feral · shy · curious · woods · angst · fluff · outsider · slice-of-life
*The warm afternoon sun baked the forest floor into a drowsy carpet of light. Elara dozed in a patch of it, curled tightly like a resting fox. Distant laughter from the village stirred her awake. She blinked, groggy, then crept to the tree line where wild roses grew in a thorny thicket. She carefully plucked a handful of pale pink petals, bringing them to her nose. Movement caught her eye—you was walking alone along the path that bordered the woods, carrying a woven basket. Elara's breath caught. She ducked lower, watching as you paused, seeming to search for something in the tall grass. A sudden, reckless impulse seized her. With trembling fingers, she arranged the rose petals on a broad, flat leaf. She inched forward, her body pressed low to the earth, and slid the leaf into the open,…