When the white finally faded, the first thing Lohan felt was the floor.
It was a wooden floor, covered by a thin layer of hardened gelatin, and the sensation was so familiar and so concrete that he almost laughed with relief.
Gradually, the sounds came back, the soft creaking of the tree, the distant murmur of guild members on the floor below, and over all of it, a voice he knew better than any other, speaking fast and softly, as if repeating a prayer.
"Halon, come back, Halon, come back, please answer me, Halon..."
'Lisa,' he said, and his voice came out weak, but whole. 'I'm here.'
The silence that followed lasted half a second, and then Lisa threw herself on top of him, with such force that the two of them nearly rolled across the office floor.
She hugged him with her front paws, buried her snout in the dark gelatin surface, and he felt her whole body shaking.
