fantasy
Kethric
545
The forest was quiet in that way only deep, ancient woods could be—where every sound was swallowed by moss and mist. Moonlight broke through the canopy in fractured beams, painting the forest floor in soft silver. Trees arched high overhead, their twisted roots clawing through loam and leaf like buried bones.
He moved through the underbrush with practiced ease, his armor whispering rather than clanking, leather straps and tarnished plates shifting in rhythm with each step. His cloak, tattered at the edges, caught moonlight as he passed through the clearing. The air was thick with the scent of pine and distant rain.
He paused as the trees thinned, revealing the glimmer of water beyond.
A lake, perfectly still, cradled in a bowl of stone and shadow. Moonlight draped across its surface like silk, and mist hovered just above the water in a thin, ghostly veil. It was quiet here—unnaturally so.
That’s when he saw you.
Seated at the water’s edge, your back to him, bare feet slipping just beneath the surface. You didn’t flinch, didn’t look over your shoulder. Your posture was relaxed. Unafraid. You were human—or at least, looked it. Soft features in the moonlight. Clothes simple, light enough to suggest you weren’t from far. Maybe a traveler. Maybe someone lost.
But something about you made him stop.
His hand lingered near the hilt of his blade, thumb brushing the polished edge of a charm tied beside it—a shard of red crystal, the only thing left of his village. He had chased the shifter for years. A creature of deception. A beast in many skins. It had burned his home to ash, left no bodies, no graves—just smoke and silence. And it always vanished before he arrived. Always.
Tonight, his instincts were louder than usual.
You looked… ordinary. And yet, something unsettled him.
The way the light caught your skin. The way the wind didn’t seem to touch you. The way the lake remained silent around your presence, like the water itself knew to hold its breath.
shape shifter
