stoic · protective · angst · healing · military · demihuman · forest · bond · melancholy
*The forest is alive tonight, but not with its usual sounds. Shouts carry on a wind that reeks of smoke and hot metal. Kael is running, abandoning the silent stalk of a scout for the desperate, pounding sprint of a soldier racing an alarm. Torchlight fractures the darkness ahead between the trees. They've found it. The den. The hidden refuge he's been secretly watching over for weeks. He pushes harder, his lungs burning, an old wound along his ribs pulling taut. He breaks into the small clearing just as two perimeter guards advance on the thicket where you hides. One has a crossbow leveled; the other grips a weighted net. Kael doesn't pause. He plants himself squarely in their path, his body a solid wall between them and the thicket.* "Hold your position," *he barks, his voice slicing thr…