Chapter Text
Zoey was wandering alone in the woods again. It was her favorite place, because there weren’t bullies from the school she was going to and no one yelled at her or in her presence. In the woods, she didn't have to choose a side, or listen to anyone.
In the forest, she could be herself, alone, wandering around and scribbling into her notebook with her pencil, drawing animals or flowers that resided in here.
She was at least lucky with the place she lived at. A small village near huge mountains and surrounded by forests and lakes and beautiful nature. Technology wasn't so popular here, but kids and newly moved-in families often had modern phones and tech so other villagers started getting them too.
Some kids here had phones. Zoey had too.
Zoey was nine and her life was so painfully bad, that she had to flee almost every day. Her parents started fighting and Zoey didn't have a sibling, so she was alone. Every time she tried to go to her mom or dad with a problem, the other parent appeared out of nowhere and started trying to solve the problem, which evolved into a fight with a lot of screaming.
Zoey would then retreat to her room and scribble in one of her notebooks. Her mind was her own safe space, where she could imagine whatever she wanted and no one would judge her for it. She could then write or scribble these ideas down, giving them life instead of leaving them to be just a thought.
Sometimes her parents came in, red in the face and angry. Zoey would get scared. It was always only one of the two. Sometimes, her mom or dad came to her room, always furious.
Sometimes they started to make her choose who was her more favorite parent, sometimes they would take their remaining rage at her, or try to act neutral despite the visible tension. Sometimes the other one would barge in and the fight would continue.
Zoey would then hide in her closet.
Music was a good thing. Music helped her focus or help her get lost in thoughts. She sometimes imagined herself singing the songs she listened to, imagined herself dancing to the rhythm. Zoey often tried dancing to it, but she just wasn't good at that.
She wrote some lyrics down, but that was a secondary hobby. Her first and most favorite one was biology, mythology, history and all those things that held so much information. Zoey was always into animals, creatures and myths alongside with mythical creatures. She was a nerd, how they called her at school.
School was another thing. She hated it. Who would guess that kids could be so mean in such young age? They pushed her around, often shoved her into lockers with a help from older students, call her names with “nerd” being their favorite one.
They'd ask mean things about her hobbies, mocking her and other mean stuff. Zoey tried to defend herself, but with people whose brains weren't working properly and were probably stuck on dead-point in evolution, it was no use.
So she started ignoring them. Tried bringing her headphones to school, but both parents (for once they agreed on something) said it would distract her and that it wasn't allowed. And the one time Zoey managed to get them to the school in her small backpack, they snatched them away the second she put them on and they dragged her to the principal’s office.
Her mother came in that day and when they explained what happened, she took Zoey's headphones away and he girl didn't see them for about a month. Their arguing seemed to be fixated on that one thing for like three months.
Zoey then never wore headphones to school again, but sometimes those kids really made her want to.
But they were never in the forest. Never, not even once had Zoey seen them in here. They were usually hanging out on some playground, the boys trying to impress some girls, or just playing with them. The girls were often mean as well.
She was glad that their parents raised them to never go to the woods alone. Zoey was told that multiple times too, but in the battle of arguing, being exhausted or just simply not caring, they rarely even registered that she wasn't home.
Zoey had her own spot she was coming to almost every day. There was a small water trough that led to a tiny… Zoey forgot the name but it looked like an eeny-meeny tiny lake. Animals were often coming here to drink or just rest and Zoey sometimes saw them.
But they almost every time ran away when they caught her scent or saw her. They didn't have pleasant experiences with humans, and it only got worse once the people from cities started hunting here.
But sometimes, when Zoey had some food and they were willing to stay, she would feed them. It were mostly mothers with their babies or cubs that didn't have strength to go find food themselves.
Even then, Zoey would just place the food in front of them and then carefully back away, so she wouldn't disturb the mothers that were extra protective and more aggressive towards anyone who dared to come close.
Zoey was currently going to the small water supply. She knew the forest like she was living there. Which, basically, she quite was with how little time she was spending in her real home. This felt more like a real home than the house her parents moved into.
The water supply was getting closer. Zoey knew her way and she recognized she was getting close. She stopped for a bit to draw a really pretty flower into her notebook. It looked like bluebells.
Zoey precisely drew the flower into her notebook. She had two every time she went to the woods. One for flowers and the other for animals. The notebook for animals wasn't even halfway full. It was really rare for an animal to stay long enough for Zoey to draw it.
With the flower sketched in her notebook, she continued in her journey to the small water supply. With enough luck, she could see a fallow deer resting there! Zoey wanted to see him so bad.
About twelve steps later, a sharp sound of metal slamming together cut through the quiet of the forest. Not even half a second later, a loud scream followed. The type that you hear just mere seconds before dying.
