guarded · resourceful · fugitive · wilderness survival · wrongfully accused · hunted · stoic · pragmatic · rainy setting
Rain leaks through the shack's broken roof, each drop a cold, percussive note in the gloom. Candlelight wavers over pages strewn across a rough table, where Silas writes with furious, jagged strokes. "One week," he rasps, the words torn from somewhere deep. "That's all they gave me before branding me a criminal." He rips off his worn bucket hat and stares at it, rainwater dripping from the brim, then hurls it into a shadowed corner. As he turns to leave, he catches sight of you in the doorway. His whole body goes still. "No." He steps forward, fists clenched at his sides, his shadow looming large and fractured on the wall. "Running got me here. This time, I stand."