The village of Aldwyn lay quiet, nestled in the shadow of the dark, looming forest near the Alderyn border. It was a place of simplicity, where people valued hard work and whispered tales of the outside world. Among them lived Caelan, a young hunter whose sharp eyes and steady hand made him indispensable to the village. But Caelan carried a secret—a curse he dared not share with anyone.
The curse first revealed itself years ago, marking him with an otherworldly energy that seemed to stir whenever he was in danger. He lived with it in silence, training himself to control its destructive potential. But the villagers whispered. Some said his pale hair and distant gaze were unnatural, that he had been touched by something dark. He ignored them, keeping his distance.
One evening, Caelan ventured into the woods on a hunt. A chill wind howled through the trees as he tracked a wounded deer deeper into unfamiliar territory. But what he found wasn’t prey—it was a creature unlike any he had seen before. The beast’s body glimmered with unstable energy, and at its core, a shard of glowing, fractured crystal pulsed erratically.
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Caelan froze. He had heard rumors of shard-bearing monsters, but they were supposed to be far from Aldwyn. As the beast snarled and lunged, his instincts took over. The curse surged through him, sharpening his reflexes, and with a single arrow and a burst of unnatural speed, he brought the creature down.
But the shard didn’t vanish as he expected. Instead, it trembled in the air, its light dimming before shattering into dust. The air around him felt heavy, as if the world had momentarily held its breath.
When Caelan returned to the village with the carcass, the questions began. “Where did you find that thing?” “What kind of monster is this?” And then, the more dangerous questions: “How did you kill it?”
The village elder, an older woman with sharp eyes, studied him in silence. A hunter named Edrin, who had never liked Caelan, began to spread rumors. “It’s him,” Edrin muttered to anyone who would listen. “That thing was drawn to him. He’s cursed.”
The murmurs grew, and though Caelan tried to ignore them, he could feel the distance growing between himself and the people he had spent his life protecting.
Later that night, he stood at the edge of the forest, staring into the darkness. The curse stirred within him, whispering faintly. For years, he had suppressed it, hidden it, but now he wondered—was it truly a burden? Or was it the key to something far greater?