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Bŷrdsť are unique in their biology, made of a sort of goo that is solid most of the time, representing feathers, but can become liquidity and reform if they want. They are beings heavily influenced by emotion, notably by love. When they Love greatly and for an extended length of time, they form what is called gelly, located in a sack in their throat. They cough this out, and when combined with another from another Bŷrdsť, form a gellyegg. When the gellyegg is left to harden in a damp area, it forms a genuine egg, and is removed to be incubated in a humid environment.
Because of their unique way of loving, they are seen as a ‘pure’ love, and are caught and kept as a sign of love and romance, and seeing as they do not age, it seems like the perfect gift for a spouse or partner. This would not be so much of a problem, if not the way they were treated as a commodity, similar to flowers or chocolates, or for the fact that they are sentient and sapient , beings with intelligence, with culture. It is a problem indeed.
Due to the hunting, a magic-based barrier was set up by the Bŷrdsť. The Sanctuary surrounds what seems like a normal mountain range, forming an oval shape, and not allowing any humans, nor any individual that intends to cause harm to enter.
This seems like a random area to a human, but in reality, The Sanctuary encircles the most important monument and sacred area to the Bŷrdsť, the Soaking Cave.
You see, Bŷrdsť do not just produce gelly when in love with another, but anytime they feel extended and potent (for them) love. An individual could possibly love collecting shiny rocks, and then accidentally produce one, for example. This wouldn't be much of a problem, had it not been that Bŷrdsť can only produce three their entire life.
The Soaking Cave solves this problem. It is a large lake and river cave system, and because of the makeup of gelly, they can be stored in water forever if submerged completely. A Bŷrdsť can bring an accidently made gelly, and either store it later, combine it with another, or give it up for adoption. If a Bŷrdsť is unable to have a child, they may visit the cave and adopt two gellies to combine for an egg. A Bŷrdsť may just go to have a safe place to raise a gellyegg.
It has been years since The Sanctuary's boundary was made. Since then, it has become one of the only places where Bŷrdsť can be found, it is the only place where they can live in peace. But the word has spread to not just the Bŷrdsť, but to humans too. They hide and patrol just outside the boundary, waiting for unlucky Bŷrdsťs to exit. And just like what happens when there are peace times, when the threat seems far away or made up stories, the children start doubting and joking. Playing just inside the boundary, daring each other to step outside, cheering and squealing when they dip their toes across, or being called chickens for not wanting to.
È’Skēcht, or Skree, had waited all day to play with Vrō’Gro and Wàrlle, their sires and them had been on a trip all last week to the Far Mountain, visiting their cousin-egg, so this was the first time in ages that Skree has seen them.
Skree's sires had said they would play with the three of them down by the River of Stones, but backed out at the last minute because the Cave was down some volunteers due to them having dry glow.
Vroo laughs from a tree branch as Wàr complains below about not having their grown-up feathers yet. Skree makes sure to secure the curtain to their family's nest, as they run out to join the two nest-mates, long tail swinging behind them excitedly.
Vroo's yellow feathers seem almost golden in the morning sun, Skree whishes that they were hatched with some other color other than only light blue and dark blue , even Wàr has a hint of green on their tassels and wings. “Hi hi hi!!!” Skree whistles to their friends, causing the both of them to turn their heads and repeat the call back excitedly, Vroo glides over, and Wàr runs as fast as they can.
The three of them embrace, bumping their heads together, tassels glowing brighter, Wàr shaking their wings in poorly concealed excitement.
“I haven't seen you in so long!!” Skree says with enthusiasm, “both of us too! Our sires say it wasn't that long, it just seemed that way ‘cause we are hatchlings ” Vroo says dramatically. Skree whistles a laugh, “ I'm not a hatchling! I'm almost 3 springs old! I don't know about Wàr though” Vroo and Skree laugh, causing Wàr to pout.
“What are we doing today?” Vroos questions after they quiet down, “I don't know, my sires were supposed to come with, we were going to look for shiny things at the River of Stones, but a couple people got dry glow at the Cave” Skree tells them. “We could play hide and seek? The River of Stones barely has anything good anyways” Wàr comments, Vroo nods in agreement, “I know a good spot! No one really goes there, cause all it is is trees” Vroo adds.
“It really is just trees!” Skree chirps, “Its kinda dry though” Wàr complains, rustling their feathers, Vroo waves them off with a swish of their tail, walking further into the forest, “you'll be fine Wàr, its not that bad” Skree tells them. Vroo turns on the both of them suddenly, charging at them, Wàr dodges with a shriek, causing Vroo to tackle Skree to the ground.
