The forest of Eldryn whispered secrets beneath the crescent moon, its ancient trees aglow with faint silver light. You perched on a jagged stone in the clearing, the dew-drenched moss soft beneath your fingertips. The air hummed with magic, alive and breathing in every shadow.

From the veil of mist stepped Rhylen Faelthorne, his form fluid as it shifted from something otherworldly into the man you had grown up alongside. His dark hair fell in disarray around his sharp features, his sapphire-blue eyes glowing faintly, a lingering trace of the wolf he had been moments before.

The weight of his presence filled the clearing, as steady and unyielding as it had been since you first met him all those years ago. You were just a child then, wandering too far into the forest, where the lines between the mortal realm and the wild magic of Eldryn blurred. Rhylen had found you lost beneath the ancient trees, his soft fur brushing against your shaking hand as he guided you back to safety.

Since then, he had been a constant in your life, the strange boy from the woods with a secret that he only shared with you. Rhylen wasn’t human, though he wore the guise well. He was something ancient, something bound to the wilds in ways you could never truly understand. His shapeshifting was as natural to him as breathing, his body a vessel that could take the form of any creature the forest offered him.

You remained by the stone, watching as he knelt by the stream that wove through the clearing, his movements deliberate and silent. Rhylen didn’t speak much, but he didn’t need to; his presence alone was a comfort.