10/28/2025, 7:33 PM
Her first sensation was pain. A throbbing head that meant a day of rest, should she be able to take it. She reached for her bedside, ready to send for one of her servants, but the only thing she found at the other end was stone. Her toes skimmed the unfamiliar material, and her forehead wrinkled without once opening her eyes. When she inhaled, it was not to find the incense she’d lit the night before, but damp and must. Mildew tickled her nostrils, and a mighty sneeze rocked her from her curled position up onto her stomach. A leg came to cradle the crown of her head, and Bailu opened one eye to regard her surroundings. This was not where she had gone to sleep, in her bedroom overlooking the courtyard. Her resplendent silks were gone, the fluttering banners swept from her sight. She inhaled past the fluttering fur at the edges of her limbs, tasting the dampness in the air, the oncoming rain. Her limbs tucked beneath, and she pressed up onto her haunches, still holding her head with one leg.
這是什麼？Her voice sounded raspy, sounded old, and she raised her head and let her leg drop to join its twin. Every inhale spiked pain through her head, but it was abating the more she sat still. Thankfully, when she next opened her eyes, it was just a faint pain easily ignored. And it allowed her a glimpse of her surroundings. Bailu's nose wrinkled, reaching out to overturn an old stone. The stonework around her was old, weathered by the lapping water down a crumbling set of stairs. It turned her surroundings humid, a biting edge that had her pulling her limbs close and tucking her tail against a hip. Disgust rattled down her spine.
這太可怕了。The stonework had lost much of its detail to time, but she had little hope for its pre-destruction appearance. Especially if it wore away to this. She could not stay here, wherever here was. Wobbling limbs attempted to raise her from the stone, but vertigo very nearly brought her back. So she simply sat for a moment, breathing through the odd dizziness.