The walk back to the vilge was quiet, too quiet, honestly. The forest, once alive with the eerie hum of insects and the rustle of unseen creatures, now felt like a graveyard. Every scorched branch, every fallen tree, whispered of the battle we barely survived.

  I didn’t say much. Neither did Yuzu or Shirakawa. The only sounds were the distant creaks of wood under pressure and the soft crunch of our boots pressing into the ash-ced soil.

  By the time the inn’s crooked wooden sign creaked into view, swaying in the breeze like it might fall off entirely, my limbs were jelly. I didn’t realize how cold I was until the warmth of the firelight spilling from the inn’s windows brushed across my face like a soft bnket.

  Inside, the inn was mercifully quiet. A few patrons nursed mugs in the corner, speaking in hushed tones. The scent of cooked meat and stale mead lingered in the air, blessedly normal, earthy things.

  The innkeeper raised an eyebrow at the three of us as we stepped in, soot-streaked and very clearly Not Fine.

  Yuzu gave her a sheepish little wave, brushing flecks of ash from her cheeks. “Big walk. Bery tiring,” she offered, as if that expined everything.

  She didn't question it.

  We climbed the stairs to the room we’d rented earlier, thankfully untouched and once the door clicked shut behind us, a deep breath fell out of my lungs like I’d been holding it for hours.

  I colpsed face-first onto the cot. It wasn’t soft. It was lumpy, and the bnket smelled faintly of cabbage. But it was warm. And safe.

  Shirakawa leaned her greatsword against the wall with a quiet thud, then sat near the window, her white cloak pooling around her like a snowdrift. The orange firelight flickered against her silver hair, making her look almost ethereal.

  Yuzu immediately flopped onto the floor beside the cot, legs stretched out, arms wide like a starfish. “Mission... bery survive,” she mumbled, staring up at the wooden ceiling beams.

  A warm silence settled between us. The kind that wasn’t awkward, it just... existed. Like we were all quietly agreeing not to talk about dragons or death or doom for just a little while.

  Then Shirakawa broke it, her voice soft.

  “We’ll watch over you,” she said. “That thing inside you... it’s not your fault. But if it ever gets close to taking over—” she gnced sideways, smirking slightly “—well. Yuzu has a bonking stick ready.”

  Yuzu immediately held up the crumpled doodle again. “Is official pn!”

  I ughed, tired but real. And for the first time since this cursed dragon core awoke inside me, I didn’t feel completely doomed. Just... mostly doomed. But I could live with that.

  I jumped on top of the bed, the old frame creaking beneath me like it had just given up on life. The mattress wasn’t much more than a fttened sack of hay, but after the chaos we’d lived through, it felt like a luxury.

  Yuzu snuggled up beside me immediately, her dark cloak rustling like paper against the bnket. Her soft bck hair was still messy from the fight, streaked with faint soot and tangled in uneven tufts. But her round cheeks glowed faintly in the firelight, and her little fox ears twitched as she let out a pleased sigh, tail curling instinctively around her like a ring of fluff.

  Then came Shirakawa.

  The white-haired fox girl climbed onto the other side of the bed with a kind of slow, deliberate elegance, like she was ciming a throne rather than squeezing into a lumpy mattress. Her silver hair shimmered slightly even in the dim, flickering glow of the oil mp on the nightstand. She moved with the self-assured grace of someone who had slept in worse pces and knew exactly how to make any corner hers.

  "Wait a minute... are you also going to sleep here...?" I asked, giving her a suspicious squint.

  Shirakawa arched one of her elegant eyebrows, already curling beside Yuzu with a faint smirk pying at the corners of her lips. Her white cloak, still faintly dusted with ash and stray feathers, billowed slightly before she tucked it tightly around herself like some kind of regal snow fox.

  “Well, the floor’s cold,” she said matter-of-factly, resting one arm under her head like a pillow. “And you’re warm.”

  “I’m not a heating pad,” I muttered, gring at the ceiling. My ears flicked in irritation, twitching every time Yuzu’s breath tickled my side.

  “But you are fluffy,” Shirakawa added with a mock-thoughtful tone, reaching out to brush her finger pyfully beneath one of my ears. The touch was so light, but the reaction was immediate, I yelped and spped her hand away like she’d pressed a panic button. My face burned.

  “Boundaries!”

  “Oh, sorry,” she replied, absolutely not sounding sorry.

  The bed groaned under the weight of all three of us, springs creaking like distant thunder as we struggled to find any position that wasn’t total chaos. I ended up somewhere in the middle, caught between Yuzu’s soft snoozing and Shirakawa’s smug proximity. It wasn’t a particurly big bed, it barely qualified as a "bed" but somehow we all managed to wedge in. Yuzu was curled up like a kitten, nose nestled in her cloak, little sighs escaping her every few moments. Her tail flicked zily, brushing against my leg.

  Shirakawa, meanwhile, had arranged herself like a fox queen in exile, on her side, one leg propped up, greatsword set neatly beside the nightstand. Her white cloak glowed faintly, shadows dancing across her sharp features and pale shes.

  “Fine,” I grumbled, rolling onto my side and yanking the scratchy bnket up to my chin. It smelled faintly of pine and old cabbage. “But no funny business.”

  “Define funny,” Shirakawa murmured, her voice a quiet hum ced with mischief.

  I groaned into the pillow, too tired to scold her properly. Yet somehow... my heart felt a little lighter.

  Outside, the wind pressed against the wooden walls like a whisper, and the inn creaked gently in the night. The room was dim and quiet now, painted gold by the st flickers of mp light.

  Despite the ache in my muscles, the weight in my chest, and the terrible, ancient thing sleeping inside me... I felt strangely okay. Warm. Safe. Just a little squished.

  “…Goodnight,” I mumbled, eyes slipping shut.

  “Goodnight, fluffy Mashiro,” Shirakawa teased, her breath brushing my neck.

  “Bery sleep now…” Yuzu mumbled in her tiny voice, already drifting into dreamnd.

  The shadows outside deepened, but in that cramped little bed, with two strange, wonderful girls on either side of me, the world felt distant. Soft.

  Sleep came.

  And it came gently.