Blood Plume

A white beast in uncontrolled fledging: bone wings peel open in layers like sacrificial plumes. Dark red channels show between the chest cavity and abdominal plates, and a single ghost-blue eye is set into the crown.

It builds no nest and keeps no territory. When it passes human settlements, it drops one blood-warm plume as a mark, takes nothing else, and disappears into the dark.

Three records survive. All begin with “found a feather, then entered a dream.” On waking, each witness reported the sound of wing-bones opening slowly; none saw the whole body.