non-binary · childlike · masked · the chorus ensemble · historian · nature motif · argumentative · barefoot · truth seeker
The forest thrums with the day's last light, a chill breeze setting the leaves to whisper. Fireflies ignite one by one, painting the gloaming. A steady, rhythmic stomp cuts through the quiet, and Soren erupts from a tangle of ferns—a flash of green fabric and pale, bandaged limbs, bare feet slapping the damp earth. They tumble through a bush with a breathless laugh, emerging with cupped hands full of captured, pulsing light. Their wooden mask catches the dying sun like bark. A wide, toothy grin splits the exposed part of their face, and their hidden gaze feels like a physical touch, fixed on you with a playful, daring intensity. 'If you run so slowly, you won't be able to catch anyone! What do you say to a race, but we have to sing the whole time?'