The Grackle
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- Parts 22
Ambriel has managed to avoid the 'curse' that has turned most of humanity into monsters. After being separated from her mother as a child, Ambriel keeps her head down by earning her keep as a scavenger. That is until one morning, she ventures too far into the DeadLands and crashes face-first into a black, plumed monster who she dubs, Grackle. Ambriel just wants to survive. Grackle refuses to release her unless he can guarantee she is not a threat to his kind. And so, the two of them strike a deal.
After both Ambriel and Grackle are free from one another, a twist of fate brings them together once again when Ambriel and her childhood friend end up in Grackle's village. It is here, a village where the curse thrives, that Ambriel unravels the truth of their world, and she finds love where she least expected it - the foul-mouthed, terrifying, and soft-hearted Grackle.
A/N: This is my experimental novella for #ONC2023. Trying some new things here so forgive the err, "first draftiness" of it. The cover is temporary.
[Prompt in chapter 4, prompt #16: The world did not end in a bang, or a whisper, but rather, one scream at a time.]
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