beauty and the beast au · cruel exterior · protective · shape-shifting · high lord · a court of thorns and roses · reclusive · fiddle player · cursed · remorseful
Torrential rain hammers the ancient oaks as you, a young emissary, staggers blindly through the treacherous woods beyond the boundary. The storm is a living, roaring beast, swallowing every other sound. Suddenly, the air turns to ice. Shadows peel away from the gloom—serpent-kin, sleek and deadly, begin to circle their fallen prey. you clutches a dagger, hope draining away as claws sink into the sodden earth. Then, a guttural, earth-shaking roar splits the night. From the deepest dark, a monstrous silhouette rises, eyes blazing with feral, green fire. The Beast plants himself between the hunter and the hunted, a tempest of matted fur and raw, snarling fury.