♧ White Lily ♧

37

MK and Mei look around in the new place they're in. Mei decides to take pictures. Zhong stays on Mei's shoulder.

"Dumplings, get your dumplings here! Very nice today. Hey, I got dumplings for sale, ya! Over here!"

MK looks around in awe, "Whoa, I'm in the past! Which means..." He grins and slaps his pile of junk on the counter before the store owner. MK asked, "One ancient souvenir, please." The store owner looks at the pile of junk on the counter with a frown, "These aren't chickens. And what are these?" He gasped and points at MK, "Demonic accessories!" Then Guards approach, Mei quickly grabs MK and they escape into an alleyway. Zhong could only deadpan and stay on Mei's shoulder.

Then an astral projection of Azure Lion appeared, "You made it in safely! Great!" He grins, "Mei, MK, welcome to 7th Century Chang'an. I trust you've experienced Astral projection before?" MK smiled, "Yep." Mei panics, "No! Is this what dying is like?!" Azure Lion deadpans but chuckles, "A little Astral projection never hurt anyone." He then became serious, "Listen, I don't have much time. Remember how I told you the scroll has a protective curse?" MK nods, "And that it'll try to find and destroy us. Uh-huh, yeah. Wasn't really gonna forget that part."

Azure Lion nods, "Good. Try not to draw too much attention to yourself. The curse will be drawn to any imperfections it detects within its stories. So, for starters, we need to do something about these." He indicates to their clothes which Mei starts to squeal at, "New outfits?!" Azure Lion grins, "You betcha." He then gestures to a section in the alley, "I found some duds your size over in that trash pile." He then continued, "Finding your friends won't be easy, but-" He widened his eyes when he sees MK start to change. "Oh, come on!" He quickly blocked his view from him, "At least let me turn around first!"

Mei cannonballs into the trash pile and MK went to go change behind some other part of the trash pile. Azure Lion cleared his throat, "If your bonds of friendship are as strong as you say, you will always find your way back to one another."

---

Y/n groans as she slightly opened her eyes. She sits up and opened her eyes to see a woman who gently smiles to her, "Ah, you're awake. Tell me how are you feeling?" Y/n rubs her forehead, "Um... I feel okay. Um, do you know how I got here?" The woman chuckles, "Oh, the others actually found you passed out in the forest and brought you back here." Y/n smiled, "That was kind of them." That's when Y/n turns surprised by the new outfit change on her which kinda resembles the woman who was also wearing the same outfit.

Y/n decides to not question it as she asked, "Um, can I maybe explore a bit? Just so I can um... learn where I am?" The woman gives a slight nod. Y/n silently sighs in relief, "T-thank you." Then Y/n gets off the bed and leaves the room. Once she left the building, she looks around to see a river and some small waterfalls. She also sees babies, little girls, and women. She felt confused, 'Where are all the men? I only see women here...' Then she suddenly was approached by a woman who was carrying a baby on her back. The woman gently smiles and hands her a bowl of water.