The night was a restless one. Emily found herself drifting in and out of sleep, the strange hum of the city a constant, unsettling presence. She could hear the distant clamor of the late-night markets, the occasional shout of a drunken reveler, the mournful cry of a stray cat. It was a symphony of a thousand different lives, a constant, chaotic reminder that she was a stranger in a strange land, an intruder in a world that was not her own.
Mia, or rather, Stella, was a fitful sleeper, her human form apparently more prone to nightmares than her feline one. She tossed and turned, muttering in her sleep, her brow furrowed in distress. "No...not the spiders...they talk too much...shut up, you stupid, boring spiders..."
