Lana y on the grass for a moment, staring up at the vast blue sky. Her heart was still thumping wildly in her chest, and her brain felt like it was processing too many thoughts at once, like a computer about to overheat. “Okay, Lana,” she muttered under her breath, trying to sort things out. “You didn’t just fall down the stairs and hit your head so hard you’re seeing things, right? Maybe you just... I don’t know, hallucinated yourself into a magical world.”

  She squinted at the sky, then down at the grass beneath her. She touched it. It felt real enough—cool, damp, and decidedly not the sterile office carpet she’d gotten used to over the years. But then again, maybe she was just really good at imagining texture. Maybe she was stuck in some weird fever dream where everything looked way too vibrant.

  Lana stared at her hands. No, she didn’t feel sick. No pain. No concussion. Just the light buzz of confusion, like her brain was still trying to catch up with reality.

  She shook her head. “Who would prank me like this? No one in their right mind would go through the trouble of transporting me into... wherever this is. I don’t even *like* pranks. And I’m pretty sure my brain isn’t scrambled. I didn’t feel anything hit me when I fell. No dizziness. Maybe... maybe I’m just stuck in some... time vortex thingy?”

  She took a deep breath, deciding to check her phone—after all, *something* had to make sense. She pulled it out of her bag, hoping for some comforting normalcy. But, of course, as fate would have it, her phone had exactly one bar of signal... which quickly faded to *no signal* and *zero battery*.

  “Perfect. Really.” She sighed dramatically and tossed her phone back into her bag with as much fir as she could muster. It wasn’t as though it could help her now.

  What else was useless, you ask? Well, apparently *Lana herself* was on that list. Having spent the st few years confined to her desk at the office, surviving on coffee and questionable snacks, her physical fitness had become a sad joke. After barely walking a small distance away from her position in this strange forest, Lana was already starting to sweat as though she’d just run a marathon in the Sahara.

  “Great,” she muttered, wiping her forehead. “What’s next? Do I have to start building a shelter or something?”

  Her stomach growled loudly, reminding her that survival was more than just physical exertion. She was starving.Because she only ate a toast and a cup of coffee in the early morning. But thankfully, she still had the foresight to grab her water bottle before heading out the door this morning. It wasn’t much, but at least it was something.

  As she trudged along, she noticed something moving through the trees. A tiny, blue... creature? It was hopping along, looking like a cross between a rabbit and a puff of cotton candy. Lana’s stomach growled again.

  “Huh. That looks like... food?”

  Her survival instincts kicked in—or rather, her “I’m so hungry I’ll eat anything” instincts kicked in. She crouched down, eyes narrowing with focus as if she were a professional hunter. With no hunting experience, of course. But when you’re hungry and delirious, your imagination fills in the gaps.

  “Come here, little bunny,” she whispered to herself, inching forward. She held her breath. One. Two.

  And then, with all the grace of someone who had never hunted anything in her life, she pounced.

  She grabbed the creature, but instead of a soft, cuddly bunny, it... *spat fire*.

  Lana shrieked.

  “WHAT?!”

  The little blue creature hissed and let out a stream of fmes straight toward her face. She ducked, barely avoiding the singed tip of her hair. The rabbit’s teeth—sharp as daggers—ccked in the air.

  “Okay, nope! Not worth it! NOT WORTH IT!” Lana screamed as she scrambled to her feet, adrenaline kicking in. Her brain, which had been firmly in “confused” mode just moments ago, was now 100% in “fight-or-flight” mode.

  She took off running. Running was about the only thing she was good at right now, even if it felt like every muscle in her body was yelling at her for the workout. Sweat dripped down her face, and her heart pounded in her chest. She didn’t even look back to see if the fire-spitting rabbit was following her; she just kept going.

  After what felt like an eternity of blindly running through the forest, she finally slowed down, gasping for breath and hunched over with her hands on her knees.

  The rabbit was gone.

  Lana looked around, realizing she had no idea where she was anymore.

  “Okay,” she panted, wiping her brow. “Great. Just... great. Lost in a forest. Out of shape. And chased by a fire-breathing *rabbit*... Seriously, what kind of world is this?”

  She sat under a tree to calm herself down, trying to catch her breath and stop her heart from threatening to burst out of her chest.She had only seen a dragon spitting fire in movies but in this world even a little blue rabbit with vampire teeth could spit fire. WOW just WoW. She doesn't have more words to describe her situation right now.

  Then, she noticed something odd—*a strange pink fruit* hanging from a nearby branch. It looked like a banana, but the color was all wrong.

  Curious, and still hungry enough to risk eating something that looked like it belonged in a cartoon, Lana plucked it from the tree. She examined it carefully. "No fire-breathing rabbits had been involved in the production of this fruit," so it had to be somewhat safe, right?

  She peeled the fruit carefully, holding her breath. Inside, the flesh was a bright red. She squinted at it.

  “Please don’t be poison. Please don’t be poison,” she whispered to herself as she took a cautious bite.

  To her surprise, the fruit tasted... *delicious*. Like strawberries, but better. Sweet, juicy, and satisfying.

  Lana sighed in relief. "Okay, I can handle weird fruit. I can handle 'stupidly aggressive rabbits' I’m fine. Everything’s fine."

  And yet, despite everything strange happening around her, one thought persisted in her mind as she chewed the fruit: "What the hell is going on here?"