Alright, alright, no it wasn't. It was a fairly average December evening, with some light snows drifting down, but Lianhua wanted more drama in her life than that. Even if the drama was a little cliche and a little silly. Just Some Random December Night was totally boring, and Lianhua simply would not have it.
Besides, it had been totally exciting! Her last class had run late, but the cute boy she was meeting after had still been waiting for her, and a little dinner and a movie later, she'd had a very, very nice night. And sure, it was late for her to be walking home, but she wasn't even really walking home. Shuangxu's place wasn't far, and whatever ridiculous s**t he was up to with his boyfriend, he would definitely be awake and she could crash on his stupid, ridiculously comfy couch. She had it all planned out, it all made sense, she'd have a great time and everything would be fine.
The problem, of course, was in the arrogance to have a plan.
Silly of her to think things could go right in Destiny City.
She'd taken a selfie--smudged lipstick, slightly mussed hair, artfully disarrayed outfit, winking at the camera--and posted it to Instagram with a kissing-face emoji and a little "Saw Wicked tonight!" caption, no further elaboration (let her followers have fun speculating what she'd gotten up to, leave the nice boy's name and face out of it because he was hookup material but NOT boyfriend material) when she heard something moving behind her.
She frowned and tucked her phone away, turning--she was on a well-lit section of road, which should mean that she was totally safe, and there was definitely nothing to worry about. But there was definitely movement in the darkness between the streetlights on the other side of the road.
Slithering, serpentine movement.
"What the hell," Lianhua said, softly, and she considered pulling out her phone to start recording--
But very suddenly, there wasn't any time.
The creature that lunged out of the darkness was like a snake, but not. The same long body, no legs, so in, but the head was much more in the vein of Western dragons, and it had little feathery wings on its back that definitely didn't look like they could lift it very far.
Also, at the end of its body was a "tail" that looked way more like a scorpion stinger than a snake's tail, which was great.
She threw herself out of the way with a yelp, and it thwapped into the ground right where she'd been, sending up a puff of snow all around it--and she was one hundred percent sure that if she hadn't moved she absolutely would have been crushed under its surprisingly heavy-looking bulk.
"No no no," she scrambled backwards, and it swung towards her, upper body lifting up and little wings flapping as fast and hard as they could.
It would have been funny, if it wasn't so.....well, very incredibly not funny.
It felt like everything froze around her. Like time slowed down, as it lurched towards her and she realized that it was too close for her to dodge.
Was she going to die here? That seemed so ridiculous. She couldn't just die like this. She had her whole life ahead of her. She was only twenty! She couldn't even legally drink yet, not for another month and change! And she had reservations for a massive birthday bash and if she died before she got to have that she was going to be so, so, so mad--
(Most people would probably think it was absurd to worry about things like that, in the instants before a snake monster killed them. Lianhua Feng was not "most people" and refused to be categorized as such. Her pre-death fears would be whatever the hell she wanted them to be, thanks.)
Somewhere in that frozen moment, her eyes flickered to the side, and there was something there. Hovering. Shining. A strand of ivy, all silvery aglow, a light in the darkness.
Lianhua lurched towards it, fingers curling around it right as the snake monster's head whizzed past her.
When she whirled to face the creature, she knew, in her bones, that she was not just Lianhua Feng anymore.
Karakorum. Karakorum of Cybele. Karakorum.
Her heart raced. Suddenly, she felt...stronger. Like whatever she'd become was so much more than what she'd been. And that....that was exactly what she needed to be.
She whirled, faster than she should have, and swung the hand still curled around the ivy at the monster's nose, slamming into it with far more force than she had ever expected to be able to muster.
The creature made a horrifying shrieking noise, and its whole body writhed, and it snapped at her, but--she was quicker now, and she moved, dodging and throwing another punch.
And this time, the thing whole-body shuddered, once.
And collapsed into a pile of dust, suddenly and all at once.
Lianhua--Karakorum, Karakorum, Page of Cybele, whatever that meant and holy s**t did she not really understand what that meant--stood there, panting from the exertion and the stress all at once, and stared at where the monster had been. She knew she wasn't wearing whatever she'd been in before, and a quick glance down confirmed it--this floaty little dress was not the look she had been rocking before. This was....well, it was definitely cute, sort of elf chic, and the colors--couldn't fault the colors, they looked great on her, or at least she thought so based on the glance she was taking, maybe she'd have to evaluate later, whatever the point was--
Something had changed. And the more Karakorum sat with it, the more she felt...tense. Perhaps a little nervous. Certainly not anything like panicky. Even if her breath was starting to come short and her chest was tightening up and--
And maybe "panicky" was closer to the right word than she wanted to admit, but--
Without thinking, she took off down the street. Shuangxu wasn't far. Surely he'd know how to help her, or how to figure this out, or...something. He was her big brother, he had to help.
[wc: 1,039 words]
