The first thing Primrose felt was weight.
It wasn't the crushing gravity of the Void Sovereign, nor the spiritual pressure of the Lion Ancestor. It was a warm, soft, breathing weight.
She opened her eyes.
She wasn't in the desert anymore. She was lying in a massive four-poster bed with velvet curtains, bathed in the soft morning light of the Palace. The air smelled of healing herbs, sun-warmed linen, and... milk.
She tried to sit up, but she was effectively pinned.
Vali was asleep across her shins, snoring softly with his mouth open, looking very much like a human boy who dreamed of chasing rabbits.
Clover was curled up in the crook of her right arm, clutching her stuffed carrot doll.
Orion—in his human form, having lost his fins the moment he left the water—was sprawled out on the pillow next to her. His arm was thrown dramatically over Primrose's forehead, and he was drooling slightly on her cheek.
