Leonard felt his body wrapped in a strange warmth. It felt like when he was little, sick with a fever, and his mother would rub eucalyptus oil on his chest while tucking him into a thick blanket. A comforting warmth, the kind that made him want to sink deeper, to fall asleep and never wake up.
But then, wind brushed against his skin. Cold. Biting into him like a thousand tiny needles.
Leonard jolted awake. His eyes flew open.
"Lulu?" he called out instinctively, his voice hoarse. "Lulu, where are you?"
But there was no bark. No warm lick on his cheek. Just the sound of wind rustling through leaves.
Leonard sat up. Then froze.
This wasn’t a hospital. It also wasn’t a holding cell or an observation room, which he’d kind of expected after blacking out in that filthy alley.
This was... a forest.
He was lying on grass. Tall grass, up to his knees if he stood. Around him, massive trees towered toward the sky, their trunks as wide as his rented room, their roots snaking out of the ground like petrified giant serpents. The canopy above was so dense that sunlight only pierced through in thin beams, creating curtains of golden light between the trunks.
Leonard blinked. Squeezed his eyes shut. Opened them again.
The forest was still there.
"I’m... in the woods?" he muttered, still not believing it.
He looked down. And only then realized that he was currently completely naked, without a single stitch of clothing on his body.
"WHAT THE—"
Leonard imdiately curled up, his hands instinctively covering his private parts, his eyes darting left and right wildly. His heart pounded. If soone else was here, if anyone saw him like this—
But there was no one. Just trees, grass, and sunlight.
Leonard breathed a sigh of relief. But the relief lasted about three seconds.
"Lulu," he called again, louder. "LULU!"
No answer. Just the echo of his own voice bouncing off the trees.
Leonard pinched his arm. Hard. His face instantly scrunched up, sharp pain shooting through his nerves. The pinched spot turned red.
So this isn’t a dream.
He was really here. In a forest. Naked. With no idea how he’d ended up here.
Leonard sat still for a mont, his brain working overti trying to find an explanation.
"Okay... okay... think logically," he whispered to himself. "I got jumped by those holess guys, passed out, then... got taken to a forest? Left naked? That doesn’t make sense."
He frowned. "Hospital. I should be in a hospital. Or at least a police station. Not... this."
His eyes swept the surroundings. This forest... it wasn’t like any forest he knew. The trees were too big. The atmosphere was too... pristine. The air he breathed was so fresh, so clean, like he was inhaling pure oxygen for the first ti in his life. Back in his city, the air always felt heavy, thick with pollution, making his lungs work overti. Here...
He took a deep breath. It felt like drinking cold water when you’re thirsty.
"Secret experint," he muttered suddenly. His eyes widened. "Maybe... maybe they took to so secret testing site. Sowhere they’re running experints on humans. And now I’m a subject under observation."
He stared intently at the nearest bushes. "There must be caras. Or microphones. People behind glass, watching , testing how I react."
The more he thought about it, the more it made sense. Big corporations had funding for secret projects. Human experintation was technically illegal, but in a world where capitalists controlled everything, the law was just a formality.
"HEY!" he suddenly shouted, facing different directions. "I KNOW YOU’RE WATCHING ! THIS IS A SECRET EXPERINT, RIGHT? I’M A LAW-ABIDING CITIZEN! I’VE NEVER BROKEN THE LAW! I’M JUST AN UNEMPLOYED GUY WHO LIKES TO INSULT THE GOVERNNT ONLINE! THAT’S IT! THAT’S NOT WORTH BEING TRAPPED IN A FOREST LIKE THIS, IS IT?!"
He paused for a mont, then continued in a lower, almost pleading tone. "I’m sorry if I insulted the governnt a lot online... I was just stressed, two years unemployed, my parents are gone... please, let go, I promise I won’t do it again..."
No answer. The wind still rustled. The leaves still swayed.
Leonard took a breath, trying to calm himself. "Okay... maybe they won’t respond. Maybe that’s intentional. I have to... have to stay calm."
He looked down at his body, which had healed without any trace of the bruises or kicks, good as new. The pain was completely gone.
"They must have treated first," he muttered. "Then... placed here. But why? What for?"
His thoughts drifted to Lulu. That dog. The only living thing that was always there.
"Lulu... where is she?" his voice trembled slightly. If he was here, who was feeding her? Who was taking care of her? She must be confused, scared...
He bit his lip. Then thought about the job. The offer he’d waited two years for. The acceptance letter from OmniCorp. He was supposed to start in just a few days.
"All of this... it’s gonna be for nothing," he sighed. "I waited two years, and now..."
He shook his head hard. "Stop. Don’t think about that yet. First, figure out where this is and how to get out."
Leonard tried to stand. His body was a bit unsteady, but manageable. He stood upright, completely naked in the middle of the forest, and for the first ti truly took in his surroundings.