Zoey jerked, heartbeat fastening and pulse quickening. She heard something similar to this a few times, five tops. It was the sound animals make when they get caught in a metal trap.
But this didn't sound like anything she heard before. It sounded more like a bird than some mammal, but not even birds sounded like that. Maybe it was a specie Zoey never heard about?
Curiosity once again winning, Zoey crouched down and slowly made her way to the sound. It came from somewhere on the right and not even so far away.
Fear was creeping up, trying to overtake Zoey's senses. But she had to push it down, that poor animal was in danger and Zoey wouldn't help if she'd start panicking.
She hid behind a tree. What if there was someone hunting out there? She needed to listen. But all she heard were the distressed bird's sounds. Chirping, panting and silent squeaking echoed through the forest. Was it crying? It was in pain for sure.
When Zoey wanted to leave her hiding spot, someone appeared. “Yo! What the fuck is that?” someone yelled from the place Zoey heard the scream.
Oh no. That's not very good.
A sound of a walkie-talkie sounded. The man started talking to it. “Guys, I have a weird creature trapped. I've never seen anything like this,” it informed whoever was on the other end.
A scared chirp came from the trapped animal, followed by the sound of metal being thrashed around. The creature was resisting.
To Zoey's luck, some man on the other end of the line didn't care about the trapped bird. “You're drunk again. Get your ass back here, we got a wolf on the run. This thing's fur will be sold for at least five hundred bucks, I'm sure as hell of that.”
The man Zoey needed gone right now tried to protest. “But-”
“No buts, Billy. If we skin it today, and properly, it'll be ready by the time the nomads arrive. And you know how much they give for fur or animal skin.”
A shiver ran down Zoey's spine. She knew the not-foreign people that often traveled here to trade and sell, and they often had great things with them. There were less of them now, maybe because of the new systems humanity was inventing, that should make getting new things easier, but they were still there and had to make their deals extra good so people wouldn't lose interest in buying.
They were coming to this small village once in around three or four months. They often had things from lands far away. Polar bear pelts being one of their biggest hits. They were sold in less than five minutes of the seller offering them.
Zoey didn't like seeing all those dead animals, so she stopped going there with her mom a year ago. She ran to the forest and hid herself. She got scolded afterwards, but Zoey didn't really care. She managed to see a fox that day!
“This thing will get us even more money!” the guy, Billy, apparently, tried to make his point to the man in the talkie.
“You drunk, dumb idiot! Get here or you're not getting any of it! if you really have the creature,” the man said that word with a crazed tone. “…trapped, then it will be there when we return! Now stop being a lazy piece of shit and get here!”
Billy grumbled something Zoey couldn't hear properly, but a moment later, she heard how the man ran away. Zoey hoped the wolf would escape, but right now she needed the animal to distract them. She needed to free this bird-sounding animal.
Carefully, she came from behind the tree, cautious not to make any sounds. She saw the creature…
…and her first thought could only be what is this. Not in a bad way, but she never saw something like this.
The quite small body was covered in feathers. And not some normal feathers on other birds, no. This creature was pink. Like full-on pink.
And that wasn't the craziest part. Or maybe it was, but this was competing. The animal was humanoid, slightly taller than Zoey.
Two huge wings were sprouting from its back, also covered in the pink featheres but these were a bit bigger than the feathers on its back.
The creature's legs were similar to birds, but way more resembled human's legs. The thighs were, in structure, same as human's, but covered in the pink feathers. From its knee to toes, it was the skin eagles had on their feet. It had a specific name, hold on…
Shank or tarsus? Something like that, at least if her book about birds was right. The feet's fingers, or toes or… oh! Podotheca! Were ended with huge claws of the same material human's fingernails were.
The bird looking creature also had arms. Yes, arms. Zoey had never seen a bird with all four limbs plus wings. From the shoulder to elbow, it was covered in those pink feathers. But from elbow to those claws, it was the same as on its leg. Tarsus with connected fingers which had claws.
The animal also had a tail. It reminded Zoey of peacocks, but only in its lenght and how the bird now had it displayed in its full glory. It reached somewhere to its ankles and it didn't have any design or pattern. It was the same color as the rest of the feathers, though slightly darker.
It also had some sort of… hair on its head. It reminded Zoey of two pigtails put up, while the rest of the hair flowed freely on its back. Between the wings, it looked really pretty.
But being pretty won't save it from the fact that the creature's leg was trapped in the metal bear trap. The people hunting here often used only bear traps, because were the biggest and could trap literally any animal and they also used the biggest force to trap them.
The animal was honestly lucky that the thing didn't cut its leg off. The spikes of the trap were digging deeply into its ankle, it's probably broken and some bones got misplaced alongside with the fact that it was bleeding.
