a few metres to the side of her. She seemed to be lying on a very soft patch of grass, although she felt something hard digging into her back; she presumed it was some form of branch from one of the trees.

Groaning, Rachael pushed herself up, biting her lip and wincing when she put strain on her arm. It wasn't broken like she'd originally thought (thank God!, she thought), but it still hurt like hell. Deciding against standing up just yet, maybe it was the fact that she would probably fall over if she did, Rachael pushed herself backwards until she was leaning against a tree.

Taking a proper look around, Rachael ended up freaking herself out even further. She was nowhere that she recognized, and that was saying something. She knew nearly all of the land around where she lived for miles; it had become a constant habit of hers to sneak out with a book and sit in a tree somewhere for hours on end.

But the trees here were different, and they looked like the leaves were only just growing whereas the leaves at home were beginning to fall. She didn't recognize the stream at all, and the songs that the birds were singing were entirely unfamiliar. You didn't get bird songs like that in Scotland.

So, this all raised the question: where the hell was she? And where was her family? She'd been in a car crash, hadn't she? They were almost home… Trying to regain some control over her breathing, Rachael pushed herself up onto her feet, balancing herself on the tree trunk as she almost toppled over. Her family had to be around here somewhere. They'd crashed into a tree…maybe she'd been flown out of the car and landed here somehow? But she could have sworn that she was still in the car when they had stopped crashing.

Walking (rather shakily, but walking all the same) over to the stream, Rachael knelt down and splashed some water onto her face, smiling at how the coolness washed over her skin. It seemed like a complete opposite to the hot shower she'd had that morning. But was it that morning? Looking up at the sky, it looked to be late morning, perhaps early afternoon at a push. It didn't even seem like a storm had ever hit this place. The grass seemed bone dry, the stream not even indicating that it had ever flooded. So how long had she been lying there?

Her stomach growling seemed to answer that question. When was it since she'd last eaten? Was it really back at the coffee shop? Right now, that seemed like ages ago. Glancing around, it didn't seem like there was anything to eat here. No berries, no nuts, nothing. She didn't even have any weapons to catch any animals, not that she'd know what to do with it if she ever caught one. On the farm, her father had trained her on how to ride the tractors, milk the cows, tend to the fields. Not once had she had anything to do with the meat part of the farm. Partly because that wasn't the main business of their farm…but that was beside the point. It didn't help her situation right now.

Standing up again, Rachael frowned. She had to admit, she was loathe to leave this place. Perhaps someone was coming to find her, and she had left? What if she got lost and couldn't find another water supply? For she was certain that she was probably miles away from her home, and it didn't look as though there was any other sign of civilization. But how would she know unless she moved?

Sure she was making the wrong decision, but not knowing what else to do, Rachael saw a gap through the trees on the other side of the clearing. Limping over (she'd injured not only her arm, but pulled something in her leg in the crash, it seemed) to the gap, Rachael changed a glance down at herself.

The clothes that she had put on seemed relatively intact, excluding the mud that was on the bottom of her shirt. She was glad to see that her new boots still looked basically clean, but was sad to remember that her old shoes that she had taken off were not here. They must still be in the car, she thought to herself, along with my new art supplies.

Not believing her luck, Rachael traipsed through the seemingly never-ending forest, cursing every time she stumbled or banged her arm against a sticking out branch. She was right when she figured out that she was lost. There was no sign of any car crash, nor any sign of her family either. Which made Rachael increasingly worried. Maybe she'd walked the wrong way?

But where were they? Were they okay? Had they even survived the crash? It seemed to Rachael like it had been pretty bad; the memories of it had been flooding back the further she walked. Skidding off of the road, tumbling further and further down the ditch, crashing into the tree. She remembered the blood that had dripped down her face, and someone yelling her name, and now she was sure that that voice was her mother. Or was it? The voice was muffled, but Rachael was certain it had been a female's voice. Thinking about it just made her confused. Why hadn't her family come to look for her? Unless they were all…no. She refused to think about that possibility. Her family would be fine. They were strong, nothing would have happened to them. Nothing could happen to them.

And that was when another possibility came to her. What if she had died? What if this was heaven, although it seemed like a bit of a cheapskate version of heaven if it was. Wouldn't there be food in heaven? But if she had died, and her family had lived, what were they thinking now? Were they mourning her? Was her body still there, because her body right now seemed fairly real.

Kicking a rock with frustration, Rachael growled and cursed at the pain that now flared up her leg. Would nothing go right today? She was never going to get out of this place. She was going to starve and end up in a pathetic position as she lay dying on the forest floor. Great, she thought. It's only been a few hours in this place, and I'm already having these thoughts. Trying to snap out of her thoughts, Rachael started humming the theme tune from Doctor Who, it being the first thing that came to mind. It seemed to help calm her down, and it almost felt as if she was back in the woods behind her house.

