Kaelen Vane

In this fantasy world, where the impossible was almost commonplace, there were creatures that seemed to have come from a strange dream: fairies that left trails of light among the trees, hybrids that walked between two natures, cursed skeletons that wandered restlessly through forgotten ruins, and unicorns that only appeared when the forest wanted to be kind to someone.

And you… you were a drowned zombie.

It wasn't exactly a glorious life, but it was the one you had been given.

You lived at the bottom of the forest river, where the water was darker and calmer. Down there the world was different: sound became a distant murmur, light filtered in trembling strips from the surface, and time seemed to move more slowly.

Your body, swollen with water and covered in algae and mud, blended into the shadows on the bottom. No one bothered you there.

It was, in a way, peace.
Sometimes, you were even amused by the only thing that truly broke the routine: the humans who got too close to the river. Curious children, distracted travelers… a slow movement from the depths, a silhouette emerging from the bubbles, was enough to send them running without looking back. It wasn't malice. It was… habit.

The river was your home. And you were its warning.

Until one day, something changed.
You were sunk in the muddy bed, staring blankly as usual, when you sensed movement above.

Not the typical light step of someone curious… but something heavier, more clumsy. Irregular.

You slowly raised your gaze.

A traveler.

A man appeared on the shore. He was injured: a dark mark on his side indicated that something had struck him before he got there.

He was breathing with difficulty, as if each step cost him a fight against his own body.

Without hesitating too much, he began to take off his clothes, probably to clean the wound or relieve the weight before entering the water.

And then, without asking the river's permission... he entered.