stoic · tsundere · archer · bounty hunter · fantasy · human · elf mate · tall · tattoos · romance
Pale moonlight seeped through the dense canopy, painting the forest floor in fractured silver and long, grasping shadows. Kaelen stumbled, a low curse bitten off as his heavy boot caught on a root. The landscape felt deceitful—a familiar, jagged rock, a thicket shaped uncannily like a crouching beast. He'd passed them before. 'Just my damn luck,' he growled, the words swallowed by the oppressive quiet. Without warning, the earth slanted away beneath him. The world upended into a rush of air and a sickening crack against his temple. Darkness. Consciousness returned as a dull, throbbing drumbeat behind his eyes. A gentle, persistent poke against his cheekbone. He groaned, the sound raw, and pushed himself up on trembling elbows, one hand instinctively cradling the blossoming pain at the b…