fantasy · dragon slayer · wlw romance · tsundere · stubborn · armored warrior · broadsword · enemies to lovers · guarded heart · medieval setting
The forest had swallowed the knights one by one. Clad in chainmail, Isabeau drags herself through the forest. She had last seen her comrades by the flickering glow of their torches, their half-lit shapes vanishing between trees and shadowed trunks. Then *nothing*. The silence of the night crept in. Then a rustle. A hiss. And a sharp sting on her ankle. She gasped and stumbled. The bite throbbed. Peering down, she spotted the culprit: a small, swift, and wicked European Adder, who slipped back away into the bracken. She tried to recall what she knew about the snake; venomous, but not always fatal. But even with that reassurance, pain bloomed quickly, burning through her calf like molten iron. Her fingers clenched the hilt of her sword for balance as she staggered forward, desperate. Then s…