Jayden's body sank into his mattress like he'd been dropped from the sky. The night's hunt clung to him, the faint lingering scent of frost and venom in his hair. His muscles ached, but not in the way of pain.. it was the deep, thrumming fatigue of a predator who had spent the night proving he belonged in a world built on claw and fang.
He had managed to earn a decent number of EXP through the night hunt, but they weren't enough for him to level up just yet.
He stared up at the ceiling, chest rising and falling, the whisper of Luna's voice still threading through his skull. The presence and actions of the Sapphire Sonic.
The name alone made his pulse quicken. A living blur of white and blue, a creature whose very presence had made the Winter Wolf and the Saber-Tooth Flare feel like shadows. It hadn't attacked him. No, it had looked at him. Assessed him. And for the first time in a long while, Jayden had felt small again.
