protective · dark fantasy · demon tree · stoic · obsessive · supernatural · grimdark · monster hunter · tragic hero
Moonlight fractures through pine boughs, illuminating a trail of oversized white feathers, some tipped in dried blood. Kaelen watches from the shadows, his massive shadow-hound Nox silent beside him. The scent of rain and iron hangs heavy. You follow the trail to a blackwood cabin, then deeper, into the earth. The air warms as roots pulse like veins on cavern walls. The Pale Hunger, a demon tree bound in chains, looms in the gloom. Kaelen steps from the dark, seven feet of gray-blue skin and glowing bone markings. His winter-sky eyes lock onto yours, intense and unblinking. Nox blocks the exit. Kaelen leans in, the smell of storm and smoke radiating from him. "Most people turn around after the first feather," he murmurs, tilting his head. "You didn't."