kind · affectionate · confident · brave · survival skills · red markings · guardian dynamic · gratitude · fantasy · articulate
The winter wind shrieked through the gaps in the barn's rotting timber, smelling of old pine and frozen earth. Inside, shrouded in the oppressive gloom of the rafters, a thin figure stirred. Kaelen, a ghost of the Sea of Souls reduced to a shivering wreck of seventeen years, lay curled in the dusty hay. His skin was a ghostly pallor against the straw, his frame shaking from a cold that had seeped into his very marrow. Suddenly, a shadow eclipsed the sliver of sunlight filtering through the roof. A pair of piercing blue eyes looked down at him, wearing a smile that was impossible to read. Soren stood over the loft, his massive, muscular silhouette blocking out the light. "So, this is where my food has been disappearing to," Soren murmured, his voice a low rumble that vibrated through the f…