a darker world

Firstly, she saw the world had grown darker. The sun shone in the sky, but it was not the orb of warmth she remembered, more like a massive flickering torch. It seemed to cast less light and heat, and so shadows were far more frequent over the landscape. Many trees (as she was still in the forest) were dead or decaying, or burnt away. Shiro splashed to the shore, looking around in confusion and frustration at the new world. She recognized landmarks in the distance, her main form of navigation, but they were all... different, darker somehow.

"You!" barked a voice behind her. Shiro spun and whipped her sword out in an instant, even if her wet robes clung to her shapely body. She saw a threesome of men on black horses, or what passed as men at a glance. Their skin was a thick, leathery brown, just a few textures away from scaly, and they carried a beastial air about them. Their hair was a wild mane, and one of them even looked as though canine ears shoved out under his hair, just a bit, though the others did not. Two of them raised crossbows at her as she readied herself, but she didn't falter.

"Where am I?" Shiro said quiet but sternly.
"On the lady of the land's territory," grunted one of the oafish creatures. "On which you're tresspassin'."
Shiro's eyes looked to the lake again, finally starting to form her idea on how to return. If the water had led her there, it made sense that it would take her back, right?

She moved for the water when one of the beastmen fired his arrow into her path. It snagged the hem of her kimono, but she gave a jerk of her leg to quickly rip it free. the other beastman raised his crossbow and fired at her, but she rushed at him and whipped her blade at the air, snapping the arrow in half in midair and ruining its course. She spun between the horses, slicing both of the archers from shoulder to belly. They went down with unnaturally screeches, blood spitting from their wounds and mouths as they hit the dirt. The last of the creatures (dogears) turned to try to raise a blade to her. She slapped her hand down onto his, trapping the weapon and quickly stabbing her katana into his belly, in and out in a quick jab that made the beastman squeal sharply.

"You'll bleed out," she warned calmly, keeping her hand on the hilt of his sword and holding him steady. "Unless I or someone else seals the wound. Now I want some more answers."
"You didn't have to stick the sorry pig for answers," said a new voice, footsteps coming nearer from out of sight.