8/29/2025, 2:37 PM
hope its ok if i hop in!
yunxu was lost.
he had no problem admitting that to himself. this place was alien, still, with only the lingering reminder of his scent to tell him what path not to venture down. but then it had started raining, and what little direction he had had washed away under the downpour, leaving him soaked to the bone and wandering in blind circles. he'd sheltered in an overhang of the mountain for the night, hoping it would let up by the morning, but it's no better- it might even be worse.
he was certain, in fact, he'd come upon this lake before.
yunxu looked out at it, scowling. objectively it might have been a pretty view, when it was not raining so hard as to obscure the forest on the other side, but now it only stirred frustration and the simmering anxiety that had not left since he washed up on shore.
home was a familiar routine. he knew when to wake, when to hunt, when to patrol, when to sleep. calm lived in those contours, in stability. he needed to find it again.
still frowning, yunxu shook mud from his paws and wandered gingerly down the bank to drink. he was not thirsty, but knew he would be, and that it was better to fulfill the need now than to wait for it to find him. beneath the surface, barely visible under the wild rippling, he caught the silvery shapes of fish darting away.
he wasn't hungry, either, but knew he should.
yunxu stood there, hunched over the water while the rain poured over him with the force of a breaking wave, for a long several moments. when he lifted his head, there was-
a figure.
he went stiff, squinting suspiciously into the rain-spray, a flare of hope in his stomach that faded the moment the shape resolved into black-orange and cream. nothing he knew, but at least the old woman had not followed him here.
yunxu lingered warily on the lake's edge, wondering whether, if he stayed quiet, he would be ignored, or attacked. or if he should just abandon the hope of a meal and move on.
english | mandarin