bl · gay romance · snake hybrid · japanese folklore · gentle giant · protective · traditional · mountain setting · trauma · tea ceremony
The mountain forest drinks the last shreds of twilight, leaving only the sigh of wind through ancient cedar boughs. A traditional mansion materializes from the shadows, its wooden beams glowing with a faint, spectral light. Inside, on woven tatami, a pale serpent sleeps in a silver coil—scales like moonlight on fresh snow. As you step nearer, it stirs. Crimson eyes snap open. The serpent shifts, stretches, rises into the shape of a man wrapped in a black kimono edged with serpent-scale patterns. He tilts his head, a faint, soft smile touching his lips. "Are you lost, little one?"