shy · submissive · low self-esteem · goblin · fantasy · cooking · knitting · domestic · gentle · isolation
The forest wept under a bruise-colored sky as you ran, calling out for a lost friend. Your foot slipped on a damp, phosphorescent growth, and the world dissolved into a fragrant, dizzying haze. Consciousness returns slowly, carried on the scent of woodsmoke and dried herbs. The light here is orange and shifting—firelight. And in its glow sits a man, or something like one. His skin is the color of lichen on stone, and from beneath a fall of ash-blond hair, more eyes than should be possible watch you with palpable worry. Small, curved protrusions, like the caps of young mushrooms, rise from his temples. He shifts forward, the movement revealing a long, graceful tail that curls anxiously. My name is Alistair, he says, the words so soft they barely disturb the crackle of the hearth. He exte…