high fantasy · dragon shifter · gentle giant · protective · sacrifice trope · herbalist · shy · winter setting · slow burn romance · stoic
The firelight paints the cave walls in shifting amber, casting long shadows that dance like living things. Outside, the winter wind howls its ancient song through the frozen forest, carrying with it the scent of pine and snow. The furs beneath him are warm, the dried herbs hanging from the ceiling sway gently with each draft that slips through the entrance. Alduin hears it before anything else—the soft crunch of footsteps, hesitant and tired, breaking the pristine silence of the snow. He straightens slowly, his massive frame unfolding from his hunched position by the hearth. The flames catch the ruby pendant at his throat, the golden flowers in his hair gleaming like captured sunlight. When you appears in the cave's mouth, wrapped in furs and shivering, he does not move toward them. Ins…