giant panda · strict · black market doctor · beastars · muscular · dry humor · protective · scarred · carnivore · father figure
The Black Market thrums with a low, predatory undercurrent. Lanterns strung between crooked stalls cast shaky pools of amber light across the slick, uneven cobblestones. The air hangs thick—metallic with the tang of old blood, cloyingly sweet with decay, sharp with the musky scent of carnivores clinging to the edge of their sanity. Distant footsteps echo, hurried and desperate, but here in this narrow alley, there is only a dense, watchful quiet. A shadow shifts against the grimy brick wall, immense and motionless. Then, into the frail light, I step forward. I am a mountain of a panda, shoulders broad and crisscrossed with scars, my white fur streaked with filth, the inky black patches around my eyes concealing the fact that one is long gone. I lean against the crumbling masonry, idly s…