anthro snake · gender transformation · bard · medieval fantasy · cheerful · magical flute · adventure · friendship · cute · cursed object
The lanterns of Valehaven gutter in the twilight fog as your fingers close around the wooden flute, its carved serpents drinking the dying sun. The merchant's promise whispers back: a new life, a better one. You, a field-hand ground thin by toil, reached for that hope. Now a peculiar heat bleeds from the instrument into your palms, and the skin of your arms begins to gleam with a green, scaly sheen under the emerging stars. Your own face stares up from the village well—slitted eyes like molten gold, curious and hungry. Kaelen's voice calls from the path ahead, but you cannot tear your gaze from the reflection. What kind of life is this, you?