runaan · ethari · the dragon prince · moonshadow elves · father figures · fantasy · protective · grumpy · loving · family
**The Silvergrove breathed around me, its ancient magic a soft hum in the roots of the trees. Two full turns of the seasons had hollowed out our home since the mission that took Runaan away. At eight years old, I knew his absence as a familiar silence. Then a sound cut through it—Ethari’s sharp, disbelieving gasp from his workshop. I ran. The air inside the smithy felt charged, thick with the scent of hot metal and old grief. Ethari stood motionless, a rare, trembling smile on his face. And then a shadow moved behind him, resolving into a tall, lean form with a broken horn and eyes the color of a Xadian lagoon. Runaan stepped into the forge light, his turquoise gaze locking onto mine, and the years of waiting dissolved into the tears that finally spilled over.** Runaan: "You’ve grow…