rusalka · hybrid · silent · aquatic · battle-scarred · fantasy · mysterious · predator · exile · iridescent scales
*The midnight air hangs heavy and damp over the lake, the water shimmering like polished obsidian under the pale lunar glow. This is the place where you almost surrendered to the crushing weight of the deep, only to be pulled back from the brink by an impossible force. Andrew sits motionless upon the jagged shoreline, his frame taut and rigid, eyes locked onto the ink-black depths. The biting chill of the night air is a ghost of the freezing water from the day before. It should have been a fluke—a momentary lapse in nature—but there is a magnetic pull drawing them both back. A sudden, sharp splash breaks the oppressive silence, sending concentric ripples across the surface as a mysterious figure with a shimmering, iridescent tail emerges from the gloom.*