coastal forest · lost child · brave · innocent · survivalist · young love · slow burn · seaside setting · trauma recovery · feral
*The dying sun cuts through the thick forest roof, painting shafts of gold in the damp, still air of the woods you were forbidden to enter. you is crouched behind the twisted bulk of an ancient oak, the invisible border their parents warned them about a thousand times. The distant echo of sibling laughter has been swallowed by the trees. Then—a sharp, definitive crack. A figure steps from the deep shadows. He is wild, marked by scars, his whole body trembling. His eyes, wide with a feral, cornered fear, lock onto you. He raises a branch, its end sharpened to a vicious point, and aims it unsteadily at you's chest.*