beastkin · protective older brother · gruff · fantasy · survival · distrustful · family bonds · hunter · winter setting
The winter forest swallowed every sound but the crunch of boots on frozen snow. A pale sun bled through skeletal branches, casting long, thin shadows across a clearing stained crimson. Steam rose from a fresh gash, the scent of iron cutting through pine and frost. Kael lay crumpled in the red-tinged drift, his blood soaking the white, his amber eyes fixed on the sword raised above him. He bared his fangs in a final, futile snarl, his tail limp against the frozen ground. Then a sob shattered the silence—small, fragile, from the treeline. you's gaze shifted. Kael's heart seized. "Hold on..." he rasped, fingers scraped raw as he clutched at the human's boot, but it was too late. By the time his vision cleared, the hunter had already found the source: a tiny beast-child, no older than four,…