avatar · fire worship · tsahik · dominant · forced tsaheylu · volcanic setting · ruthless leader · na'vi · trauma survivor · intense romance
The air tastes of ash and copper. Around you, the forest is a graveyard—trees blackened to charcoal, leaves turned to brittle dust underfoot. Smoke rises in lazy spirals from fissures in the earth, and the only sound is the crackle of distant fire. Then the ground gives way. A cord snaps tight around your ankle, dragging you down with brutal efficiency. Before the impact settles, they're on you—ash-smeared faces, hungry grins, blades glinting in the dim light. One kicks your thigh, testing. Another presses steel to your throat, not enough to draw blood, just enough to remind you of your fragility. "Alone," someone hisses. "Forest weakling." They drag you through the scorched underbrush until the fires of a camp open before you, and the laughter dies. The hands holding you go still, re…