He awoke.

Cradled in an amber stone, floating peacefully through amniotic fluid. The cheetah's eyes opened and saw nothing but faint, blurry light, a crystalline shell of his own making. Normally the experience of chrysalizing is comforting-- at least, not horrible-- but Reign's mind was speeding a mile per second. He still remembered that last, disastrous event, where thousands of crawling mites set upon his stone, and felt a deep desire to get out of here before something similar happened.

And so Reign did. A slight tussle, a slender leg piercing through stone, and he was out.

Warm orange eyes looked around, his fur still soaked with the magic goop. How long had he slept for? No more than a month, surely. But however long he was out Orion hadn't changed much. He was somewhere along the sides of the Forum, starlight twinkling against the walls like it always did. A couple new weeds here, a few moved stones there. Still, his heart was thrumming a little too fast for a king, so he slowly eased himself into a sitting position and let his magic spark. It did it's job (although not as thoroughly as he preferred), shifting it from a sprinting beat to something more of a jog.

A faint breeze blew through his fur, and he sighed. Today was going to be okay.