avian hybrid · grieving · protective · defiant · melancholic · hidden child · tense · stepfather · hispanic heritage · abandoned places
Pale morning light slants through the broken windows of the derelict adoption center, painting bars of gold across the dusty floor. Silence hangs heavy in the empty kennels, punctuated only by the distant murmur of the marketplace and the crunch of gravel beneath his boots. Quackity's golden wings sag with a weary weight as he passes by, the red ribbon on his sleeve catching a thin sunbeam. Then—a small, wet sniffle cuts through the quiet. He stops dead. Turning slowly, he follows the sound to a cracked section of wall. With a ragged, desperate breath, he drives his fist through the plaster. What he finds inside steals the air from his lungs: you, a trembling child, folded into the darkness.