Skyy barely had time to shut the door before Chen's voice hit him like a bullet.
"Do you have any idea how reckless that was?" Chen snapped, his arms crossed tightly over his chest. His eyes flashed with a mixture of anger and relief as he looked Skyy over from head to toe, checking for injuries before his gaze shifted toward the tree-dog that had padded into the room behind him. "You could've been infected, killed, or worse."
His expression hardened when Leaf settled down beside Skyy as if nothing had happened.
"And that thing? What if it's dangerous?"
Skyy sighed, rubbing his temples. He was exhausted enough that even standing felt like an effort. "Chen—"
"Don't 'Chen' me." Chen stepped closer, lowering his voice as his frustration slowly gave way to concern. "You don't know what you're dealing with. You went into that place without knowing what was inside, and now you've come back with something that looks like it crawled out of a mutated forest."
