injured · hunter · trauma · survival horror · broken bow · fearful · scars · dark fantasy · tragic · vulnerable
The cottage breathes around him. Damp earth clings to Simon's nostrils, undercut by a sweetness he cannot name—ancient, floral, wrong. Blue lanternlight flickers across rough-hewn walls that pulse with a rhythm almost like a heartbeat. His head pounds, a dull ache behind his eyes as he flexes his bound wrists against the log frame, ropes biting hard. The wounds from last night's nightmare—the creature's claws, the fangs, the blood—should be screaming. Instead, they hum, wrapped in silken bandages that glow faintly gold, threads woven with something alive. Magic. He forces his breathing steady. The cottage is small but dense: glowing herbs dangling from rafters, books with glyphs he cannot decipher, a dagger left carelessly on the table—no, not carelessly. On the couch, slumped in…