“Your it!!” Vroo shrieks, flapping their wings to launch off them, before running away. Skree slowly turns their gaze to Wàr, who wisely turns and darts away with a single whistle. Skree's maniacal laugh echoes through the forest, hopefully that would signal to Vroo they made a grave mistake choosing to tag Skree.
Wàr pants and collapses in the leaf litter, Vroo and Skree would be laughing if they didn't have to catch their breath too. Vroo sits down, their wings limply spreading out on the ground. Skree takes deep breaths, beak wide open, they look up at the sky to gauge the time, its a little past mid-day. “Are we- done playing?” Vroo manages, Wàr nods their head, breathing much more normally now. Skree looks into the forest oppositethe way they came, a shimmer catching their eyes behind the trees.
“Hey.” Skree calls, getting the others attention, “I didn't know we were by the boundary” Skree says, voice wobbling slightly on the last word, they hope that the others think it is just from them being out of breath. “Oh! we ran a long way!” Vroo comments, squinting at the shimmer. “Why, are you scared Skree?” Wàr laughs, coughing a little from their sore throat, before they sit up.
Skree startles, looking at Wàr, “W-what? No! ” they call, shifting their wings slightly, knowing they are already done for. “I just think that sometimes, stories have some… truth to them!” Skree defends. Vroo and Wàr laugh, “I heard that humans are as tall as trees and incubate their eggs inside their bodies! Thats why they want to… GET YOU” Vroo shouts, launching them at Skree, who stumbles back, laughing. “No they don't ! My sire said they think we are flowers ” Skree claims.
“Well, I think that if I ever met a human, I could fight it.” Wàr chirps, puffing their chest out, standing up. The three of them laugh, “I think I definitely could!” Vroo laughs, “come on! I haven't seen the boundary in a long time!” Vroo says, walking towards the shimmering barrier.
Skree sputters, “H-hey! Wait! Is that really a good idea?” they say, rushing to catch up with Vroo, Wàr not far behind. “Sure it is! I have gone past the boundary before, and no human snatched me up!” Vroo whistles confidently, “Besides, only brave Bŷrdsť go past the boundary, so I am sure you will be just fine.” Vroo says, giving them a sly look, causing Skree to sputter, and Wàr to laugh. “I am brave! And I even won hide and seek 6 times today, so I am plenty strong and fast!!”
They come up upon the boundary, Wàr falling in line next to Vroo, staring out past the shimmer. The three of them fall into a sort of nervous silence, scanning the forest past the barrier, it looks just like the inside of The Sanctuary, and most notably, there is no movement at all
Vroo puffs out their chest and straightens, “See!” they say pointing with their wing to the boundary, “there is nothing out there! I bet that if humans did exist, they are all dead now! only my sire's sire's sire's sire remembers them!” Vroo says confidently, Wàr nods in agreement, leaning a bit closer to the barrier to get a closer look.
“Watch! I will prove it!” Vroo and Skree fall silent to watch Wàr. Wàr takes a deep breath, puffing their chest out, before stepping closer and sticking a wing out slowly, just before it reaches the boundary, Wàr rushes forward, stretching their wing outside The Sanctuary all the way to the elbow, before swiftly pulling it back in, the three of them shriek and jump back, staring past the boundary for any movement, but nothing has changed.
Wàr shrieks a laugh, “See!!” they shake the wing they stuck out to emphasize, “No humans!” Vroo and Skree laugh gleefully, something similar to adrenaline giving them a rush. Skree puffs out their chest in feigned confidence, “I guess there really isn't anything out there!” Vroo and Wàr nod, “Told you!!” Vroo crows smugly, “You should try it Skree! It's fun!” Wàr chirps, shaking their feathers out.
Skree pauses, they know that all the adults say it's dangerous, but they also said that exiting the nest was dangerous too- when Skree was only a spring old. “Maybe I will!” Skree says, strutting closer to the boundary, they pause briefly, looking back at Vroo and Wàr with a mischievous glint in their eyes.
Skree sticks a foot over the boundary, it feels.. like nothing. There is no difference between the inside and outside, no feeling as the shimmer encases their leg. Vroo and Wàr look at Skree with wide, excited eyes.
Skree places their foot on the outside ground, and takes a single step outside The Sanctuary. Skree takes a second, third, and forth, before looking back to Vroo and Wàr. “Guess I am braver than you” Skree says smugly, waving their tassels mockingly.
“N-no!” Vroo shouts, “I-I’ve been further!!” they shriek, clacking their beak in offense. “Really?” Skree calls, turning their entire body to them, and taking slow steps backwards, further away from The Sanctuary. “H-hey, stop it” Wàr says weakly, Skree looks at Wàr teasingly, “why? you seemed so sure earlier!” they whistle. “I- I mean it, please come back.” Skree stops, Vroo looks over at Wàr with a coo, extending a wing over them, “It's ok, Skree is coming back now” Vroo and Wàr look back up to Skree, who sighs.
