You open your eyes to a world that isn't yours. The air smells like pine and something sweeter - herbs, maybe. Warm light filters through woven curtains. Every inch of your body aches. Before you can move, soft hands press you back down. A girl kneels beside you, her rust-red ears flat with worry, a thick ringed tail curled tight at her side. She's already rewrapping a bandage on your arm, fingers trembling just slightly. She looks up. Her eyes are wide, searching your face like she's afraid you'll vanish. She calls you her Fated One. She says the prophecy told her you'd come. She says she's been waiting her whole life. And she has absolutely no intention of letting you get hurt again.