Nicole enjoyed the freedom that she had after she left the castle. She didn't have a strict schedule or a guard constantly at her side watching all her steps. She also didn't have to worry about being a ruler. That was the biggest rock off her back at the moment. She kept shapeshifting and simply enjoying the forest as if she was simply on a road trip.

As the first night came so did the first challenge. Nicole had blankets with her but she didn't know how much that wouldn't help her on the rough terrain of the woods. She tossed and turned all night and only got about four hours of very light sleep. The sounds of the night, while didn't scare her too much, kept her fairly awake as well. She kept pushing despite her less-than-ideal night and on the second day, she started to go further as if she was trying to get somewhere. It was easier said than done as well. She had learned some geography but it was all very basic stuff and she never really paid attention either. She did use her heightened senses but she was too tired to think straight at the beginning.

As the days wore on she got used to sleeping on the ground and she realized that as an animal she'd probably have better success at finding the best place to sleep. She also tried to locate animals to ask them to help but she was getting increasingly worse off as the first week drew to a close. She had packed enough food for a week, intending to reach some kind of town before the end of the week. She however forgot her map in her room and so she was getting lost in the giant forest. The week started to draw to a close and even though she started eating only once a day, her food and water supply were depleting fast.

Water was easy to find, the moment she realized she doesn't have a map she started following the first creek that she came across. She was still beside the brook. She remembered from studying maps that she was going toward the source of the river somewhere in the mountains. It wasn't her original plan but the mountains were the home of the dragons. If she could get there, she'd do what she set out to do in the first place. She needed to find food, however. and despite being a shapeshifter, she was not as good at hunting and gathering as she thought. To top it all off she was even worse at making food, never having done it before. She finally realized that being alone wasn't all that cracked up to be.

She had issues that she never even imagined could be problems. Her clothes got dirty and she had no idea how to wash them. Not that she had any kind of cleaning supplies with her anyway. She also had no way of cleaning herself without entering the cold river. She had no way of protecting against rain or cold winds at night and her few attempts at trying to build a halfway decent shelter ended in disaster.

She started to get the hang of hunting thanks to the help of a cougar who has strayed further from the mountains. She finally had meat and when she managed to get a fire started, which was two out of five nights, she even managed to bake it without burning. She kept some of it for the next day every time she managed to make camp since she knew her track record. Herbs were something she didn't dare to even try to find out. One mistake could have killed her and though she found the thought more and more appealing, she didn't yet want to be responsible for her own demise. There were things she had to do.

By the end of the second week most of her things were either wet, or completely dirty, or otherwise rendered completely useless. She had found some fruit she knew was safe to eat but her main food source was still meat, mostly rabbit and her stomach started to detest it. She also started feeling off. Not quite understanding what was going on just yet. She couldn't turn back but she wasn't sure she could finish her journey in her current state. She was sure she would be no match for any dragon at that point let alone the dragon queen and king. She kept walking as that was the only thing she knew how to do. And that was the only thing that kept her somewhat sane.

She was getting better at sleeping on the forest floor but somehow she got more and more tired as the days in the third week wore on. She had less and less incentive to get up and keep walking and her strength was depleting fast. She blamed it on her diet even though she knew it wasn't true. Her senses were dimming not quite picking up things they did before and shapeshifting to hut became more and more exhausting. She didn't know how long she would survive.

Tracks of different animals started to appear on the damp shore of the creek she'd been following. There was an increasing amount of different tracks seemingly heading in the same direction. At one point they all left the banks and headed deeper into the forest. Nicole stopped and took a break trying to decide what to do. It looked like the animals knew where they were going and based on the hoof marks and canine paw marks, there were two options. Either a farmer had led his animals through, or intelligent races used it as a highway to someplace. Either way, it led to more civilized places.

After taking a drink she made up her mind. On the brink of death and exhaustion, it really didn't matter where she would collapse. The odds of someone finding her though were higher along a track worn down by several hundreds of animals. She stood up and as the Sun started to head toward the horizon Nicole left the brook and headed down the path that she had discovered.

She walked well into the night before she decided to make camp. When she couldn't get the fire started she didn't even bother hunting. She ate the remains of the rabbit she cooked three days before and went to sleep. The next day she woke up well into the day and set out once more to find anything or anyone that could help her.

A/N:

Here is another chapter for the day. I am trying to catch up a little after 6 solid days of miss. It is going a little downhill from here but I will let Nicole catch a break after chapter 9. Or I'll try at any rate.