8/22/2025, 4:57 PM
when yunxu opens his eyes, the sea and sky look stubbornly like they had when he'd closed them.
...not a dream. maybe he'd just fallen unconscious, and by some miracle of the gods, the sea had buoyed him until he had woken. the possibility is vanishingly unlikely, but nothing else makes sense. unless he is dead after all, but surely death wouldn't be this... uncomfortable.
nor does he particularly want to consider the thought.
to the reality, then. there are worse places to be tossed up like a piece of driftwood on the tide, but that thought doesn't comfort him. he shakes his head, doing his best to banish the sluggishness that's set in-surely the fault of the sun beating down- but the nausea is still clinging; all it does is make him dizzy and send him into another fierce coughing fit.
yunxu works his way through it with hunched shoulders, and then rubs his muzzle shakily against a forelimb. his sister would demand he rest, but-
an unfamiliar voice cuts through the distraction. he startles, hackles bristling as he scrambles to unsteady legs and makes sure there's space between them, only now smelling the scent of wolf- had he really been too absorbed in his own thoughts to notice?
though she- uniquely among the strangers he's encountered recently- seems...like she isn't going to pick a fight. her age shows in her milky blinded eye and the white peppering of her fur. it takes him an extended moment to process that she's even talking to him, much less what she's saying; he hasn't bothered to speak english in some time.
he's never been too fond of concern either, that of family or otherwise- but his luck has always been awful, and it shows no sign of changing.
he realizes he's staring at her.
"我 很 好," yunxu says before he can think to consider his words, and spends another several seconds scraping a couple sentences together in her tongue, too exhausted to go through the pantomime he often prefers, "thank you. i will be fine."
she's trying to be kind, which rankles. he tries not to show it. he must look pathetic, he knows that- it's not a new feeling. "i fell," he says, "from cliffs. i am not sure where this is?"
...not a dream. maybe he'd just fallen unconscious, and by some miracle of the gods, the sea had buoyed him until he had woken. the possibility is vanishingly unlikely, but nothing else makes sense. unless he is dead after all, but surely death wouldn't be this... uncomfortable.
nor does he particularly want to consider the thought.
to the reality, then. there are worse places to be tossed up like a piece of driftwood on the tide, but that thought doesn't comfort him. he shakes his head, doing his best to banish the sluggishness that's set in-surely the fault of the sun beating down- but the nausea is still clinging; all it does is make him dizzy and send him into another fierce coughing fit.
yunxu works his way through it with hunched shoulders, and then rubs his muzzle shakily against a forelimb. his sister would demand he rest, but-
an unfamiliar voice cuts through the distraction. he startles, hackles bristling as he scrambles to unsteady legs and makes sure there's space between them, only now smelling the scent of wolf- had he really been too absorbed in his own thoughts to notice?
though she- uniquely among the strangers he's encountered recently- seems...like she isn't going to pick a fight. her age shows in her milky blinded eye and the white peppering of her fur. it takes him an extended moment to process that she's even talking to him, much less what she's saying; he hasn't bothered to speak english in some time.
he's never been too fond of concern either, that of family or otherwise- but his luck has always been awful, and it shows no sign of changing.
he realizes he's staring at her.
"我 很 好," yunxu says before he can think to consider his words, and spends another several seconds scraping a couple sentences together in her tongue, too exhausted to go through the pantomime he often prefers, "thank you. i will be fine."
she's trying to be kind, which rankles. he tries not to show it. he must look pathetic, he knows that- it's not a new feeling. "i fell," he says, "from cliffs. i am not sure where this is?"
english | mandarin