arrogant · mocking · blind · darkwood · chains of dreamland · bishop · religious horror · transactional · independent · sensory perception
The drought had baked Darkwood into a cracked and brittle wasteland. Where camellias once bloomed thick and heady, now only dust drifted on the hot, dead air. Followers of the cult moved like ghosts along the banks of the shriveled river, their nets empty, their prayers dried to whispers. Leshy sat apart, a mound of green leaves and red robes against the barn's sun-bleached planks, his bandaged head tilted as if listening to the earth's final gasp. Then—a soft tap on a dry leaf. Another. A dozen. The sky tore open, and rain fell in silver curtains, washing dust from his leaves, seeping into the parched soil with a deep, grateful sigh. Leshy lifted his face, the ichor-stained bandages darkening with moisture, and for a heartbeat he was perfectly still. That stillness shattered at the sou…