[Wink]

When Wink's white eyelids split open into dark brown eyes, they could only see the sky's harsh red flames. Everything wanted to be red that morning; the dune grass had communally dipped each leaf in berry juice, the rocks adorned their own faded paint, and the endless water shone most vibrantly, as it always did. Even when Wink looked down at her own webbed feet, they tried weakly to turn their aged grey to red. The sky had a funny way of persuading everyone on taking its tones.

Wink blinked strongly and shook her head. If she stared at the sky too long it gave her purple visions. She could not allow that today. Today was the day her search started. Or... restarted. How much longer will she keep going? Wink stood up in her small crevice, a spot between two rocks that had fallen on each other. The duck stared straight outside and stretched her body slowly. Though she looked absentminded, she was far from it. She knew each part of her body by now, and how to wake it up. Wink peeked her brown face out of the crevice, while pulling her wings out from her back. She was glad she could stretch her wings in such small places. She was glad small places existed to wake up her slow body.

There was no one she could see outside. Her eyesight was dull; she did not know it was so poor, and thought it was exceptional to be able to see from one goosebumped-boulder to the other. The last person she told this to was Leymus. She could not tell him anything now.

The small duck stepped outside to the sand and dune grass. The sky's heat was good and warm on her back and legs. Wake up, look at the sky, look outside, warm herself awake. That was always her routine, no matter where she found herself. To that end, she stood still.

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@couriersix