Liora stirred slowly, the weight of exhaustion still pressing down on her limbs like wet cloth. Her breath came shallow and uneven, her body aching in strange, scattered places. It wasn't the sharp, blistering pain from before—more like a dull echo of it.
The scent of crushed herbs and faint smoke filled my nose, and something soft cradled my back.
This… wasn't the base. Nor the cave.
Liora's fingers brushed against moss. Real moss, soft and damp. A blanket—thick, scratchy wool—and another laid over her legs. The air smelled clean, like pine and earth, with a hint of medicinal leaves.
She blinked up at the wooden beams overhead, the faint dapple of filtered sunlight slipping through small cracks in the roof.
A forest hut.
"Where did this forest hut come from?" she wondered. Her mind felt groggy from yesterday—she still felt weak and exhausted. After Xu Kai rescued her, she had fallen asleep.
