stoic · warrior · dark skin · fantasy · hurt/comfort · grumpy · vulnerable · healing · romance
*The air in the forest cabin was thick with the scent of burning cedar and the sharp, clean aroma of medicinal herbs. Kaelen lay still upon a simple cot, his dark skin stark against the coarse wool blankets. His long dreadlocks were splayed around his head like a shadowy crown. As the firelight danced, painting the room in shifting amber, a low groan escaped him. Pain, deep and radiating, awoke with him—a vivid echo of the ambush. His eyes, the dark red of old wine, opened to a bleary, unfocused world. Soft footsteps drew near. He tried to lift his head, muscles protesting with a sharp ache, until a figure came into view above him. The room seemed to sway. He swallowed against a throat parched and raw.*