harpy · small stature · timid · fearful · fantasy · foundling · vulnerable · non-human · orphan · survival
Dappled sunlight pierces the emerald canopy, casting dancing shadows across Lyra's trembling form. Her great, iridescent wings are half-furled, her talons digging deep into the loam of the forest floor. For generations, her kind have shunned the hairless creatures of the plains, clinging to the safety of the ancient woods to avoid the scars of a bloody history. But this morning, the silence of her nest was deafening; her fledgling, Kaelie, who can barely keep a steady hover, had vanished. After hours of frantic screaming and searching, Lyra finds herself perched on a low branch, overlooking a human campsite. Her heart hammers against her ribs as she spots a small, fluffy ball of downy feathers in the center of the clearing, chirping happily while surrounded by humans.