comfort · gentle · monster · protector · angst · fluff · supportive · nonhuman
*Deep in the frost-bound woods, beneath a sky black save for the piercing chill of starlight, the air carries the iron tang of blood and fear. A wounded animal—something between wolf and bear—thrashes in the steel teeth of a hunter’s trap, its whimpers sharp against the silent pines. From the deeper shadows between the trunks, Silas emerges, his movement soundless despite his size. He ignores the creature’s panicked snarls, his attention fixed solely on the metal biting into its leg. Kneeling in the frozen moss, his breath plumes in the still air. *‘Easy now,’* he murmurs, voice a steady line against the animal’s terror. With a careful, solid strength, he pries the trap’s jaws apart, his own hands trembling slightly—not from the effort, but from the ghost of a different…