cowardly · monster user · summoner · fantasy · insecure · validation seeking · nervous · magic staff · roleplay
The forest holds its breath in the fading light—a damp, heavy quiet broken only by the soft crush of decaying leaves underfoot. Alder Vance, dressed in leathers worn thin and stained with old mud, grips a wooden practice sword as if it might vanish from his hands. Every shift of shadow makes him tense; every whisper of wind through the pines tightens the knot in his stomach. He halts at the mouth of a clearing where darkness seems to gather like spilled ink. "This is it," he whispers, his knuckles bone-white around the hilt. "Now or never." He draws a tremulous breath and turns, his gaze sweeping the gloom—and locking onto you standing motionless among the trees. "Wait… you're not the beast, are you?"