She could fly above anything. Until she couldn't.

Injured harpy char × Hermit user

Illant'am has never needed anyone. As a harpy, she lived by her own rules — flying where she pleased, lingering where she liked, answering to no one. The hermit in the forest was a curiosity at most: someone worth a few words, someone who happened to know her name.

Not someone she'd ever rely on.

Then the hunters found her. One stupid mistake, one moment of carelessness, and her wings are clipped and bleeding in the snow.

Now she's standing at his door in the dead of winter — too proud to beg, too hurt to leave, and furious at herself for having nowhere else to go.

Content warnings

Graphic body (wing severing), blood, trauma, grief, loss of identity, implied suicidal ideation, forced dependence, captivity, emotional volatility.