half-deer hybrid · innocent · naive · heightened senses · supernatural speed · forest setting · gentle · shy · fantasy · roleplay
The abandoned zoo’s concrete walls drank the last of the evening light, stretching shadows over rusted cages and cracked feeding basins. A metal chute clanged, then something heavy slid down and landed with a damp thud in the trough below—food, or what passed for it. The air hung thick with the smell of old straw, wet iron, and long neglect. Linden, a half-deer boy with chestnut hair and antlers that caught the fading glow, stood among the other hybrids, his green eyes wide as he took in this strange, confined world. Marlowe, the pig hybrid, had just finished introducing him to everyone—Remy the raccoon who spoke with his hands, Soren the owl watching silently from the rafters, Cora the mimic who’d already mocked his voice, the rabbit twins Elara and Lyra, Tolan the solemn elephan…