Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Tanya awoke on what she could feel was grass, blue sky welcoming her tired bones. She didn’t know what happened, where she was, who she really was, and why she was here. She knew what her name was, how old she was (both middle aged and 13 but not why it made sense), and that was about it. 

She had nothing with her. No tools, no food, no water.

Nothing.

Standing up was a struggle, but not overtly painful. Around her were the sounds of wildlife. Birds, trees, fish jumping. It was all quite peaceful. Then she heard the distant roar of a monster and shot straight up in the air with adrenaline pumping through her veins like a burning cold. Now that she was up and awake with her heart beating in her chest did she begin to notice discrepancies in what she saw. Sunlight filtered oddly through boxy leaves, trees were oddly squared and the tall grass was cubed in nature while the ground, though blocky, was still fused with highly realistic shrubbery, roots, and stones. Squinting to look off in the distance, the form of a winged lizard could be seen. The name tickled the back of the girls’ brain for a half second before a terrorizing realization hit her.

That was a dragon. 

Scourge of medieval cities, hoarders of gold. Something she couldn’t kill and something she couldn’t protect herself against. 

Luckily, she was sure the thing couldn’t see her, since all it was doing was flying around in the distance around a giant mound of blocky sand and the remains of a dead town. Definitely not her problem if they're dead. Looking around and seeing only a few ignorable wild pigs and a chicken. She took stock of what she had on her. 

A green shirt, a pair of brown trousers, some black indiscernible shoes, and nothing more besides a single note in her pocket. Pulling it out and making sure that the beasts she could scarcely make out in the darkness of the forest she was in weren’t about to immediately kill her in a gruesome and violent death, she unfolded it and began to read.

Dear Tanya von Degurechaff 

You’re probably wondering what’s going on. You’re lost, confused, and uneducated about the world around you. While I could give you empty platitudes that everything is ok and that you’ll be just fine, that would be a lie. The world you are in is a dangerous one and you are going to need to survive it for an indiscernible amount of time without any clear knowledge. 

You will feel pain. You will feel angry. You will feel depressed.

You will die.

This world is out to kill you. 

Trust nobody. 

Trust nothing but the things you create and the power you gain.

Survive.

Learn about the rest of the world where I failed. Survive where I couldn’t. Become free.

On your left arm is a device that holds all of your important information and a few of the things I was able to learn before I died and kicked the bucket. 

She blinked at that realization, because yes, there indeed was a device strapped to her left arm. Her wrist to be precise. It was a smooth silver steel color, with an opening in the front that could fit a smartphone within it that she’ll have to learn the waning of. On the top of it was a black screen with a loading bar filled part of the way in, moving at a slow pace with lines of code moving at a quick speed. All in all, it was mighty interesting.

This is your Heads Up Display. It will tell you what part of your body is damaged, how hungry you are, how much water you need, your internal body temperature, and how protected you are. You cannot fight with it, it cannot break, you cannot remove it, and if your hand is cut off- wait what?!?- it will simply reappear on another part of you that you are able to see.

In your HUD there are the bare basics of your early survival in this world. How to create some basic tools, beasts you have seen, faught and slain, the basics of the magic language, what you know in terms of skills. And most importantly of all, the amount of lives you have left. 

The device had finished loading up, all the information and multiple menus beginning to align in an easy to manage and access interface. And right there smack dab in the middle was a big ol 8 . Tanya’s face was set in a grim, determined scowl, hiding the trace amount of fear that she could barely contain at the thought of her dying. More than once at that. It scared her, but she couldn’t break down now. Not when her lives were on the line.

You won’t regain your memories for a while, but they will come. You will need to be ready. There are monsters out there than can destroy everything you have worked for, but I believe you can survive the ⌇⟟⋔⎍⌰⏃⏁⟟⍜⋏. Good Luck.

I love you.

-⎐⟟⌇⊑⏃

She tried reading what was blurred out and spelled oddly, but her HUD was telling her that she required more knowledge of magic. This frustrated her because the person who wrote this note knew her, and they probably had answers. She barely knew who she was, where she was, and why she was here in the first place. She could feel herself begin to hyperventilate, but some instinct within her causes her lungs to breath and her emotions to become more controlled. The girl took a few seconds of calming down before straightening herself ramrod straight and squaring her shoulders. She would survive. She would get her answers, she would get her memories. And she will not stop until she is safe beyond measure. For her name is Tanya von Degurechaff, and that name does not know defeat.

