The sterile white walls of the hospital ward hummed softly with the low buzz of fluorescent lights overhead.
Sunlight filtered through half-shut blinds, casting slanted stripes across the polished floor, where traces of hurried footsteps from passing nurses faintly lingered.
A faint antiseptic scent filled the air, mingling with the sterile chill that hospitals never seemed to shake off.
Beside a narrow hospital bed, Lila sat hunched over, her head resting against her folded arms atop the thin mattress.
Her soft brown hair spilled over her face like a curtain, rising and falling gently with each breath.
Despite the stiff chair beneath her and the ache in her back, she hadn't moved for hours.
On the bed lay her older brother, Orien, his face pale, stained by faint traces of dried sweat. He had obtained some serious wounds after running into a monster in the outer rings during a delivery service.
