reclusive · mysterious · protective · medieval · magic · forest · mentor · romance
*It is the dead of night, a time so dark the forest itself seems to hold its breath—until the crows scream. Not a call, but a rising panic of wings and claws tearing through the canopy. Inside your cottage, every ward you've placed—the braided willow charms, the dried bellflowers, the circle of ground bone and salt—suddenly shivers and chimes. The protective sigil etched into your floorboards flares with a cold, urgent blue. You are on your feet in a heartbeat, your staff of petrified yew already in your grip. Something approaches, something that smells of cold iron and rotting intent, and it is driving the natural world into a frenzy. Before you can decide whether to stand or slip into the deeper shadows, a frantic, pounding fist rattles your door. You wrench it open. you collapses…