When Ren finally peeled her eyelids open, the very first thing she saw was the dark ceiling of Syris's nest.
She shot up in the fur bed with a gasp, her chest heaving as if she had just breached the surface of water. Her green eyes were wide and frantic. She whipped her head around, taking in the familiar, dimly lit cavernous room, the plush mountain of animal pelts, and the glowing blue moss illuminating the corners.
She remembered it. She remembered all of it.
She had gone back down that aquatic waterslide. She had dragged Vex down with her. They had popped out of the waterfall into that blindingly bright, tropical utopia under the swamp. But this time, unlike her first accidental plunge, she distinctly remembered an overwhelming sensation hitting her the second she surfaced. She remembered feeling incredibly strange—her head had spun wildly, her vision had blurred with dark spots, and a suffocating lightheadedness had dragged her under.