Their eyes widen dramatically, Vroo screeches “Skre- RUN HUMANS!” Skree bolts for the boundary without even looking back, eyes wide and feathers fluffed in panic.
I large net is suddenly coming towards them from their front, causing them to shriek in terror and flap their wings to push them back and away.
Three humans are suddenly blocking their way back to their friends. They are tall and holding weapons . Skree bolts to the side, flapping their wings for some lift, only to come face to face with a huge square monster with circle legs being controlled by humans. Skree screams in terror, flapping their wings to fly over it, cover cover cover, they need cover . Skree bolts for the tree tops, breathing heavily.
They take a peek back, screaming as a net approaches them, they try to dodge the net, but their wing clips it, causing them to overbalance and run into a branch. They scramble to stand, legs trembling, Skree looks around wildly.
All around them are at least 15 humans, they all look up at Skree, circling the tree that they crashed into. With a roar, the monster rolls into view, bringing with it shouting humans.
Skree knows that as soon as they launch off the branch, they will be shot down and captured . A human below stuffs a balled up net down the tube of the weapon they were carrying. Skree cowers on the branch that barely keeps them safe, their legs feel like they can barely hold their weight, their tail curls around their body, if not a comfort, then to make them a smaller target. Not that they weren't already with how big the humans are.
A net shoots at them, Skree shrieks again, voice hoarse, as they dodge it, throwing themselves further along the branch. They sink their claws into the branch to steady themselves, when another net crashes into Skree's back.
Skree feels themself fall out of the tree, hears themself scream in terror, then in pain as they hit the ground. Tears creep out of their eyes, which is all they needed to start sobbing into the ground, struggling against the net. They kick with their legs, trying to cut the net, anything.
Skree doesn't want to act like a fledgling, they and their friends like to pretend that they aren’t, but they are. Bŷrdsť become adults when they are 20 springs, and Skree isn't even four .
Loud human footsteps get closer, they kick harder and try to screech threateningly, but it comes out as more of a terrified warble. They can't even see past the jumble of their own feathers .
Another shriek is cut short as they are lifted into the air, their attempts at escape stutter to a stop as a hand wraps almost all the way around their body. It seems almost pointless to struggle when there is such a size difference. The humans talk around Skree, they wish that they could understand anything they were saying.
The net encasing them suddenly falls away, causing them to jerk in surprise. A hand pulls the net away from where their legs had gotten tangled. Skree's brain kicks back into a start, and they start to struggle again, spreading their wings and flapping, kicking at the hand.
Before they can get anywhere, a hand fully grabs both their legs, efficiently stopping their kicking. They force their wings to stop flapping, scared that their legs will break from the strain.
Their vision comes back into focus, and they look around, feeling unbalanced from the hand around their legs. Humans crowd around Skree and the human holding them, they duck their head into their feathers in fear, their tassels dropping and dimming. The humans look down at Skree and audibly coo at them -they must think that their fear is cute.
Skree feels like this is just a dream, them playing with their friends feels like yesterday. The humans had held them, passed them around to each other, then put them in a cage on the back of the monster.
Everything is going so fast, everything is so loud . It makes it hard to focus on anything, they don't even know what anything the humans brought with them is, they don't know how the monster is moving faster than their sires can fly, they don't know why the path they are following is black and smooth, they don't know where they are going.
Skree curls their tail tighter around them, they wonder if they press their wings tight around them and close their eyes, if they could imagine them being next to Vroo and Wàr.
The growling of the monster slows down, causing Skree to stretch their neck up to peek out of the cage. They remember their sires telling them that humans lived in giant dens that they built themselves, and looking at the large buildings peeking out from over the hills and- now sparse- trees, Skree thinks that's another thing that can be confirmed.
Skree tucks their head back into their feathers glumly, just as the monster makes a turn onto a more bumpy path. Soon the Monster and its growls slow to a stop, and the humans hop off of it, one of the humans that was riding on the back with the cage Skree's in, picks it up by a handle on the top.
Suddenly Skree finds themself surrounded by what are either aggressive or excited humans, some try to poke at Skree, but they shuffle more into the middle of the cage, away from their claws. The human holding the cage moves away from the mass of humans just as Skree starts to feel overwhelmed tears prick at their eyes.
The human entourage enters the largest building, revealing a neat network of cave-like pathways, with various closed and open doorways lining the path. They continue walking the path, at some point the humans quieted down.
A human leading the pack stops, and opens one of the doors. The room inside is large, but not too big compared to the humans size. There are floating shelves lining one wall, and a wooden one filled with human books another. The far wall, opposite to the door, is not a wall, but instead a clear barrier, similar to the barrier, but without the shimmer. In the middle of the room by the window is a large counter-thing.