But it wasn't the woods behind her house, and deep down, Rachael couldn't forget that. So after only about two hours of trudging through the forest, still seeing no sign of edible food, she decided to call it a day.

Not wanting to stay on the forest floor (she had no idea what was lurking in these woods. There could be wolves or anything, and she thought herself lucky she hadn't seen anything as of yet), Rachael glanced around for a tree she was able to climb. She wasn't sure how cold the nights got here, and she was once again cursing herself for not taking a coat with her.

Jumping up and grabbing onto the lowest branch (making sure to not let go as flash of pain flared up her arm), Rachael pulled herself up and found a thick branch that she (hopefully) wouldn't fall off of.

Looking around from a higher vantage point also didn't help her situation either. All she could see was trees, and she'd completely lost track of where the stream was, just as she'd feared would happen by leaving the clearing. Wishing that she'd had a water bottle that she'd filled up, Rachael laid down as best she could on the branch, fatigue from the days events finally setting in.

The following morning, Rachael had almost forgotten that she was in the middle of nowhere, and it wasn't until she almost fell down the tree that she remembered. Maybe today I'll find a way out of here, she thought ominously.

Trying not to put too much strain on her body (although thankfully it ached less than it did the previous day) , Rachael carefully climbed back down the tree and landed on the ground. She was surprised at how long she had slept- the sun seemed quite high up- and as she walked away from her resting place (honestly, she thought, that makes it sound like I've died or something…resting place) she was reminded of how little she'd eaten since she'd ended up here. i.e. nothing. What she wouldn't give for a Big Mac right now…

Rachael had hoped that she would have a clearer mind today, that she would have a sudden epiphany on how to get out of the forest, because right now, her plan was: walk straight in a certain direction, the edge of the forest must come sooner or later. However that plan didn't seem like the best one. This forest might be huge. It could take weeks to reach the other side, especially at her pace…so…what to do?

Rachael estimated that it was around two or three o'clock in the afternoon when she managed to find a river, or the same stream just further down…she didn't know, but she was thankful for the water supply. Walking was thirsty work.

Kneeling down, Rachael took huge gulps of water, wincing at how cold the water seemed now. Although there were small fish in the water here, so she decided to take a break and watch them swim around for a while. They seemed so peaceful, swimming around like they didn't have a care in the world, playing with their little fishy friends. And thinking about it, Rachael assumed that they probably didn't have a care in the world. Ah…the life of a fish…

It wasn't until a few minutes later that something happened. Rachael was still kneeling beside the river when she heard a twig snap behind her. Furrowing her eyebrows, she stood up slowly and turned around, expecting perhaps a deer, maybe at a push a large rabbit. What she saw, however, made her feel as if she was about to be sick. Standing in front of her was three large…things. They were unlike anything that she had seen before. They stood as tall as a man (making her feel very small. She was cursing herself for not being taller and therefore more 'menacing'), and looked humanoid in essence, but that was about it.

Their skin looked like a sickly green-grey colour, their teeth looked like they were filed into points as they snarled, staples and piercings covered their faces and Rachael didn't even want to think about what kind of bones decorated their clothing. But that wasn't the most worrying thing that Rachael noticed, because in each of those things' hands was a long, sharp sword. Now her first train of thought was why they even had swords in the first place (surely guns would be more effective?), her second train of thought was more along the lines of what even are they? before she realised that she was probably in danger. Whatever these things were, they didn't look friendly, and by the way they were advancing on her, weapons poised, Rachael thought that it was probably best to run.

Breathing heavily, she took a small step backwards before setting off into a sprint. This was a fight or flight situation, and she most definitely picked flight. She could hear the pounding off those things' footsteps behind her (yep, they definitely wanted to hurt her), so she pushed herself to go faster, all pain in her legs forgotten. As she ran, a million thoughts ran through her mind. Like the fact that she had never seen these things, or even heard about them for that matter, anywhere back at home. Which, yet again, raised the important question: where the hell was she?

Rachael hadn't got very far before she felt something hard pull at her hair, dragging her back. Squealing at the pain that flared up on her scalp, Rachael had no choice but to let that thing drag her towards him. It looked even worse close up, and she nearly threw up at the smell. Think of rotting fish mixed with the worst smell you've ever smelt, and times it by ten, and then maybe you'll know how bad they smelt to her.

"What have we got here?" it snarled. Rachael was actually surprised it was able to speak proper words.

