Here's a couple of things I know are true. One, there's no place Yue needs more right now in all the wide world than a clean and pure river like this one for her to sit by and rest. Except maybe a nice restaurant, y'know? Somewhere with tasty food and the promise that she doesn't have to be the one cooking it. With a little fireplace and a cozy comfy atmosphere that she can snuggle into. But, oh! Not so nice that she's gotta worry about how she's supposed to pay for it! Remember, hardly nobody's taking sunstones as currency these days. But, y'know, absent that, this little river is her slice of heaven. Anybody got hot sake or something? 'Cause she does kinda like to... well, anyway. 

Two, there's not a single chance ya girl is making it that far from what used to be the car without Hyra doing literally all of the work. Not on those scrawny, shaky legs she's not! Not with her hands still clutching at everything she can reach like it's a steering wheel that she'll die if she lets go of. Poor Hyra, by the way. It can't be very fun having your wrist or your butt squeezed like that. Probably? It's uncomfortably near the tail, is all. But she's a trooper, if the look on her face is anything to go by. So focused! So determined! And after a long and wobbly trail down to safety, she's got Yue sitting daintily down by the water's edge. 

From there, it still takes time for Yue to fall back into herself. She sits there watching the water, not... quite looking at it like she's expecting demons, exactly? But eyeballing it like she's expecting [i]something[/i], or maybe just doesn't know what to expect at all. It's a lucky thing that clear, rushing water is so beautiful. It's a magical thing the way it shines in the moonlight and makes all the tiny stones buried in the riverbed look like treasures to be gathered and like old old friends happy to see you at the exact same time. When it carries the leaves out of sight to who knows where, and bubbles its song so sweetly in her ears, with its wet and splashy breath so cool on her legs, it unlocks enough of Yue's brain to let her look around and actually [i]see[/i].

So what's she see? She sees her friends, all together. All in one piece. There's Cyanis patting her tails down, and Hyra (obviously) watching the moon almost as intently as she's watching her, and a little wiggling tuft of fox fur under the flap of her bag that's doing its tiny adorable best to purr away all the bad feelings and stress. There's Rose over to one side standing so incredibly poised and statuesque and trying so very obviously hard to look like nothing was bothering her that it'd be impolite to suggest otherwise. And Chen! Tiny little Double Princess Chen, standing in the river and laughing herself silly. And if all of those things are happening, then what is she so upset about?

Here's a couple of things I know are true. One, Yue's legs are so tense they're cramping from that whole stompy-stomp depress and kill and revive loop she had to put herself through to get on the other side of her encounter with the Evil Princess Qiu (...hm, no that doesn't sound quite right. The Dread Princess Qiu? Work in progress) not even the strongest wings of triumph aren't gonna lift her heart aaaallll the way out of the pit of ickful feelings.

Two, cramps and general exhaustion are a combination of factors that are astoundingly well addressed by a beautiful and above all friendly river. Yue gingerly removes her sandals, though she probably didn't need to, and slips her bare feet into the shallows so the water can splash merrily sillily splishily across them up to her ankles. She coos and sighs at the feeling of the tiny pebbles massaging her soles. And a soothed sole is a soothed soul, am I right? 

She leans back, and there's Hyra. Holding her. Bracing her. Wrapping her arms around her. Those intensely red eyes stare into her soft blue ones, and in the light of the moon they flicker with amusement. Hyra's fingers trace the outline of her jaw, and, gosh. Gosh gosh goshies, were they always this soft? Was she always this gentle? Everything about her and all the wonderful parts of her wonderfully human body feel so [i]soft[/i] and [i]warm[/i] and [inviting[/i] and, a-a-a-and, um, w-wasn't she supposed to be the iron and sinew girl? What's she doing, being so snuggly? So nice? S-so...

"You were impressive." she says, and her voice has all the iron qualities it's supposed and that it needs to to convince Yue that she means it.

"I. Am." Yue sighs and flops dramatically over into Hyra's embrace, "Never driving again!"

Her flipping and her flopping open the flap on her bag, and Kat crawls out because her snuggle radar is going crazy right now and she'll be darned if she's going to miss out on the good stuff, not after putting up with all that adventure silliness! So Yue's dramatic declaration is met on both ends by snuggly triangle girls, and her fingers just can't help themselves but work their magic and give just the best scritchies anywhere this side of the Terraced Lake. 

"I mean it!" she says, and she does, even though she's also struggling not to laugh.

Her face is caught halfway between a smile and a pout. Her hands are occupied with pats, which makes it all a lot more difficult to point and gesture dramatically the way she'd really like to right now. But she doesn't mind so much, because to really do that right, she'd need to stand up. And that's just not happening. She kicks her leg instead, spraying droplets of crystal clear and deliciously cold water all over the place.

"Not only am I never driving again, I'm not setting one foot in a car for as long as I live! Or a truck! And don't even get me [i]started[/i] on motorcycles! No! No, no, no, I'll walk as many extra days as I've gotta, I don't even care! I'm gonna master this silly flight spell just to put this whole thing to bed! See if I don't! You all... just, g-go ahead if you wanna, I'll, y'know, catch up. Eventually. Without cars!"