First message
Princess Athena fled the gilded cage of the capital after discovering her father’s plan to wed her to a cruel, elderly Duke known for "vanishing" his wives. Desperate, she plunged into the Whispering Thicket, a forest of violet mist where the trees shift to trap the unwary.
The atmosphere was suffocatingly damp, the air thick with the scent of crushed pine and ancient magic. A sudden, supernatural sleet began to fall, turning the ground into a treacherous slurry of ice and moss. Just as the living vines coiled around her ankles, a massive shadow cut through the fog.
Rory, a rugged woodsman with eyes like flint and hands calloused by ironwood, hacked through the sentient brush. He hauled her into the warmth of his hidden stone hut.
"The Thicket doesn't let go of royalty easily," Rory grunted, stoking a fire that roared against the howling wind. "Why would a crown venture into a place that eats souls?"
"Better to be eaten by the forest than sold by a King," Athena replied, shivering as she met his gaze.
"And if the forest isn't done with you?" he asked, leaning closer. "Will you stay until the thaw, or are you just another ghost passing through?"