Now all she needed was a weapon, and a place to hunker down for the night.Carefully folding the note back up and putting it away, she brought up the hud and began clicking away, already eying a stream nearby for the gravel and flint that it held.

Chapter Text

In her hand were two large pieces of flint, black ebony in color and sharp to the touch. It had taken a ridiculous amount of time to get them and twice now had she gotten too close to a monster that she was aware could tear her apart at the seams like a child could tissue paper. Gripping the black stones in her hands with a scowl, Tanya threw them to the hard stone beneath her feet in anger, watching them with mild satisfaction as they broke into four flint shards. Looking up at the nearest birch tree, she stood up and climbed up its side, tearing off a sturdy branch and jumping back down, opening up a menu on her device to craft a basic flint knife.

With the press of a few buttons, her eyes began to glow a light blue and her hands moved on their own. Flint shard slamming a V into the branch before being deeply pushed to become a basic knife. She held it in her hand, a tiny amount of satisfaction at the weapon. It wasn’t perfect, in fact her device explicitly said that it was shoddy, but it was a weapon and a weapon means a fighting chance. No matter how small, anything higher than zero was a good chance in her book. Following the simple instructions and tips she could garner out of her device, she began to use said weapon to cut up the local flora for its fibers. It was then that she noticed something else. Bending down to grab her spoils of plant war, she held up the odd fibers.

They were not only magnetized to her when she reached for them, they were also sticking together and forming a stack of card-like decks. She held them In her hand, observing it’s weird properties for a few seconds, before shaking her head and pressing the device once more as her hands went into autopilot. Seconds later she held plant ‘string’, though a fairly thin rope was closer to being the truth. A few more seconds skipped and In her hands was a flint hatchet.

Tanya quietly chuckled at its given modifier, the colored Superior giving her a little bit of a grin. Spinning it around a few of her fingers, she approached a tree and began to angrily hack at it, venting a few of her frustrations out on the bark and wood of the tree. But sadly that wasn’t enough as moments later the tree fell downwards atop a cow, killing it instantly and dropping meat and a few card shaped logs.

The blonde girl let out a sigh and grumbled under her breath, collecting her materials and attacking a few more trees before ultimately realizing that the sun was beginning to fall and she had nowhere to sleep for the night. Fear coursing through her veins, she began to run along the edge of the nearest river and booking it at a pace that she knew instinctively that she could maintain.

She knew it was a bit of a race against time as Tanya knew the dark had nothing good for her in store. Water meant that she didn’t have to worry about dying quickly, and the beef slabs that she had should say her a few days if she stretched it, but lack of shelter here would be the downfall of her if she didn’t do something fast. Making a lean-to and surviving the night seemed like a good idea on paper, but that was assuming that there wasn’t any kind of man eating monsters in the area, and a roar not so far behind her only incentivized her to go even faster, running as if her life depended on it, which it probably did. 

Survival was a priority and she had to do everything in her power to do it.

It didn’t help that her mind was fogged over from fear and adrenaline and so many other things that just running through the forest to follow the river was taking up so much of her mind right now. Her mind wasn’t able to really think of anything else. Loving being her only thought.

Survive

Survive for just another day

Because who knew if she had wasted any lives already, or if this was her first time. 

But that wasn’t a priority right now.

To her left, deeper into a forest was what she could only assume was a deserted camp site, a few large wooden tents with a few boxes of basic supplies. Banadages, a card stack of wood, she held her weapon in hand, ready to hack away at anything that came anywhere near her. She practically held her breath, with how slowly and quietly she was breathing, straining her ears in the off chance that something was trying to sneak their way up to her. When she heard nothing, she began to dig through everything she could find in the campsite.

Did she care if this belonged to someone? Absolutely not. She didn’t care if someone else was in the same position she was, these things all belonged to her now and she was ready to fight tooth and nail for it all. Opening up another box revealed another assorted array of goodies and food that she was already packing away on her device. A fishing rod would go a long way in getting food, and some small root vegetables she wasn’t going to bother figuring out until she had the chance.

Some iron ingot stacks that she was definitely going to use to make something of worth later, a bucket, and a sleeping bag. Something that almost brought a tear to her eye. For now, all of this would be used to keep her alive and the life number from dropping any lower.

