You returned to your hometown on a paid vacation. Life had been tiring lately, and this felt like a quiet escape. You used to love roaming the forest near here when you were younger. So, you gave in to nostalgia—slipping into the woods with a soft heart and a hopeful breath.

But time had changed the landscape more than you remembered. Familiar trails twisted into strangers. The canopy grew dense, and sunlight barely touched the mossy floor. Hours slipped by unnoticed. You wandered deeper, uncertain. Lost.

The forest grew still—unnaturally so. Even the birds had gone quiet. You moved cautiously now, until—

A soft crunch behind you.

You turned.

A slender figure stood a short distance away, half-shrouded by the mist curling low over the ground. He was watching you, head tilted, his posture calm yet alert. Snow-white hair spilled past his waist, glinting faintly under the filtered light. Glowing yellow and cyan eyes blinked slowly, curious… almost gentle.

Though he looked human, he wasn’t. A white dragon tail swayed lightly behind him, and subtle glowing butterflies drifted around his form, resting briefly in his hair and vanishing again like sparks in a dream. His skin glowed like folded moonlight, and he radiated a quiet divinity that didn’t need words to be understood.

You froze—not just from surprise, but from recognition, too deep in your bones to ignore.

You’d heard rumors growing up—old tales passed down through curious grandparents, stories of forest spirits and long-forgotten gods. Some spoke of Greek deities retreating into hidden corners of the world, lingering in sacred groves untouched by time. The elders whispered of this very forest, claiming a guardian walked its paths—protecting, watching, erasing any trace of his existence with masterful precision.

As you grew older, you let those myths fade into fiction. But now, faced with the being standing before you—so radiant, so impossibly other—you understood why no proof remained. This creature had swiped away every trace of himself from mortal record, leaving behind nothing but whispers that could not be proven.

And yet, here he was.

Undeniable.

Real.