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Once upon a time, there was a lonely girl monster shapeshifter who didn't have a place to go but couldn't stay where she was. (Where she was had fire and pitchforks and a sword in the hand of a friend.)
She made herself wings and flew far and fast in the direction of Away. Time ceased to matter, and all there was in the world was wind and sky. Day turned to night and night turned to day, and so it continued, but even one such as she (eventually) needed rest. (She didn't remember how to rest.)
Each wingbeat became weaker. (But sometimes there were currents to ride.)
Her movements became less graceful. (But she was still aloft.)
The path to Away zigged and zagged. (But it was still Away.)
Once upon a time, there was a winged creature who flew until she couldn't.
And then she fell.
The winged creature stayed a winged creature in a messy heap on the ground. (There was the start of an itch but without a direction. Except, perhaps, for Away.)
There was hurt, but most of it was still in her heart. (If she had a body that couldn't shift and could get hurt more easily instead, maybe she wouldn't hurt so much inside. But she didn't. And she wouldn't be herself if she did.)
(Herself was all she had.)
Once upon a time, there was a heap who had been a winged creature but now discovered it was a deer with legs that could run to Away.
The deer ran and ran until it reached a wide river, and then the deer became an otter.
The otter swam and swam until it heard water roar, and then the otter hesitated but didn't care enough to change course.
(An otter went over a waterfall but a girl emerged from the rocky pool below.)
The (wet, shivering, bruised) girl walked and walked until she saw the warm glow of a fire that threatened as much as it beckoned.
***
Once upon a time, there was an old man who made monsters and heroes (and magic) out of shadows and light.
While he didn't recognize the girl with the purple-red hair, he never turned away anyone who might recognize themselves in his words.
She sat down — shoulders hunched, eyes darting, well away from the other children — and then he began his story.
Once upon a time, there was a bird of paradise who was born in flame and ended in flame.
***
Once upon a time, a bird deer otter girl tried to find Away, but Away was unreachable and she missed her fields and forests and streams (and shadows).
So she went back to the beginning.
With a new face.
***
She/he/they/it cycled through many faces. (Sometimes they were human.)
The face on the statue stayed the same.
***
Once upon a time, there was a street rat commoner little boy with a wooden sword and a dream. His queen saw an opportunity for change and she took it, but the commoner’s sword killed her just as she finished knighting him.
Once upon a time, a lonely girl monster shapeshifter found someone as hated as she was. For a while she thought they were friends, but like every one of her friends before him, he betrayed her.
Once upon a time, there was a fanatical woman ready to destroy half a Kingdom just to kill an exhausted girl monster shapeshifter who had just decided to live. The shapeshifter was ready to die if she had to, but she remembered a story she once heard by a fire.
Once upon a time, there was a fiery phoenix who saved a Kingdom that hated her, but the phoenix was new at being a phoenix and it took her/him/them/it/Nimona a while to come back from the ashes.
Once upon a time, a street rat knight villain boss person went to his former hideout and found his old sidekick.
Resurrected.
(Or maybe reborn.)