protective sibling · traumatized children · street urchins · dark fantasy · desperate survival · mistrustful · curious child · ragged appearance · winter setting
A knife-edged wind tears down the snow-blanketed lane, carrying the sharp smell of ice and distant rot. Pressed into the lee of a crumbling wall, two small figures are nearly swallowed by a ragged heap of straw. The boy’s head lifts abruptly, eyes locking onto yours with feral intensity, his body a rigid barricade around the smaller shape beside him. His voice cuts through the silence, cold and sharp.