10/11/2025, 2:37 AM
"yes." he coughed, feeling marginally better to know that everyone was perplexed as he was and that it might not look too much like the fumblings of a still-growing child. "still, i must apologize for…" his eyes traced the beads of blood arcing down the auburn man's ear. at least he was better off than yunxu was.
it did not escape him that neither of them gave their names in turn, but he had not exactly been the picture of courtesy.
the woman continued, and yunxu allowed himself, for the first time since the beach, to believe that he was being told the truth. that this wasn't some freak accident, but a different world entirely.
he did not at all like the feeling.
what was he supposed to do? yunxu didn't know himself without the contours of duty. moreover, he did not know what to do with himself. he had lived among a pack his entire life and now- what? he was meant to find another? they wouldn't know what to do with him. he didn't know what to do with him.
and that was not the worst part.
"magic?" yunxu repeated tentatively, with the ringing disbelief of someone who considered the idea absurd but was stilling their tongue from saying so aloud, given the stare directed at his face. and the wounds still aching on his leg and muzzle.
he cleared his throat instead. upon second thought, it was…not as preposterous as he wanted it to be.
"i fall from cliffs…two days ago now. i should be dead. surviving does not make sense." a wry smile. "maybe that is magic." or the hand of a god, though that truly seemed as ridiculous to him as spells or ghosts or faeries or demons. no matter what that old woman had said, yunxu knew he was not worth enough for a god to scoop him from the sea and put him…here. something angry or spiteful...that he might be able to believe.
he looked between them both.
"i have no dreams," he said. "but- the angry magic, the faeries and demons. have you seen them?"
english | mandarin