PWFKF - Chapter One


She was warm.

The sun draped over her like a soft, golden blanket, its gentle heat sinking into her skin, loosening every last trace of tension from her muscles. A light breeze danced over her body, cool against the sun’s warmth, like the perfect balance between fire and air. The rhythmic sound of waves rolling onto the shore filled the air, a slow, steady lullaby that pulled her deeper into comfort. The sand beneath her was soft, sun-kissed, cradling her like a natural mattress.

The world was still, perfect and peaceful…

Wait.
Beach?
Her eyes fluttered open, squinting against the bright light. Shadows loomed over her. She froze.
Animals.
Massive, bloated things stared down at her, way too big to be normal.
She sucked in a breath to scream—only for the creatures to beat her to it.
The chicken thing let out an ear-splitting squawk, flailing its stubby wings as it launched into the air like a panicked balloon.
The sheep-looking puffball followed suit, its entire round body trembling like jelly before it let out a horrific, mutated scream—somewhere between a dying goat and a broken violin—before bolting, stubby legs scrambling in the sand.
Only the pink cat-like creature stayed eerily silent. Its massive, luminous eyes locked onto hers for a split second before it whipped around and sprinted away, tail flicking like a startled whip.
She finally sucked in a proper breath and sat up too fast—a mistake.
A pounding ache slammed through her skull, forcing a groan from her lips. She pressed a hand against her temple, wincing as her head throbbed like she had just headbutted a boulder.
It didn’t take her long to realize she was naked.
At first, it was just a vague discomfort—something off about the way the sun touched her skin, how the warm breeze rolled over her too freely.
Then it hit her.
She wasn’t wearing anything.
Her breath caught in her throat. Her arms snapped around her chest, muscles locking, breath catching hard in her throat. The sharp, twisting heat of embarrassment hit fast, crawling up her skin in a humiliating flush. But… something about it stuck. A heavy, sinking feeling curling low in her stomach, a pressure she couldn’t name.
She hated this. She should hate this. The wrongness of it, the helplessness. But the more she squeezed her thighs together, the more the heat pooled, spreading deeper, turning into something that made her body tense in a way she refused to think about.
No. Fuck no.
The cold breeze slipped over her skin, sharp and intimate, teasing at her bare nipples until they stiffened into aching peaks. Her thighs pressed together instinctively, as if that could somehow contain the rush of sensation—too much, too raw, too real.

A full-body shiver ran through her—not from the breeze, but from the sheer wrongness of the situation.

She forced her mind to work, ignoring it as best she could, this was not the time, not the place to be distracted, she needed to move.

Where were her clothes?

Where was she?

The panic surged up hard and fast, but she forced herself to breathe, to think.

Her eyes darted around, scanning the beach. Was anyone watching?

Nothing but the endless stretch of sand, the distant hiss of waves, and the occasional cry of something in the distance. No voices. No people. No sign of… anyone.

She was alone.

The tension in her shoulders eased—just barely.

Still, she swallowed hard, hugging herself tighter, as if that would somehow fix things. There had to be something here. Anything.

Then she felt it—a weight on her wrist.

A thin, deceptively strong chain bound it to her wrist, locking the stone tablet to her like an unshakable shackle. It acted like a… something. 

She knew the word but it was just… lost to her right now, but before she could think about it the tablet flickered to life. A small rectangular screen lit up, and cryptic words scrolled across it:
"The towers are the key."

Then something else—too fast to catch.

She blinked hard, trying to shake the last ache in her head away.

“What?” she whispered with her eyes closed, opening them after her head could think again. Staring at the now black screen. She saw her reflection, an uneven bob cut of black hair, flowing to her shoulder on the right side while on the right it sat just above her chin.
An idea from her sister to help her stand out before the start of… she blinked trying to remember if she understood what her thoughts were. Sister? Did she have a sister, she didn't know, blinking her deep purple eyes she felt that she might have, it felt familiar but why…. Why didn't she remember?
Her thoughts shattered when the screen flickered back to life, displaying six options:

  • Inventory
  • Party
  • Technology
  • Palpedia
  • Guild
  • Options

“What,” she muttered again, grateful for the distraction. Anything to pull her away from the gnawing emptiness in her head.

Some kind of game screen?

She let out a short, disbelieving chuckle at the absurdity. If there was one thing she knew, it was that shit like this didn’t happen to her.

She gritted her teeth, eyes narrowing. What even was this?

Her fingers moved before she could think—tap.

Inventory.

A grid popped up on the left, dozens of empty boxes lined up neatly. But what really caught her eye was on the right.

A model of her.

Her name at the top.

"Aria."

The name hung in the air, familiar and solid, like a stone in her chest. But something about it was… wrong. Not the name itself—no, it felt like hers. It was hers. But it wasn’t whole.

She whispered it under her breath. It felt… right. But also wrong. Like it was only part of something bigger, like someone had cut the rest away.

A flicker of unease crawled up her spine, and she shook her head sharply. Not the time. She backed out quickly and tapped Party.

A single warning message flashed on the screen:

"No Pals in party!"

She blinked. "The fuck’s a Pal?" she muttered, brows knitting in frustration.

Her eyes flicked to the next option. Palpedia. If anything had answers, it was that.
She swallowed dryly and tapped it.
"No data."
The words glared back at her from the screen. But on the left, there was a long list of numbers.
1… 2… 3… 140?
“140… what?” she muttered. Pals? What the hell even—

A sudden chill crawled down her back, interrupting her thoughts.

