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Delphina fell to the ground miserably after a force kicked her out of the portal. With a groan, she got to her feet. Raising her head, she saw the ominous-looking forest. The Elf kingdom and the Tiger kingdom shared a forest.

She had been dropped in the middle of the woods with no idea where to head as she didn't have a map or anything to show her the way to the fruits her stepmom and stepsis wanted. With a big exhale, she readied herself for her venture, praying to the goddess to protect her.

Delphina staggered ahead with her legs shaking beneath her. She had no means of protection, no equipment, just a small stick. She had no idea how to harvest the two fruits even if she encountered them. It felt as though the trees were constricting around her, with the shadows deepening into a foreboding darkness.

She pushed herself to continue forward, even though each movement seemed to go against her instincts to survive. The trees appeared to speak to her through their rustling leaves in a mystical language.

Delphina's gaze swept across the forest ground, seeking any indication of the fruits. However, all she could see was the never-ending expanse of trees spreading out in front of her like a cemetery of opportunities.

Tears rose down her face, and she dropped to her knees, feeling the harsh and unyielding forest floor below her. She was aware that she needed to continue moving forward, but her physical self felt defeated, and her morale felt destroyed by the harshness of her supposed family. They were evil, all of them!

As she remained on her knees, a part of her persisted in not surrendering, with a small act of rebellion ignited, growing stronger as time went by.

Delphina stood with a fiery determination in her eyes that she was going to make it through this, and she was determined to retrieve the fruits regardless of the expense. She continues her journey, venturing deeper into the woods.

As she kept wandering through the forest, night fell, and the profound quietness was broken solely by the noise of leaves rustling and twigs snapping beneath her steps. She felt like she was being watched, and it seemed like maybe the trees were protecting her. A strange energy filled the air, causing her to feel uneasy and her skin tingling and scarring. 

Although she was afraid, she pushed onward with a determined will to survive and obtain the fruits, unaware of what lay ahead, but she knew that she had no choice but to keep moving forward, considering the consequences, and she ventured further into the dark night.

While walking, the trees grew taller and the shadows deepened, looming ominously over the forest floor. Delphina's heart pounded in her chest, and she walked slowly with her legs stepping on the ground one after another, and her ears on high alert for dangers. 

Suddenly, she felt her leg trip over a hidden root, causing her to stumble. She dropped with force, cutting her knee on the rugged surface of the root with tears beginning to gather at the corners of her eyes as she struggled to stand, her legs trembling beneath her. 

Shortly after she resumed her clueless journey, she saw a dim light in the distance, shining through the trees like a beacon. Delphina's heart raced as she approached it, feeling a sudden surge of optimism, and she moved closer to it. 

As she neared it, she realised it was not an exit but a clearing in the forest surrounded by a ring of mushrooms glowing mysteriously from under the canopy of an ancient tree with twisted branches at the centre of the clearing. She walked towards the aged tree warily, only to suddenly see two glowing eyes open in the tree trunk. Its branches extended, and a frightened Delphina turned and began to run for dear life.

The mushrooms lost their glow as the tree uprooted itself and began chasing her. Seeing this from a momentary glance behind her, a terrified Delphina pushed her legs to the limit.

She was forced to head in a different direction as the tree suddenly manifested from some feet away from her. For some reason, the tree stopped chasing her but still extended its branches, trying to catch her.

