The Girl By The Bedside

Tugging on Shen's shoulders and staring into his eyes, a tanned blonde girl with outlandish features, such as pointy ears and crescent eyes parted her hair to get a better look at him, of which emphasizing her beauty.

"Uh, sir... Are you awake yet?"

Taking one last tug at his shoulder, the unnamed beauty woke Shen as his eyes fluttered open and he took a deep breath of air. Regardless of being surprised by formalities, Shen decided to swiftly ask where he is, aware of the fact his safety was more important, even though the lady in front of him seemed to pose no threat.

"Who are you and where am I?"

Forcing the sentence out of his mouth and rushing his answer took aback the lady sitting by his bedside as she rushed out of the hut while saying that she didn't know how much she could tell him.

Now alone, Shen decided to quickly check on his surroundings - the small hut he was laid down in seemed to be not that advanced, housing simply a straw ceiling, undeveloped wooden walls and a poorly built table. Upon taking a look at the table, Shen noticed a sweet-smelling ointment that must've been applied to his forehead, due to a hanging bandage he could see, of which was also damp and had a similar fragrance to the ointment.

As he was reaching over to take a closer look at the ointment, the girl from earlier stepped back into the hut, accompanied by 2 other people, both sharing her outlandish features - one was a middle aged lady, dressed in a nursing gown and the other an old man, with a dangling snow white beard and twisted walking stick. The old man fumbled to sit down as the nurse started talking,

"We found you in a bush with a puncture wound to the forehead, so we took you in."

Interrupting, the old man patted Shen on the shoulder and started to describe the wound.

"It was honestly quite superficial, but we didn't want to take any chances with your life, so I harvested some antivenom from a Byanbug and now we've started treating you with it."

Suddenly the levitating panel from earlier faded into view and Shen started to remember what had just happened prior to waking up, but he was too distracted by an infographic section on the panel to be surprised.

*Byanbug*

*The Byanbug is a poisonous airborne insect that attacks opponents via its needle like mouth and venom that can be injected from said mouth.*

About to tap a small "More Info" button on the panel, Shen's gaze was redirected to the old man,

"Are you okay, boy?" - he took a breather, "You do look a bit dazed."

"No, no I was just admiring the scenery, don't mind me, ha-ha."

After alleviating the old man's worries, of whom left with the nurse, it was just the girl and Shen left in the small hut.

"So, what's your name?", Shen chimed in.

In a shy manner, the lady answered - "M-my name is Lyona. What about you?"

"Shen. It's a pleasure to meet you!"

Holding out his hand for a handshake, he was surprised when Lyona seemingly didn't know what to do, as she simply sat there with a confused expression on her face.

Putting out his other hand, Shen started guiding Lyona's hand towards his, and they managed to do some kind of gesture, that, although far from a handshake was still partially organised.

Letting out a small giggle, Lyona started talking, "I noticed earlier that you don't look like any of my tribe members, so you must be from quite far away. Is this what you do as a greeting where you're from, Shen?"

Nodding as he slowly looked away, Shen found it hard to not laugh, but he composed himself and decided to ask if he could look around. After agreeing and helping him up, Lyona fortunately supported him just as he nearly fell over - he was way lighter than normal and used too much force to get up!