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Lian · 11/6/2025, 6:19 PM

Just as the burning tears threatened to finally spill, a voice broke through the princess' distraught reverie. A familiar face filled her searching gaze. The world, shaken on its foundations, fit suddenly and neatly back into place.

Baba! She squeaked, feeling small and frightened and childish, but not yet embarrassed about that for once. She only stretched out her nose like palms reaching for the sky, and let herself be gathered into her father's embrace with a broken hiccup. Lian's usual aversion to affection and adherence to propriety flew away on the marsh-scented autumn breeze. She threw her muddy paws around the emperor's shoulders, buried her face into his dark pelt. His solid frame was what she needed to ground herself, to assure her they were both here, and alive. I thought I was - ! She could not say it.

Shenlei pulled away first, but Lian let him go with only a resolute sniffle and a lift of her chin that spoke of her freshly renewed efforts to regain her dignity in the face of this crisis. I'm here. She reassured, voice a little shaky but regaining strength with every beat of her heart. Questions, by the dozens, warred for which would spill off her tongue first as she sat up properly, only for her ears to sink into her scruff with embarrassed alarm as her father pointed out the mud.

Ah, yes. Lian's eyes brightened at the mention of Mei. Is she here, too? Baba, what on earth has happened? Where are - Lian snapped her jaw shut with a crease between her brow. She took a deep breath. I am getting ahead of myself. She trusted Shenlei would have at least some of the answers. And now that they were reunited, she felt assured any more answers would be unearthed in due time. There was no need for her to get too worked up over it all. If he had taught her anything, approaching overwhelming problems such as this strange new world would be best managed by a steady paw and calm mind.

Shenlei turned toward the giggling stream nearby, beckoning the princess with a flick of his tail. She wasted no time following on light paws, dismay decaying her very soul at the sensation of mud between her toes, matting the fur of her cheek. Whatever blessings the Celestial Dragon had bestowed on them had not come without its share of costs, eugh.

One question weighed upon her mind. For Lian, not a day had passed without her father's presence in the palace - such a disappearance would have surely caused a stir, one so drastic she dared not think of it. Yet the way Shenlei spoke, the way he had looked at her - How long have you been here...? Her voice was soft, worry providing a mild note of strain within the question.

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Silent Streams

princess of the tianlong