She ran out of its range and dared not look back. She tripped for the nth time, but there was no time to entertain pain. She went deeper, continuing her descent into darkness. 

~~~

10 minutes later.

She desperately tried to assess her situation and found herself trapped with no clear exit, and the air was musty, humid, filled with a pervasive silence, but she moved on, looking for a way out. 

As she desperately searched for a means of escape, fear tightened its grip on her when her hands touched the jagged stone walls, and no matter which way she looked, she was met with an unending void of darkness and the chill of solid rock. 

As she made her way through the oppressive darkness, Delphine's heart laboured to catch her breath in fits, her eyes desperately trying to adjust. She had never felt such overwhelming helplessness and loneliness before.

All of a sudden, her foot failed to hold on to the rugged earth, and she found herself falling into the darkness, her stomach churning from the unexpected drop. 

She screamed in fright, flailing her arms frantically, but it was already too tardy. She crashed onto the rugged ground roughly. Her screams came to an end, but she was inhaling sharply.

While gasping for air, she came to the realisation that she was trapped in a deep hole with towering walls around her, but she explored further with her hand reaching into the area, and she discovered it wasn't merely a hole but actually an entrance to a cave. 

The atmosphere was humid and stale as she listened to the dripping water reverberate through the walls. However, there were a few glowing pearls randomly studded in the walls of the cave, providing some light.

That meant someone had been here before, or this might be a hideout for some bad lot.

She was filled with panic as she hurriedly got up, but she was unlike her fellow elves because she did not possess the skill of flying, and the hole was too deep for her to escape from. 

Leaving her trapped.

There was only one way, and that was to go forward, into the sparsely lit cave ahead of her. But a huge part of her didn't want to go in. 

She fearfully sat down, contemplating the next move. At that moment, she caught the slight sound of a snake hissing towards the hole. Delphina was so terrified, she stood up and scrambled into the cave with her heart thumping. She ran past the lighted areas and was met with darkness. Looking behind her, the pearls had suddenly lost their ability to gleam as well.

"Oh, goddess, please save me," she muttered fearfully as she delved further into the cave's darkness. After a short while of blindly running in the cave, she discovered that she could now see to a good extent in this ominous dimness. Was that because she was an elf? 

There was no time to think of possibilities; she had to run for her life.

The snake's relentless hissing reached a deafening pitch, and Delphina experienced a creeping sensation across her skin. 

With her feet echoing on the frigid ground, she sprinted through the cave, pressing her hand to her lips to stifle her uneven gasps

She needed to escape from the snake at all costs.

Her fear was fueled by the long-standing conflict between snake shifters and elves. If tiger shifters were adversaries of elves, snake shifters were their ultimate enemies. Delphina's thoughts raced with the chance of meeting a snake shifter as she ventured further in search of refuge.

While running, another idea slowly entered her thoughts. Delphine thought that it could be a normal snake, and she might be overreacting. However, another aspect of her believed strongly that the glowing snake's skin bore unique patterns, exclusive to those who were capable of transforming into snakes. She had previously encountered those symbols in old writings as a kid, cautioning about the hidden threats.

Delphina's heart raced with fear when she recalled the tales of the sly and merciless snake shifters. If that snake was truly able to change its form, she understood that she was facing serious peril.

The cave seemed to stretch on forever, twisting and turning through the darkness. Delphina's exceptional sight allowed her to navigate through the shadows, but she knew she couldn't keep running forever. Eventually, she would have to face whatever was behind her and if it was a snake shifter...

Her legs pumped furiously as she raced through the cave with her head invaded by thoughts of worst-case scenarios. She had to keep moving no matter what.

But...

Her legs had other plans. 

Without warning, she crashed into a boulder with her body crumpling to the ground. A scream ripped from her throat as she fell, her hands scraping against the rough stone.

"Oh no," Delphine said with a panicked voice, tears coursing down her cheeks. She was unable to go further than this; her right leg was injured and spent.

With a heavy heart, she flumped onto the gritty ground, tightening her jaw as she clutched her hurting leg, inwardly resenting her unfortunate fate.

The hiss of the snake was gone, but she knew it was present. She felt like she was being watched, and the sensation made her skin crawl.

Slowly, Delphina gathered all the courage she could summon and looked up.

Her heart sank as she saw a pair of glowing pink eyes staring back at her. The hiss of the snake echoed through the cave, making her blood run cold.

She was paralysed with fear and unable to move or speak. The eyes seemed to bore into her soul, and Delphina knew she was at the mercy of the snake. 

Or rather, she was its supper. It was probably admiring its prey's panic-stricken look before deciding to ultimately finish her off.

Time seemed to slow as the snake's gaze held hers, its unblinking stare piercing through the darkness. Delphina's mind ran different trails, and her heart seemed to have forgotten how to properly beat. 

Stiff with dread, she was powerless to flee from the nightmare that ensnared her.