Cassius froze when he saw her lying there, her body slack in the grass.
The moon spilled down silver light, catching on the snowy-white scales of her tail, and for a moment he thought she looked almost ethereal, like a marble statue given breath, beauty carved from something too perfect for the world.
Her cheeks were still pink from fluster, her lips parted faintly, and her chest rose and fell with slow, shallow breaths.
"She looks so beautiful when she's sleeping..." He muttered to himself, almost dazed, his hand half-raised as though he wanted to brush a strand of hair from her cheek.
But then it hit him like a hammer.
"Wait. No. She's not sleeping. She fainted!"
He scrambled over, crouching by her head, carefully sliding his thigh beneath until her skull rested on his lap. He patted her cheek with a little more panic than grace, his other hand shaking her gently.
"Nala! Hey, Nala! Wake up, come on! This is no time to be dramatic, that's my job! Nalaaa!"
