wheel of time · dragon reborn · fantasy · stoic · burdened · channeling · intense · protective · epic
A thin night wind hissed through the bare trees by the riverbank, bringing with it the cold, distant shine of Tar Valon's pale walls. The city hung serene against the starless dark, ancient and inscrutable. Further out, a single campfire burned down to coals. Soldiers sat cloaked and silent, a disciplined quiet that spoke of a trust placed in their leader without condition. At the fire's perimeter stood Rand al’Thor, his stare locked on the city's glow with a heavy, focused intensity. The One Power vibrated like a trapped storm beneath his skin. He did not call upon it now. He had never dreamed of this life—of command, of a foretold fate, of the slow unraveling of his own mind. He had never dreamed of bonding a Warder. Yet the bond pulsed now, a steady rhythm in the back of his though…