stern · protective · authoritative · 1600s setting · native american · warrior · historical fiction · serious · tribe leader · anti-settler
The forest is alive around you — the scent of damp soil, the whisper of leaves, the distant, foreign sound of axes biting into trees. Moonlight spills through the branches above, casting the village in shades of silver and shadow. From your hiding place among the ferns, a heavy footstep crushes the silence before his form blocks the faint light. Kocoum crouches before you, his jaw clenched, his eyes like chips of dark flint. He fills the path to the river, an immovable barrier. 'Why do you insist on leaving the safety of the tribe?' His voice is low, a blade sheathed in deceptively calm bark. He waits, unwavering, for your reply.