Zoey needed to do something before the men's return.
With a quiet, shaky breath, she stepped forwards and purposefully stepped onto a stick. It snapped under Zoey's shoe. The creature whipped its head around to look at Zoey, clawed hands held up defensively, ready to defend itself if Zoey attacked.
Zoey slowly raised her hands up. The creature probably didn't understand the gesture, but it felt better having her arms held up in front of a wounded animal.
Zoey could now see its face. Sharp features and quite set jawline, but the weirdest thing? It didn't have a beak, or any bird proportions. It was a normal human face, except for the small feathers.
It's mouth was full of sharp, pointed teeth. Maybe even sharper than bears or wolves or any meat-eating predator had.
Its eyes were black voids, no pupils or irises. Just pitch black. There were some white spots in those eyes. To Zoey, it looked like the sky at night. Pitch black with stars.
Those very eyes were also watering and crying, tears running from its eyes down its cheeks, making those pink feathers wet.
And it was shaking uncontrollably.
“Oh, poor thing…” Zoey cooed when looking at the creature. It must hurt really bad considering it was crying.
Zoey tried a step closer, but the bird flinched backwards, losing its balance and having to regain it by flapping her wings twice, and hissed. At least it was supposed to sound like a hiss – it was more of a terrified squeak.
Zoey crouched in attempt to calm the creature down a bit. It didn't help much, the bird only started to thrash again in the trap's grasp. It was injuring itself even further, more blood flowing from the wound.
“No, don't do that, you'll hurt yourself even more,” Zoey warned, hand outstretched and pointing at the trap the bird couldn't get out of.
The creature chirped sadly, still shaking and trembling from fear. Zoey was sure it didn't trust her, but the few animals she saved before also didn't.
“I can get you out of it,” Zoey offered, looking at the bear trap. She was sure the bird didn't understand her, but it felt better speaking to animals before doing anything. She read somewhere that a calm and soothing voice could have the effect of the animal calming down a bit.
The bird blinked, as if understanding and processing Zoey's words, but that wasn't possible. Animals didn't understand humans. But the creature, though still shaking and trembling, looked like it understood her. Like it knew what she was saying.
A small, barely audible, chirp left the creature's mouth. It sounded uncertain and so scared. It nearly broke Zoey's heart. Was this animal capable of experiencing complex emotions? That would be so cool.
Zoey hesitantly took a step towards the bird, looking at its face for any sign of discomfort. The creature squeaked slightly, but surprisingly didn't flinch. It was still shaking like a wet dog though.
Zoey came all the way to the trapped leg. It twitched slightly when she was close, but stopped moving a second later. Zoey would need to patch it up afterwards if the animal didn't want it to heal poorly.
“These things are a real nightmare,” Zoey muttered, to the bird or to herself, she didn't really know.
Then she carefully touched the trap with both arms. The creature flinched and squealed sadly. “Sorry,” Zoey apologized upon seeing its distress. But she was doing the right thing.
Zoey found the springs. They stretched outwards on both sides of the center jaws. Zoey pushed down with all he force she had. These things were so hard to open, they used so much force to trap animals.
The creature squeaked in surprise. At least Zoey could open the jaws buried in the bird's leg. The girl slowly separated the jaws apart.
The moment they were opened all the way, the bird snapped its leg out of the trap and stumbled backwards. It could only use one leg, but that wasn't a problem, since it had two arms. The creature got on all fours, with the injured leg uselessly held up in the air.
It was slightly twisted and bent to the side, perhaps from all the thrashing and flinching. Not like Zoey blamed it.
The bird bared its fangs, angry expression on its face. Was it going to attack Zoey? The girl started rapidly receding back, until her back hit a tree. She had nowhere to escape, one wrong move and she'd be dead. The creature she rescued was without a doubt predator, judging by the sharp teeth and long claws.
It would maybe chase after her, and it would get her really fast with the wings it had. Zoey's breathing quickened, becoming rapid and shallow.
The animal hissed, sound only a few birds were able to do. Then, completely unexpectedly, it turned around and ran deep into the forest. Zoey could see that it tried to fly, but the maneuvering between the trees made it quite difficult, so it just ran. Slowly, the leg was making it slower.
Zoey could've patched it up. But maybe it was better if the bird ran away, distressed animals are dangerous and putting them into even more stressful situation for them is bad.
Zoey watched as it disappeared, its pink feathers no longer visible. Only then she rose to her feet and collected some things that fell during the rescue mission, she didn't even realize she'd lost some things.
With everything in her arms and pockets again, she continued her way to the water supply. She still wanted to see if there was at least one fallow deer, they were so cute and reminded Zoey of Bambi. She liked that cartoon, though it was quite sad, because Bambi's mom died.