Chapter Thirteen: Untamed
The forest was peaceful. Birds sang, branches swayed in the gentle breeze, and the stream ran with a soft burble. Fish swam up and down in the cool, clear water. A large, plump one, moving languidly, coming dangerously close to the surface.
SPLASH! A golden brown flash broke the surface of the water. Fingers closed around the plump fish's slippery body. It shot up at once, breaking the water's surface, wriggling desperately. But the predator had the fish in a vicelike grip, and held it aloft. Its gills expanded and contracted uselessly.
The predator was a woman, standing knee-deep in the stream. Her skin was bronze from the sun's rays, and her hair a long, tangled mane of dirty blonde. She held the fish aloft in a victorious pose, her chin held high and her chest puffed out. From her head to her toes, she was entirely naked, adorned only with patches of river mud.
Lisa emerged from the stream, and bashed the fish against the trunk of a tree until it stopped wriggling. Her former self would have been horrified to see her kill an animal so viciously, but her current self thought only of her stomach, which gurgled loudly. The sun would be setting soon, and she needed to prepare her evening meal.
For the first week, Lisa had subsisted on diet of berries. She had been camping before, as a child, and knew which berries were safe, and which were harmful. Unfortunately, she could only find one type of edible berry, and the monotony and insubstantiveness of this diet had her stomach crying out for meat.
Her first catch was a rabbit. It was limping, having been injured by another predator, or she would not have caught it. She had squeezed her her eyes closed as she bashed its brains out with a rock. When she opened them, and saw its limp white body, she cried for half an hour.
But eventually the growling of her stomach overcame her sentiments. Having no way to start a fire, she'd eaten it raw. The meat was gamey and tasted mostly of blood.
Hunting became easier after that. Lisa learned to ambush small animals, and to chase them. She wasn't fast enough to catch most of them, but she could keep running until they collapsed from exhaustion. She also learned to fish with her bare hands, like a bear.
Exactly how she learned these things was difficult to say. Lisa felt she was tapping into something in herself that had lain dormant for her whole life, until now. There was a primitive animal brain underneath her own human mind, and it ran purely on instinct. The hungrier she got, the more she could feel it coming to the fore.
She was astonished at what she could do when she released herself to instinct. Every sense and reflex heightened. She could move quickly and silently through the forest in a crouch, and she could smell everything around her. Hunting and killing prey was natural. It became her primary focus.
When she was hungry, she hunted. When she was thirsty, she drank from the river or from streams. When she was tired, she slept, curled up in a patch of foliage or up a tree. The life she'd had before seemed like a dream she'd woken up from long ago.
For much of the day, Lisa gave herself over to instinct, but she couldn't hide from herself permanently. Right now, her higher mind was fully aware of the slimey dead fish in her hand. She forced the image of its body smacking against the tree trunk out of her mind.
Some way from the stream, a fire flickered in a clearing. Lisa had come across it the day before, and had managed to keep it burning in a small, controlled area. It probably wouldn't last much longer, but for now, she could cook.
She skewered the fish on a stick and held it over the flames. The heat of the fire felt good against her bare skin. Lisa congratulated herself for discovering fire. In another few days, perhaps she would be ready to start using simple stone tools.
How long had she been out here? She wasn't sure. She looked down at her legs, which had a light layer of blonde fuzz. Her pubic hair, which had once been a neat landing strip, was beginning to look like a forest itself, but that had been going since before she'd come here. It was the one bit of cover a naked girl could have.
She was naked. Without coverings. What a strange, faraway concern that felt like now. Of course she was naked. All the animals of the forest were. And what was she, catching fish with her bare hands, but another animal of the forest?
Well, except that animals didn't generally cook their food. But then, once this fire went out, neither would she. Primitive humans knew how to start fires. Lisa had not yet reached that evolutionary stage.
Once the fish was thoroughly roasted, she pulled her stick away from the fire and left it a while to cool down. She blew on the fish a few times, and took a big, grateful bite. It was a bit burned. She chewed and spat out the bones.
Her belly full, Lisa reclined in front of the fire, and lost herself in thought. On the day she'd arrived, when she woke up on the riverbank, she had panicked. For most of that day, and the next two, she'd searched for a way out of the forest. She'd followed the river back the way she'd come, but even after days of walking, had found no sign of civilization. She'd gone further out then she'd thought.
After that, tired and near-starved, she'd turned her thoughts to survival. And she'd survived. Her belly was full, and she felt strong and healthy. She'd noticed before how, since being cursed, she was able to run farther, react faster, lift heavier and withstand greater. She'd felt it during the Fresher's Streak, while holding poses in the art room, and most recently during her nocturnal dash through the city, when she'd even punched out that purse-snatcher. The witch had clearly tapped into something primordial hidden in her makeup. An animal instinct, from a time before human civilization. Before clothing.
Lisa put her hands behind her and reclined, looking down over her body. She was tanned, toned and muscular. The toes of her feet had spread out due to constant barefoot walking. It had been many days since she had last tried to wear clothes, and she didn't miss it. She shivered at the memory of fabric on her skin, rubbing it raw; Angela's black dress, and how hard she'd had to concentrate just to keep herself from tearing it off. It had felt so good when it finally got caught in the fence and ripped off.
Out here, Lisa could just be naked, with only the blank stares of animals to see her. She was lithe and agile, just like one of them. There was nothing to tear, or get stuck, or get in the way of her movements. After jumping in a river, she merely had to shake the water off. She finally felt comfortable in her own skin.
But Lisa knew she couldn't do this forever. Her family and friends would be worried about her. It was also getting late in the fall, and Lisa could feel a chill in the air. Although she was far less sensitive to the cold than she had been, even that wouldn't be enough once the snow started falling.
And then there was Debra. What had happened to her, when she disappeared? Was she... alive? Lisa recalled the singed panties.
No, she had to be alive. Debra was a witch. She knew how to take care of herself around magic. Lisa repeated this too herself, but it didn't become more convincing.
