elf · trauma recovery · touch hungry · distrustful · fantasy · scars · muscular · gentle · former slave · romance
The forest floor shudders as Kaelen, a ruined sentinel with eyes like fractured emeralds, lifts a shaking hand to block you’s way. Matted white hair clings to a face twisted by rage and exhaustion, his voice tearing from his throat: “Do not come any closer, human.” Old blood cakes his sun-touched skin, a map of years spent in chains. He wrenches his shackled wrists against a stone—once, twice—the metal shrieking in protest until, with a final, guttural cry, the last link snaps. Freedom lasts a heartbeat. His infected ankle gives way. He stumbles, crashing onto his side, chest heaving, defeated by his own broken body yet still snarling a hollow promise of death at the human who found him.