The air. He just realized, the air was cool like a morning in the mountains—at least that’s what he imagined, since he’d never felt air this fresh, thanks to global warming. He looked up. The sun shone brightly above the canopy, aning it was dayti. But the heat wasn’t like back in his city. Not scorching and suffocating.
He inhaled again. Fresh. Clean. No sll of pollution, no vehicle exhaust, no rotting garbage. Just the scent of earth, leaves, and sothing wild.
"This forest... it’s different," he murmured.
Then he shouted again, calr this ti, but still loud.
"HELLOOO! IS ANYONE THERE?! I’M LEONARD! I DON’T KNOW WHERE THIS IS! IF YOU’RE WATCHING FROM BEHIND CARAS, PLEASE TELL WHAT TO DO! I WON’T RESIST! I’LL DO WHATEVER YOU WANT! JUST LET SEE MY DOG FIRST!"
Silence.
Just the sound of birds in the distance.
Leonard waited a few minutes. But still no answer.
"Or maybe... maybe they want to survive here," he muttered. "Like a reality show. Survival in the Wild. With a clueless city guy. Ratings would be through the roof."
He chuckled to himself. Then suddenly sothing occurred to him that made his hair stand on end.
"There aren’t... any wild animals here, right?"
Leonard swallowed hard. His eyes swept the surroundings more warily. A forest this big, there were almost certainly animals. Plus, he had no idea what the people who brought him here wanted or intended.
He let out a long sigh. ’Why do I always act first and think later? Yelling in a forest without knowing what’s here... idiot. Bad habit, gotta break it. Gotta. Or I’ll die a stupid death here.’
Just as he was busy criticizing himself, a sound ca from behind.
Dry leaves crunching underfoot.
Leonard spun around like lightning. His heart imdiately started hamring. His hands reflexively covered his lower half—because, yeah, he was still naked.
And he saw her.
A woman.
A young woman, early twenties maybe. Skin fair and clean, contrasting with the green leaves around her. Her hair was long, snow-white, a bit ssy, cascading down to her back. Her eyes were black, sharp, but with a strange glint in them.
Her clothes... Leonard needed a few seconds to process what he was seeing.
The woman wore so kind of top made from animal hide, stitched with rough cords, covering her chest but leaving her midriff exposed. Her bottom was a short skirt fashioned from thick leather, cut unevenly and fastened at the waist with sturdy straps, revealing smooth thighs marked with small scratches—signs of rough terrain.
But that wasn’t the strangest part.
The strangest part was—
Ears.
On top of her head, two long ears stuck out to the sides. Rabbit ears. But not decorations. They moved slightly, catching sounds, responding to the wind, like real ears attached to her head.
Leonard’s eyes widened.
Headband? Cosplay costu?
But no. They were too real. Those ears moved with subtle muscles at their base, the fine fur on their surface swaying in the wind. They weren’t accessories.
They were part of her body.
She... she wasn’t human?
Leonard wanted to speak, wanted to ask, wanted to run—but his tongue was frozen. His eyes locked onto the woman instead, taking in detail after detail. Her figure. Her proportions. Her cute face that still held a hint of wildness in her eyes. Her simple but well-fitted clothes.
And above the woman’s head—
There was sothing.
Faint at first, like a shimr at the edge of his vision. Leonard blinked, thinking it was a trick of the light. But the shimr remained. He tried to focus, tried to see more clearly—
And suddenly, like sothing clicked inside his head, a screen appeared.
Like a hologram projected directly onto his retinas. He could see it clearly, but oddly, the screen didn’t block his view of the woman. It was like additional information overlaid on the image.
[ Lily ]
[ Bloodline: Rabbit ]
[ Stage: 1 ]
[ Evolution Progress: 874/1000 ]
[ Affection: 6% ]
[ Lust: 0% ]
[ Trust: 17% ]
[ Status: Stranger ]
Leonard read it once. Twice. Three tis.
Lily? Bloodline? Evolution Progress?
What the hell was this?
His eyes moved quickly over each line. Affection, Lust, Trust. Those numbers confused him and made him awkward at the sa ti.
Status: Stranger. Well, yeah, he was definitely a stranger here.
But the thing that really gave him chills was the phrase "Bloodline: Rabbit" and the ears on the woman’s head.
So... she really was a rabbit? A rabbit girl? Beastkin, like in the gas he used to play?
Leonard stared at the woman. The woman stared back, her expression unreadable. Her eyes swept over Leonard’s body from head to—she paused at his lower region, eyebrows lifting slightly, then returned to his face.
Leonard suddenly rembered: he was still naked. And his hands were still covering his junk.
His face flushed bright red.
"U-uh—" his voice caught. "I—I an—this—"
The woman tilted her head slightly. Her rabbit ears moved too, one of them bending sideways like a living question mark.
Then, in a voice that was soft but clear, she spoke in a language that... strangely, Leonard could understand.
"Uh..." Her voice ca out awkward. "Who are you? I’ve never seen anyone like you before."
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