She looked up.

The sun was gone.

Night had fallen. And just like that, she was painfully aware of how exposed she was.

The cold hit her like a knife.

A slow, creeping kind of cold—not the sharp bite of winter, but the kind that settles into your bones and stays there.

Now that she was aware of it, she was surprised she hadn’t noticed before. Was she that drawn into the tablet

Her skin prickled violently, her breath turning shallow and sharp. The night air wrapped around her like icy fingers, dragging heat from her body with every passing second. She wouldn’t survive the night

“Fuck,” she hissed through clenched teeth, arms wrapping around herself instinctively. “My tits are gonna freeze off.”

Her eyes darted around, scanning the landscape. There was a building somewhere on the cliff, it was high and would take a bit to get there but there was a path, long winding she could take but there was also a cave to her right. 

She forced her legs to move, her bare feet digging into the freezing sand, sending jolts of pain up her legs. The wind howled, an eerie, whispering thing, licking at her exposed skin, slipping through her fingers like it wanted to steal the last warmth she had

The cave.
The cave looked safer… in theory. But stepping into that pitch-black maw sent a different kind of chill down her spine.

The wind tickled her chest, the cold sinking into her skin, into her soul.
"It’ll be safe," she muttered, already knowing it was a lie.
The air inside was stale, thick with dampness. Not warm—just less freezing. The walls were rough and uneven, the scent of wet stone clinging to the air, sharp and earthy. Somewhere deeper in, water dripped, slow and rhythmic, a quiet plip… plip… plip echoing through the cavern.
She crouched low, wrapping her arms around herself, pressing her back against the wall. Her skin still burned from the cold.

She shivered violently, her nipples like fucking diamonds, but it was better than the open night.

She hugged herself tighter, her arms pressing against the curve of her chest, trapping a little warmth between her skin. It wasn’t much, but it was something—a fragile heat, a reminder that her body was still her own.

Her fingers flexed, rubbing at her arms, her stomach, anywhere she could chase away the creeping numbness. But the more she moved, the more she noticed it—her own touch, her own skin, her own heat pooling low in her belly, sharp and frustrating.

She exhaled sharply, biting back the feeling. Not the time. Not the place. But the chill wasn’t letting her go, wasn’t giving her a moment of peace, wasn’t stopping the way her body tensed in a way that had nothing to do with fear.

Her breathing slowed. The shaking didn’t.

It was massive. The cave, and it wasn’t even that far from the entrance before she saw it.

A monster.

She froze, breath catching in her throat, every muscle locking up as she stared.

A yellow dinosaur-like thing loomed ahead, its massive bulk sniffing lazily around the cave. Its scales shimmered faintly in the dim light, golden and rough, like a creature carved out of storm-worn stone.

The world was too cold, too quiet. Too still.

A sharp, deafening ding shattered the silence.

Her heart stopped.

For a split second, she was sure she was dead.

Her entire body seized up—a raw, instinctual terror hijacking her senses. The breath she'd been holding crushed her chest, her muscles locked so tight they might as well have turned to stone.

And then—warmth.

A sudden, humiliating heat spread down her thigh.

She had pissed herself.

Warmth flooded down her legs. Hot, thick, unmistakable.

For a moment, her body didn’t even register it—her brain too locked in frozen terror. But then… realization hit like a slap. The heat. The wetness clinging to her skin. The way her breath hitched, sharp and humiliating.

Her face burned. Her throat clenched tight. She wanted to sink into the ground, disappear, anything to escape the crushing weight of how fucking pathetic she must have looked—shivering, naked, small.

But the monster… didn’t move.

Not at the sound. Not at her.

It just swayed, like some massive tree caught in a phantom breeze.

The initial burst of panic didn’t fade—just shifted into horrified mortification.

She clenched her jaw, forcing herself to breathe, to think, to move. Slowly, shakily, she lifted the tablet with fingers that barely worked.

A yellow icon blinked on Palpedia. She tapped it, swallowing the lump in her throat as the screen loaded.

There it was.

#64B Dinossom Lux.

Though struck by lightning, it lives on. The phrase "struck by a Dinossom Lux’s bolt" has come to mean narrowly escaping death.

She stared at the words, then slowly—very carefully—looked back up at the monster swaying just a few steps away.

Oh.

“Oh, fuck.”

The whisper barely left her lips as she flicked her gaze between the tablet and the… thing.

This was a Pal?

She swallowed hard, her pulse still thudding in her ears. The words on the screen blurred for a second as she tried to force her brain to work.

What the hell was this? What was she even looking at?

She shut her eyes, dragging in a slow, shaky breath.

Calm. Focus. Don’t panic.

She couldn’t leave. Not now. Not when it was zero of fuck degrees outside.

It took a moment—long enough for her to count her breaths, to let her hammering heart settle back into her chest.

When she finally opened her eyes, she was ready.

Ready to think. To process. To figure out her next move.

But when she looked up—

It was gone.

Her stomach dropped. A fresh shiver rippled down her spine, and this time, it had nothing to do with the cold.

She turned her head slowly, scanning the cave’s entrance, the walls, the shadows stretching deep inside.

Nothing.

No sign of it. No sound.

Just the dripping water, the weight of the dark, and the unsettling knowledge that something that massive could disappear so quietly.