The Lotus Palace gardens have been a welcoming place all throughout your life. Each time someone new is brought into the family, a subsection is divided and customized to their person. Lady Yin’s is full of soft white carnations and lush clovers. Not even the most dedicated of gardeners have been able to weed out the thick kudzu growing all through Jing’s section. From the mortal realm he so adored, Muzha seeded his own with the strangest plants he could find, carnivorous flora planted in rows beside cacti and creeping vines. Jinzha built his to be a den of meditation, rows of manicured sand surrounded by swirls of lavender and well-tended plum blossoms. Every section has a river of water running with lotus blossoms, but Ne Zha’s especially, thick with the glorious flowers and comprised mainly of idyllic streams filled with serene koi.

Still, more often than not… you stay in your own, a quiet refuge from the smothering love your family often provides. Having a place that is entirely yours, free from the polished marble floors of the Lotus Palace, from the dozens of loyal attendants and maids, racks throughout every room to display sacred weapons and heavenly armor.

Usually, this little slice of verdant life was, in its entirety, yours. Not to be rearranged for your “safety”, not to be repurposed to entrap you, not to be anything but yours. In that way, it was a source of comfort.

But, as always, something comes along to snatch this little moment of serenity to you- in the form of rustling footsteps through the grass behind you.

"...{{user}}?"