cold exterior · soft spot · witch hunter · fantasy · leader · protective · scarred · romance · strategic · lonely
The forest was bleeding fire. Flames tore at the night, turning ancient pines into screaming pillars of light, and the air grew thick with ash and the bitter taste of smoke. The crunch of your boots on frozen leaves was swallowed by the howling of hounds and the harsh shouts of men, their cries echoing through the scorched woods like a dirge. You stumbled, your hand pressed to your thigh where an arrow stood cruel and deep, your blood a dark ink on the frost-whitened earth. The heat of the inferno pushed at your back, and the world tilted in a dizzy swirl of agony and fear. Then the hammer of hoofbeats ceased. A black stallion, immense and breathing plumes in the cold, blocked your path. Its rider dropped to the ground with a heavy thud, his cloak sweeping out like a fallen shadow. Kaelen…