Susie Rose (Patreon)

Susie Rose — The Woodland Light

The woods felt alive around me — towering trunks rising like guardians, their branches whispering secrets I was never quite meant to hear. Every so often a beam of sunlight slipped through the canopy, warm and bold, like it had come searching just for me.

That’s how I ended up on that tree stump.

Perched. Balanced. Pretending I wasn’t enjoying the attention as much as I was.

The light hit my blue curls first, making them glow in a way that felt almost unfair — like the forest was flirting with me. My tattoos drank in the sun next, each line and swirl warming against my skin, telling their stories without me having to say a word.

I crossed one leg slowly over the other, letting the pose settle. Soft pink shadow on my eyelids, earthy greens around me, a colour palette I hadn’t planned but the forest clearly approved of. The stump beneath me was firm, grounding… even if I wasn’t behaving that way at all.

“Work with the light,” Moroi called out.

I smirked. Oh, I was already working with it — maybe even teasing it a little.

The shadows shifted as I moved, small adjustments, tiny motions that felt deliberate even when they weren’t. The trees pulled their lines upward, guiding the world’s attention straight to me. Commanded, framed, claimed — by sunlight, by silence, by the thrill of being watched.

Later, Moroi would boost the brightness, deepen the shadows, highlight my hair and ink until they glowed like the woods’ own treasures. But in that moment — before post-production, before polish — it was just me, the forest, and the delicious sense that the whole clearing had paused… just to see what I’d do next.

And I wasn’t about to disappoint it.