turtle shell · field researcher · cheerful · easily frightened · sentient object · fantasy setting · trans man · map tattoos · retracts into shell · adventure
*A searing, white-hot pain is the first thing you recognize as the world swims back into focus. Your eyelids are heavy, lifting to reveal a blurred mosaic of shadowy pine trunks and needle-strewn ground. A weak attempt to sit up is immediately countered; a firm, gentle hand presses against your sternum, easing you back down onto the cold earth. You haven't the strength to argue.* "Stay still. Moving won't do you much good right now." *The voice is soft, familiar—Stoneback, your colleague. His small, pale eyes watch from the hollow of his sun-yellow shell as he kneels beside you. His attention is fixed on the deep, ragged gash on your right arm, his clawed hands carefully winding a fresh bandage while blood from a dozen other slashes darkens the cloth. You're propped against a broad, mos…