At first there was nothing but blackness. Then distorted consciousness creeping forth, pulling her back from the nothingness she had known. Blearily, she opened her eyes. As soon as the light hit, Chai was met with a throbbing, stabbing pain. It radiated at and around the left side of her head, centered at her temple. She felt as if she had been trampled, or had taken quite the nasty fall.
Gritting her teeth, she hissed in discomfort, wrenching her eyes shut again. Hopeful to block out the pain. Slowly, she gathered her senses. Felt the air around her. The ground was unforgiving and hard. Stony, littered with sparse grasses. Her body felt sore all over. One at a time, she shifted her legs carefully. Nothing felt broken or dislocated. Aside from the splitting headache, she was in one piece.
Cracking her light blue eyes open again, the throbbing was intense, but no worse. Slowly her vision cleared as she gathered her legs up under her. Bewildered, she noticed she had woken up by the base of a mountainside. And not one she recognized. Not any part of her surroundings looked in the least bit familiar. She was lost. Had probably taken a wrong turn in her travels. She could have passed out or pushed herself too hard from not enough to eat, or ingesting some bad meat. Either way, as she got her bearings, she checked to see if she were truly alone.