TW: Emotional burntout
Fenghuang's mind went blank.
It was hard to breathe when his whole body felt the prickling of needles born out of dread all over him. Fragments of memories played through his mind as a continuous, uncontrollable flow. Replaying the sensations of moments when he felt alive again, thanks to her.
He moved mechanically, feeling a sudden weight on his limbs. Yanking the sleeves of his hanfu off and spreading his wings, the immortal moved hypnotized, his focused eyes altered from the shiniest emerald green to a dull moss as he propelled forward, crossing the hall in an instant, reaching the entrance in seconds. Feng Huang stabilized himself mid-air, scanning the surroundings, looking for the familiar white dot. Liss was just a female, even with bad reasoning in the midst of his foggy thoughts, Fenghuang firmly believed that she couldn't have gone far.
Unless she was abducted in that short period.
'So where is she?'
One sensation, a long-forgotten feeling, pushed his body forward after it had emptied his mind of all distracting thoughts, steeled focus just to find a trace of her. He soared higher and higher, darting from one extreme to the other, feeling his blood run cold at each female he spotted that wasn't his.
Under the same sky, Liss's eyes couldn't even focus, using her hands to thread around the massive trees and over their overgrown roots. Her eyes were blinded by unshed tears. There was no goal, reason, or destination.
Blood pumping fast and disoriented by the chemicals injected by her own brain, her only thought was to get as far away from them as physically possible, and she did, soon getting out of the palace and out of sight.
When the adrenaline subsided, and her surroundings were painted only with earthy shades, the idea of going back to the hut, back to her friends, crossed her mind.
'It should be a straight line, even if it isn't..."
The world around continued to move on, never making exceptions, but the Alien was stuck under a spell, in a catatonic state; her legs moved as if by order, with eyes unable to focus, relying on the blurred image, ignoring all thoughts of danger.
Reason only returned the moment her legs faltered, and her lungs burned too much to keep running. The louder her body screamed, the more her pace slowed, accompanied by clarity.
At each step, the previous events were stacked in her mind, painting a depressing picture. Overwhelmed by intense emotions, Liss impulsively ran away after allowing her childish pride to consume her.
Tired, she sat under a tree on top of large overgrown roots, trying to catch her breath.
As Liss slowly calmed down, she looked around to assess where she ended up.
No matter where she looked, everything looked the same. With a soft groan leaving her half-open lips, her shoulder slumped against the tree trunk, and slowly, her tired eyes closed.
The moment Liss started to watch her thoughts, annoyance was the first thing she acknowledged. Without any judgment towards the thoughts passing through her head, Liss understood that part of the reason why she had such a strong reaction back there was:
It was unfair.
Unfair that, without warning, she had to talk with the Lion King. That FengHuang never listened, that he left her alone... It was unfair that he had taken her away from where she wanted to be.
Liss reached the conclusion that going forward and searching for the hut would depend on luck. Hypothetically, if she were in the right direction, she had no way of knowing how long it would take or if she would even reach the place safely.