"Listen, mate. Haven't you ever heard the words 'look, don't touch?' Because I'm thinking that it definitely applies here." Replied Rachael, through clenched teeth, trying not to breath in too much. She definitely sounded braver than she felt, especially when she saw him bring his blade up across her throat. Gulping, she thought that it was probably best if she was to keep her mouth shut. They obviously weren't the type to joke around, and as she looked down, she saw a trial of blood drip down her throat from where the blade was digging in.

Rachael listened as they spoke to each other in some vile language (so much for knowing 'proper' words), and tried to think about her options. Unfortunately, the panic that she was feeling was overwhelming any other train of thought, and in a last bid attempt to free herself (struggling seemed a bad option due to the small problem of a sharp blade that was slowly digging into her throat. She could feel more blood dripping down her throat), Rachael did the only thing that came to mind. She screamed. And loud.

The thing holding her growled something in her ear, and dragged her towards a tree. Oh god, it's actually going to kill me, she thought. They're going to eat me and make a necklace out of my bones!

Giving up on any rescue attempts, Rachael proceeded to struggle with all her might. What had she got left to loose now? She'd actually managed to escape the grasp of what seemed to be the leader of the group when someone else burst into the clearing. He heard me scream! Yay!, she thought. Although, seeing who'd run to her rescue, he didn't look any better. He had a bald, tattooed head, the fiercest beard that she had ever seen, was wearing armor, and had a huge axe in his hand. Raising a tentative hand onto her neck, Rachael backed behind the tree and peered around as the creatures launched themselves at the mystery man.

Rachael had half a mind to help him as she realised it was three against one, but stopped almost as soon as the thought came to mind. She'd only get in the way. Watching as the bald guy flew his axe around like it was nothing (while managing to embed it into various limbs of the creatures), Rachael thought that she was going to be sick. She could hear the creatures squealing and screaming as they were being basically hacked into little bits, drops of black blood flying onto the trees around her.

Closing her eyes, she didn't notice when the fighting had stopped, and it wasn't until a rough voice called her over did she snap out of it.

"Are you going to come out now lass, or am I going to have to come and yet ya?" Breathing shakily, Rachael concentrated on putting one foot in front of another until she was a few metres away from the man. She had only just realised now that he was actually a little shorter than she was, which was saying something. She could see bits and pieces of the creatures all around her, the one who'd held the blade across her throat's head seemed like it was looking at her with glazed eyes from the ground.

"I…I…" Before she could get a proper sentence out, Rachael was sick, spilling out the empty contents of her stomach all over the floor. It was actually more dry heaving now that she thought about it. How embarrassing. The guy saves your life, and you thank him by throwing up on his boots. How classy…

Clearing her throat, she wiped her mouth, trying not to think about the blood that had come up with her vomit. "I...hmm…sorry about that…I think. What…ur…what were those things?"

The man looked at her like she'd said something stupid. "Orcs." He said simply. "Here." He pulled out a rather manky looking handkerchief. "For yer neck."

Looking at it wearily, Rachael took it from his hand and pressed it against her neck, wincing at the pain. "What's an Orc?" she asked.

He pointed to the right of her foot. "That there's an Orc." Rachael looked at the head that he was pointing to before returning her gaze to her 'savoir', only to see that he had turned and was walking away.

"Hey!" she shouted, limping over to him. "You can't just leave me here! What if more of those thi…I mean, Orcs…come back?"

"Dazzle 'em with that pretty smile o' yours." Oh, he thinks he's so clever…

Cursing under her breath, Rachael continued to follow him. "But I'll starve out here! I have no idea where I am!"

"Not my problem."

"Come on! I don't have a chance of surviving out here on my own. And if it comes down to going off on my own and potentially starving or running into more Orcs, or going with someone who just saved my life, I think it's pretty obvious what I'm going to pick." She could see him slowly getting more annoyed. "Please! That was kind of a compliment! And I really think I'm going to bleed to death if someone doesn't help me."

"Don't be stupid. You're not going to bleed to death."

"Maybe not. But I might. And I won't be any trouble, I promise! Seriously, you should be feeling very privileged right now. I never beg!"

"Lucky me…" he grumbled.

"Is that a yes?"

"Mahal help me… fine." Rachael grinned and moved to hug him, pulling back quickly when she realised what she'd done. Not a hugger… "Just…don't do that again." He complained, stomping away, causing Rachael to run after him, handkerchief clutched to her neck.

Yay! Chapter two! Thank you for all the reviews, it means a lot!

Let me know what you think of this chapter by the usual. Review. PM. Favourite. Whatever…