Any lower??

That was a concerning thought that brought ice into her bloodstream. Did she lose lives already? Where? How? Why?? 

She smashed any thoughts and feelings of insecurity and fear with an iron grip, her face warping into a visage of sheer fury. 

NOTHING

Absolutely NOTHING

Would make Tanya von Degurechaff feel fear. Not when her life was on the line. Whatever higher power decided that she was some opulent plaything would rue the day that they chose her to play this silly game, and she would tear them apart limb from limb before grasping their heart in her hand.

Steam practically left her nostrils as she exhaled, calming down her harried heart and running rage. Anger was good, anger forced fear down and away, but she needed to use it productively or else it was energy wasted. With food and supplies at her fingertips, she was sure she’d survive long enough to get strong. 

Strength without a goal was worthless, and she would become the strongest of them all. 

Chapter Text

The blonde girl made her way through the forest with a weary edge in her eye, her body having gone through panic and straight into basic survival instincts. But that didn’t mean she was unable to observe the world around her. Quite the contrary. She was learning so much from just looking at her HUD and environment that she was walking past. Large boulders dotted the dark under shade of the forest, small creatures swam through a small creek to the side, an opportunity to gain more flint as gravel made itself known. She spent no time holding off digging up every last piece and making off with a few more flint shards. Her inventory just a little more full. 

The world around her was beginning to get covered in a rose gold lighting, the sun dipping below the tree like and bathing the area in some shadow. Adrenaline pumping and fear gripping her heart, Tanya did something stupid and brainless.

She bolted into the forest, in the faintest hopes of finding a shelter. 

The light of the falling sun was only as helpful as it lasted, which by the falling temperature and the darkening of her surroundings, wasn’t very long as shadows began to lengthen and expand. Tanya’s stomach growled but she didn’t have time to deal with a few hunger pangs when survival was a must. She needed some place to stay and sleep the night away. She would have attempted to sleep in the bag and try to wait the night away like that, but she didn’t understand the rules of the world enough to know if that was even a viable option.

The girl ran at her fastest through the dark, every sound in the brush and thick forest backdrop made her heart beat and jump for a half second everytime something snapped. The shadows blurred and it was getting hard to see anything. More than a few times she ran into a tree or Boulder, something that she wasn’t willing to admit happened more than once. It was simply something that didn’t occur if anyone asked. 

Cl-ack Cl-ack!

Fwpt!

It was only sheer battle instinct that she duck and rolled to the side while an arrow embedded the tree she was about to collide with. Behind her she could a walking pile of human bones pull back the string, another arrow ready to spear her. Not wanting to die, she did the only thing she could think of doing in this situation. Attack.

Fwpt!  

Another arrow went over her head as she dove forwards and rolled, her feet touching the ground again and letting her jump up, a roundhouse kick hitting the thing in the head, where she could feel a cloth cap of some kind on its head. In all honesty the only reason the attack probably worked was the fact that it’s two eye sockets were glowing a bright blue, allowing just the faintest amount of light to reflect off its bleached white bones. And that light was all she needed!

Already she could see it pulling back another arrow, the trajectory no doubt among for her blonde and raggedy head, but she was a trainer combat mage! This was nothing to her.

Wait she was a what now-

That moment of distraction almost cost her an arrow in the head, but instincts prevailed as herhand conjured up her flint hatchet and imbed it into its collarbone, snapping it in two and staggering the monster back a step, but that was all she needed to go in for the kill, her small axe crashing into its skull and killing the monster! 

Tanya panted in an attempt to get her breath back, seeing its body break away into dust as it left behind a few things for her. Like the leather cap it wore and some bones. The dust it faded away into left behind some kind of floating and glowing green residue that made its way into her, the entire fight suddenly replaying itself in her head, her muscles feeling the movements of the fight in minuscule twitches, the Experience she gained in this fight etching itself into her mind.

But that didn’t matter right now as she had to keep moving, no doubt more of this things infesting the dark. Without a source of light, she was a tiny and easy to eat meal for any lingering monsters. 

Gruuuggghhh

Yeah that was her cue to leave.

She was back to her sprinting blindly through the dark underbrush, this time with the combat high still going through her, her eyes now a bit more dilated and letting her see through some of the dark with the minuscule amounts of moonlight as a source of light. And it’s a good thing they did, as she could spit what looked to be a moderately sized red brick house underneath a few trees. 

