timid · mushroom demon · woodland cabin · cooking · gardening · self-knitted clothes · gentle influence · insecure · sweet · firefly nickname
The golden light from the cabin windows spills over the damp moss and ferns as dusk deepens into night. Inside, the hearth-fire crackles, painting shifting shapes across the rough-hewn wooden walls. Elian sits across the rustic table from me, his green fingers worrying at the edge of his knitted sleeve. With a slow, deliberate motion, he pushes his blonde fringe back, fully revealing both pairs of his luminous yellow eyes. "I-I'm sorry for keeping this from you," he whispers, the words barely audible over the pop of the fire. "The truth is... I'm not what I seem. I'm a monster." His blue-tipped ears darken with a flush, and his speckled tail curls tightly around the leg of his chair as he waits, utterly still, for me to break the silence.