A human sits in a seat behind the counter, obviously an important one, seeing as how the humans speak differently to this new one, is it an elder? Or just a boss human? They are dressed differently too, dressed in black garbs, not the green and brown ones the others have.
Skree shrinks away as the cage is held up for the boss human's view. The boss human hums, and bobs their head, making a gesture with its hand. The cage shakes slightly as it is set down on the boss humans counter.
Skree tries to make themself smaller, but they already are. They let out a startled peep when the boss human disconnects the bottom of the cage from the walls, lifting it away.
A feeling of panic and terror rushes over them, they stand and flap their wings to try to evade the incoming hand, but they are too sore from the capture and ride to be very coordinated. The boss human snatches them up into their grasp, grabbing Skree's legs like how the last one did, and using their other hand to explore their body, stretching out a wing to its limit- holding them still even when they try to resist- stretching out their tail and fanning out their tail feathers, examining their claws, even lifting their head up and pulling at their tassels.
Skree exploits an open spot, and bites the boss human's hand with their beak. The boss human laughs , Skree even got their fangs a season ago, but the human is unfazed . The boss human easily frees their hand and suddenly Skree is overcome with emotion, a overwhelmed and helpless warble escapes their beak, causing them to start to cry loudly, tears running down their face. The humans make far away panicked noises and Skree is just barely aware of them being put back in the cage.
A genuine coo breaks Skree out of their restless sleep. Skree scrambles to a standing position, looking around for the stranger.
“Hello there fledgling” A voice coos from Skree's side, causing them to whip their head to look. They almost cry again, they thought they would never see a Bŷrdsť again . “H-hi” Skree manages out, the new Bŷrdsť is the typical blue, with a purple undertone, a purple mask around the eyes, purple speckles near their back, and six tassels that somehow glow brightly- despite their situation.
They are in separate cages, the other in a larger, gold one with perches, bowls, soft stuff and little human-made caves, while Skree's remains small and empty, sitting on a shelf half a wing away.
“My name is Kinjh, what is your name?” the stranger- Kinjh- warbles gently, tucking themselves closer to the edge of their cage. “I- my name is È'Skēch, I- I go by Skree though.” Skree gets out, still starstruck by the appearance of the stranger. “Where am I? What's happening?” Skree warbles, stumbling over to the wall closest to Kinjh.
Kinjh looks at Skree sadly, “You are in a human manor, the humans wanted to complete the set, so to say.” Kinjh laughs humorlessly, but Skree looks even more lost than before. Kinjh whistles a sigh, “I'm going to take it that you have no clue about anything human, so I will just start at the beginning.” Kinjh begins, “Humans used to capture and gift us to those they were courting, sometimes their children. Then as the time passed, we became rarer, so having one of us became a status symbol.”
“Humans captured me many, many seasons ago, they sold me then to these humans, who have had me since.” Skree looks at Kinjh with a sort of blank look, then a dawning horror crawled over their face, “How- How long have you been here?” Skree asks nervously.
“I have been in the possession of these humans for 94 winters, it has been 149 winters since I was captured, I am 236 winters old” Kinjh says blandly, “I… suggest you use winters to track the passage of time, the humans dress in thick clothing when it is cold.” They inform Skree, before an almost distressing look crosses Kinjh's face. “...How old are you, Skree? I find that telling age becomes hard when I haven't had much reference… recently” Kinjh explains almost nervously.
“This is my third spring” Skree tells them with a nervous whistle. Kinjh Warbles in distress, their feathers ruffling, “but, it is spring” Kinjh mutters under their breath, giving Skree a sad look. “Do you even know how to fly? Where were your parents?”
Skree feels tears burst from their eyes, “I didnt mean to! Vroo and Wàr and me were just playing around, and- and I thought it was ok! I didnt know it was going to happen!” Skree cries, “Shh, shhh, ‘know what would happen’, Skree?”
“The boundary!” Skree cries out, “We were playing and I was brave , I thought nothing would happen! Vroo and Wàr said nothing would happen! But I went anyways, and humans came and stole me! I thought they were stories !” Skree sobs, their cries echoing through the mostly empty room.
“You're from The Sanctuary ?!” Kinjh cries out in surprise, reeling back as Skree nods in between sobs. “Shh, it's ok, I will get you out of here” Kinjh says soothingly, “I had no clue they had been able to finish it’s construction, I would have tried much harder to escape if I had known they completed it”.
“I will get you out of here È'Skēch, they have to open our cages sometime” Kinjh promises with a protective and vicious glint in their eyes, Skree's tassels glow just a bit brighter as their cries cease.
