The Systems Challenge

Kim only knew darkness. It wasn't anything that she thought about, it was more that's just what she would have used to describe everything that she could feel around her in that moment.

She could feel warmth all around her, but she felt cold, mostly around her head, shoulders and sword arm. She couldn't hear anything, but her ears were ringing. The darkness around her made it so she couldn't see, but she felt like her eyes were staring at a bright light. The space she was in was so confining that she couldn't breathe, yet…

Kim's eyes snapped open, to see actual light. She was surprised to realize that she could breathe. That somehow she wasn't trapped still. Feeling rather relieved, she took a deep breath through her nose and nearly threw up. Not because of anything going down the wrong tube, but rather because of the stench around her

How she had gotten to this point, Kim couldn't say. The last thing she knew was she had been trying to cut her way out of the bear's stomach. She hadn't really expected to get out of there, but she couldn't deny that she was happy to be hanging out of the bear, if only just barely.

If she was to hazard a guess as to what happened, she would have assumed that Jonas had travelled into the world of the shadows to help cut her free, although she wasn't sure how he'd have known where she was in the first place. Yet, regardless of how he knew, since she didn't see anyone around, she knew that it wasn't anyone riding Sonya who had gotten her like this. Otherwise she was confident that they'd still be there. Where, with Jonas, she knew that he might have decided that was enough, since she couldn't say how long it would have taken him to get her to this point.

Regardless of any of that, though, she was pretty sure that getting herself the rest of the way out was solely on her. That she wouldn't be able to count on any assistance to get herself the rest of the way out.

Kim heard a roar as sounds seemed to return to her, but couldn't quite place it. It wasn't a roar of anything she'd heard before, so she couldn't say that she really knew what it was from. Though, other sounds were also entering her awareness, though she couldn't quite identify what any of them were. Just that they seemed to be getting louder. though not from getting closer. Merely like someone was turning up the volume on all the sound that was around her.

As her vision started to focus, letting her know that she was hanging upside down maybe about twenty or thirty feet off the ground, Kim flexed her hand that was hanging out of the bear, but couldn't feel what she expected to. When she realized she wasn't holding her sword anymore, she started to look around. Part of it felt like she was either manipulating someone else's body or that she was in a kind of video game or something. It just didn't feel quite real just yet for her.

Where Kim located her sword wasn't anywhere that would be useful for her. It was on the ground, and the bear had already walked past where it was. By maybe forty or fifty feet. Which also meant that she'd been dangling for maybe a minute when she came to.

She wasn't sure how she had gotten out enough that she could wake up, but she also wondered if she should just stay like she was or if she should try to pull herself out the rest of the way. The drop to the ground was certainly something that she had to consider, but she wasn't sure that if the bear decided to 'lay down' that she'd be in any better of a situation. In fact, she had a feeling that she'd have a better chance at surviving the fall she could see before her than she did of however brief of a time the bear would essentially be laying on her before it decided to either roll on its side or get back up.

Still, even a twenty foot drop wasn't something to be done without thinking about it. Plus, she couldn't be sure that this wasn't a fall that would be one that she could really walk away from. Not when she'd likely be falling head first. Unless she could figure out a way that she could guarantee that she could land on her feet, she wasn't sure if she shouldn't wait to try and find a better method.

However, as soon as she thought that, she realized that the parts of her still inside the bear were starting to tingle. A sure sign that her body was starting to fall asleep from the compression of the bear's muscles. In addition to that, she suddenly remembered how her skin had been burning when she was in the bear's stomach.

As she thought about that, she realized that's likely where the odor that was making her nauseous was likely from the bear's digestive juices. Though, she wished that she could have left that piece of information forgotten. She'd much rather not remember that she had gotten completely coated in that and was likely going to be a walking source of that stench for a while, even if she managed to get it rinsed out quickly.

Yet, with the knowledge that her body was starting to go to sleep from the muscles preventing her blood from flowing through her body properly, she knew that she needed to get out of the bear sooner rather than later. If she let her body stay like that, then there could not only be other complications when she actually did decided to pull herself out of the bear, but it could also leave her with other health issues that she wasn't sure wouldn't create additional problems for her when she was out of the bear's body.

Movement out of the corner of her eye distracted her from her current predicament. She turned her head and saw Elwin, Thomas, Bart, Owen, Stanley, and Frank come out from a copse of trees, their weapons ready.

At first Kim wasn't sure what they were doing. It almost felt like they shouldn't even be there, despite the fact that she couldn't think of why that would be. She wasn't sure if it was the lack of blood flow in her body, but it felt like her thoughts were moving slower than they usually did.

As she wondered about that, she returned her thoughts to getting herself out of the bear. Anything else could wait. Otherwise she might essentially think herself to death by letting her thoughts flow to everything else but getting herself out.

Which would make it a question of how she'd die and that wasn't something she was ready to let happen. Not when she could do something to try and change that. Assuming it wasn't too late, that is.

Kim tried first to free her left arm, but was surprised to find that it was wedged in with her body to the point that she could move it. Though, while having that arm free would have helped, she didn't think that it was absolutely necessary. It just merely made it a little more difficult. Or at least until she was able to get enough of her out that her arm could come out as well.

At that moment, while Kim didn't know what was going on, she knew something had happened because suddenly the bear changed direction and almost seemed to be running. Whatever the reason, she could tell that the bear was moving much faster now than it had been before. She wasn't sure why, just that it was the case.

However, as the bear ran, she could feel it's muscles contracting and relaxing as it ran across the ground. Each time the muscles around her contracted, it felt like it was trying to crush her as she felt like her ribs were nearing their breaking point, but each time they relaxed, Kim felt like she could breathe a little. However, the muscles always contracted much faster after that than she'd like.

After a minute, she realized that she hadn't started to pull herself out. Which meant that she'd been enduring some of that pain for nothing.

So, when the muscles relaxed again, she first tried to pull her arm free. If she was able to get it out, then she knew she'd be able to get free in minutes. Yet, she found that her arm was still wedged too tightly to pull it free just yet, so she gripped the fur of the bear to pull herself out as much as she could when the bear's muscles relaxed.

The process was painful, as each inch of herself that she pulled out of the bear brought new waves of pain, as the blood started to flow again. Any thoughts that came to her about her not being able to handle the pain as she continued to pull herself out of the bear, she pushed away. She wasn't going to let her own doubts ensure she let herself slowly get killed. That would be a very bitter pill to swallow if she did that to herself.

While she lost track of time with each inch she was able to pull free, she nearly fell the entire distance to the ground when the rest of her body suddenly started to fall out of the bear. Partly because she was caught a little off guard and partly because when that happened, her left arm wasn't usable at that moment, due to still enduring the pain of the blood flow getting restored, even as she fell with only her right arm to hold onto the fur of the bear.

While she was holding onto the fur, she suddenly realized she hadn't seen the bear's fur before. Whatever had happened to the bear had cost it the appearance it used to have. Which wasn't anything that she had expected to happen while the bear was still alive.

The only explanation that came to her mind, that made any kind of sense, was that what she had done to the bear's weakness had caused this change. That she'd made it so that they could end the bear. Though, with how it was running, it clearly was now able to move faster than it had been. Which certainly would make it a little more difficult to deal with.

Especially now that her sword had clearly been left far behind. Not that she would let that stop her. Especially since she still had her short sword. A weapon that she could use if the bear would stop running so that she wouldn't have to worry about dropping it if the bear decided to change how it moved.