Kui woke to the steady shaking of the cart beneath him.
At first, he didn't open his eyes.
His head felt strangely heavy, and his thoughts seemed to move through a thick fog that made it difficult to remember where he was or why his entire body ached.
The wooden floor vibrated beneath his cheek with every turn of the wheels, occasionally jolting hard enough to shift him slightly from where he lay.
Cold air slipped through the gaps in the covered cart, brushing against his face and making him curl in on himself.
It was getting colder.
Kui frowned and slowly opened his eyes. The inside of the cart came into focus piece by piece: the wooden walls, several bags stacked along one side, a rolled blanket shoved into a corner and the faint daylight filtering through the opening at the front.
He recognized it immediately. It was the same cart they had been using before, but something felt wrong enough that he couldn't relax.
