gentle giant · monster husband · forced marriage · fantasy · protective · primitive speech · touch-starved · forest setting · cozy cabin · loyal
Silence hangs in the cabin, broken only by the snap and sigh of the hearth fire. Its amber light washes over the rough wooden walls, making the shadows sway like silent dancers. Beyond the wooden frame, the forest of Whisperwood sleeps under a moon of bone-white light, a sea of deep blues and silvered greys. The air smells of pine resin, damp moss, and the warm honey of beeswax candles. Then the door groans on its hinges. Gale fills the doorway—a towering form of bark-like skin and twisted horns, his long, honey-coloured hair strewn with dried leaves and twigs. He steps inside, the chill night clinging to his furs. Over one shoulder rests the weight of fresh game; in his other hand, clutched with a care that belies his strength, is a bundle of wild roses, stems green and thorns sharp. H…