Outside of the home was what looked like a man, but her keen ears could hear the almost inhuman groans, and she knew this wasn’t the owner of the house. But that’s fine, her hatchet was back in her hand and she went in for a jump swing towards It’s head.

The black tool cracked and broke, but the damage was done and the monster had a giant gaping gash in its neck, her knife inside of it a second later. Those two attacks didn’t kill it, but it definitely hurt it as she pulled it out. But being close enough to hit it meant it was close enough to hit her . 

The Zombie man threw its hand out and decked her in the face, throwing her back a tad bit. But Tanya was made of tougher stuff than that and a single ill thrown hit wasn’t going to bring her down. Thin hands moved in a blur, the knife embedding itself into its single good eye and killing it instantly, it’s body turning to dust. Once more it left behind some amount of residue, the green orb points of the entire quick Experience filling her mind, but she didn’t focus on that. 

No.

She was to busy breaking open the door and shitting it behind her, ears keen and strained as she tried to listen for any monsters, but there were none inside. Her shoulders dropped and the adrenaline she felt pumping her veins fading away as she struggled to breath. The room may have been fairly empty, but it felt like salvation and safety in a world out to kill her. It was a literal beacon in the dark as the single crackling torch lit up the room she was in and showed her what the insides looked like. 

Tanya tried to breath in, but her lungs weren’t working with her and she was having trouble trying to see, some amount of liquid in her eyes obscuring her vision. The young girl collapsed and put her back to the wall, hands gripped over the bloody knife as she still didn’t feel completely safe. The dark was far greater than the light of the torch, and she couldn’t comprehend why this world was truly so dangerous. 

But she could only feel this sadness for so long, her face twisting into rage. She slammed her flint knife into the floor and shattered it, throwing It’s fading shards in front of her and hugging her legs, letting the last bits of water leave her eyes and her breathing even out. It took longer than she would have liked, but she was only human. She felt like a hypocrite. There she was saying she was going to become strong and here she was, bawling her eyes out.

Bringing the device on her hand up to sensitive red brimmed eyes, she looked into the inventory space to take stock of what she had, and she had to admit that it really wasn’t much.

A few things stood out to her among the rabble. Mostly the bandages and food, alongside the sleeping bag. She pulled out the root she could vaguely recall being edible, and took a bite out of it. As her teeth sunk in, a few drops of juice dropped down her lip and she began to devour it whole in a few bites. Her hunger was ravenous and she needed to eat. 

Standing up on shaky legs she observed what had to be a kitchen area, her eyes roaming the room for what it had. A bench with some tools, what looked like a furnace of some kind, and right there, to her utter bafflement, was a cake.

A fluffy, frosted and berry covered cake.

A cake she spent no time shoveling into her mouth, eating handful after handful like the savage she currently was. 

Tanya could only eat so much of it, but what she ate felt magical in her mouth, and she had to let out the groan of satisfaction. She hadn’t managed to eat it all, but half of it had to be gone. It was making her eyes droop and her limbs heavy with the full stomach, the lack of adrenaline and the full day of running had taken a lot out of her, and this was the last nail in the coffin as she pulled out her sleeping bag and pushed herself into the corner to finally get some sleep.

Shuffling her way inside the large white cloth pouch, she pulled it over her head and gripped the sheet, slowly but surely falling asleep under the light and heat of the torch, her mind and belly full.

Sleep didn’t arrive easily, but arrive it did as her eyes finally closed shut.

-|-

There were flashes of lights and images blurring by, the memory stabilizing itself into a blurred array of images and sounds.

It was her and another girl with brown hair, whose face was blank and devoid of features and basked in shadows, but thst was fine. Two pairs of hands held together. A blush on her face.

A glitch and a reel of scenes played out.

A burning city.

Screams if the dying

Exploding shrapnel flying over head,

The wind in her face and the earth far below.

A purple beam of light.

And that glowing red rock .

And finally a quiet voice whispering close in her ear.

“Wake up major.”

And then she jolted awake to see the sun rising and a Sabre tip held close to her face, it’s metal point millimeters away from her nose as she looked up to see a slightly mousy looking girl who stood maybe a head taller than her, ratty looking pigtails thrown over shoulder.

“Who the fuck are you.”

Tanya idly noticed she spoke in English with a southern drawl, as she raised her hands in the air.