Witch of the witches

Winifred opened her eyes, "What was that? Ahhhh, what…?" It was daytime, and the sun was shining at its peak. Winifred was standing on a large grassland. In front of her, at a very far distance, a beautiful mountain range could be seen. Winifred turned her head to the right and noticed a dense forest, also far away but not as far as the mountains. To her left, there was another big forest, which was closer than the one on her right. She turned around to look behind her and saw an endless stretch of grassland.

"Where am I? How did I get here? I was near the river, right? Standing on the road…" Winifred said in shock, unable to understand what had just happened.

Winifred started to feel confused. She had no idea where she was, standing in the middle of a huge grassland surrounded by mountains and dense forests.

"Okay, stop thinking too much. First, I need to figure out what's going on. Hmmm…" She began thinking "Okay, I was at the river… no, no…" Correcting herself, she said again, "Not the river, I was on the road near the river, at my usual favorite spot! Wait… it was dark, but here it's bright daytime. How…?" Winifred was shocked to see the stark difference between this place and where she had been moments ago.

Looking around at her surroundings again, "Okay." Winifred said. Trying to calm herself down, she took a deep breath "Alright, think. How could I suddenly end up here? There must be something I'm missing. It could be… hmm… What's the best possibility? Someone kidnapped me? Hmm… yeah, that must be it. But why would they leave me in a place like this? What are the other possibilities? Think… hmmm… aliens! Maybe they abducted me, and now I'm on a different planet. Oh no… hmmm… planet…? First, let's figure out if this is Earth or not."

Winifred looked around, hoping to find something odd that could give her a clue. She scanned her surroundings, but all she could see was the beautiful grassland and the mountains. On her left and right, there were only dense forests.

"Maybe I should go near that forest. Maybe I'll find something useful to understand where I am, or maybe I'll find someone. Ahhh…! But this forest is too far. Still, it's closer than the one on the right."

Winifred decided to head toward the forest on her left, as it was closer to her. The other forest was much farther away, and the grassland didn't seem to have anything of interest.

Winifred started walking toward the left forest, but suddenly she began feeling thirsty.

Winifred thought, 'I drank water at home before I came down. Why am I feeling so thirsty all of a sudden? Oh no, I'm feeling hungry too. I need to find water somehow'.

She stopped and thought, 'Maybe I can pull some grass and figure out if this is Earth or another planet'. Thinking this, Winifred bent down and pulled some grass from the ground.

"Hmmm… it looks the same as Earth! But how do I know if other planets have soil like this or not? Ahhh… well, I guess I was kidnapped. At least that's better than being abducted by aliens. Hmm… wait… what if I'm dead? No… no, no, I can't be dead. If I were dead, I wouldn't be able to touch things or breathe. Hmm… the air is so fresh and clean here. Hmm… damn, I'm so confused about what happened to me."

"Hmmm… well, for now, let's see if I can find anything in that forest."

Winifred started walking again toward the forest. Suddenly, she saw something flying in the air very high up. "Oh! If that's a plane, maybe this is my chance to figure out if I'm on Earth or not."

She tried to see clearly, but the sun was so bright that she couldn't make out what the object was.

"Maybe it's a plane! But it looks weird, not like a normal plane."

The flying object passed by quickly, and Winifred couldn't recognize it. It disappeared from her view.

"Ahhh… why couldn't I recognize it? Planes are usually easy to recognize, no matter how high they are. Why not this time…?"

"Ah… maybe next time I'll recognize it. I need to stay alert."

With that, Winifred continued walking toward the forest. It was still far away and would take at least half an hour to reach at her current pace.

Winifred walked for over 15 minutes. The forest was now more visible to her.

Seeing the forest from a closer distance, "Oh… it's denser than I thought. Well, I don't have any other choice. I need to see if I can find anything there."

"Ohhh, wait a minute!" She suddenly stopped, "System open, open! Stats open, something open! Ahaa… Ooo… I thought something was going to open. Well, at least I'm not in some fantasy game world. Maybe I should try something else, just like I read in webtoons and novels. Humm… mmm."

Winifred closed her eyes, concentrated, and said again, "Window open! Open! Something open!" She tried to imagine something happening.

But nothing happened. Winifred opened her eyes, "Well, at least this isn't like the webtoons or novels I've read. I guess I'm still on Earth. I just need to find my way home. Let's go. The forest is closer now."

Winifred started walking toward the forest again.

Winifred was now close to the forest; it would take her ten minutes to reach it. She continued walking when, suddenly, a loud growl echoed through the air. The sound shook Winifred's entire body. It was a terrifying, beast-like roar, loud and threatening, as if some dangerous animal was yelling. Winifred quickly turned around, trying to figure out where the sound was coming from. Fear gripped her as she frantically scanned her surroundings. Suddenly, her eyes caught something in the direction of the mountains. She spotted a figure—someone, or something—a green figure.

Winifred hesitated. "Wait… it doesn't look like a person," she thought. She squinted, trying to see more clearly. After a few moments, her eyes widened in horror. Her legs began to tremble, and her entire body shivered with fear.

She stammered, "A… a… a monster!"

It was a green, giant, muscular figure—easily the height of five adult people. The creature was running toward her. Winifred quickly realized that the monster was coming straight for her. She tried to move, but her legs wouldn't obey. She was frozen in shock. She desperately tried to make her legs move, but they felt like they were glued to the ground.

The green monster was getting closer and closer.

Winifred's thoughts raced: How is it moving so fast?! She knew the creature was after her. An overwhelming sense of fear and anxiety filled her as she realized the world she was in was unfamiliar and dangerous.

"Dam…mm… move, legs!" she shouted.

Winifred started hitting her legs, trying to force them to move, but they wouldn't budge. Suddenly, the monster let out another loud, bone-chilling growl. The terrifying sound was so overwhelming that Winifred collapsed to the ground.

"Ahhh!" she gasped.

Because of that, her legs finally began to move. She quickly stood up and started running toward the forest, the closest possible refuge.

"I need to move… I need to move… I can't die here! I have to run faster!" she muttered to herself as she sprinted. While running, she glanced back in the direction of the approaching monster.

"Dam…mm… how can it be so fast?!"

The monster was rushing toward her with unnatural speed.