Flashing lights shone through the small window at the top of the room they hid in. Their body and the body of their sleeping partner occasionally becoming visible. Their wings were up, ready to fly, but in this concrete room there was no sky to soar away in.

Their partner slept with unease, frowning and clenching his fists. His wings were gone now, at least this time willingly, and now the two of them waited for more potion to arrive so they could leave this hellish place.

Their partner was a mutation, not supposed to have survived his early years. He was a hummingbird, less than 110cm tall, but it came with a horrible reality. He couldn't fly, and his body wasn't properly developed. But still, even with a lack of arms or feet, their partner continued to thrive as best as he could with his bionic limbs and mechanical heart.

They, on the other hand, were relatively well off. They were a crow, a common avian. Their body was fully developed and functional. They'd come to this place on their trek to get their partner the healing he needed, but now they were stuck. Stuck in a tiny basement of an allied human household where the police scoured the streets above for their kind above.

They loved their partner more than anything. Something in their soul told them that where they were going, the merfolk capital, would lead them to their other partners.

Their partner had told them once, while they were hiding in a ditch with a searchlight shining down on them, that lost souls are all searching for salvation in one form or another. That their souls were looking for salvation from the war.

They liked that. To think that there were others out there, like the two of them, hiding in the dark and the cold, trying to get where they wanted to be.

-----

The merfolk tended to her star crop carefully, closing her eyes and letting her third eye choose the stars that were ready. She slowly moved her hand over the stars around her, picking up those that warmed her skin, and put them into the basket above her head. Her skin was dark, only illuminated by the moon above her and the stars that were caught in the weeds surrounding her. The basket got heavier and heavier with each star, and when it was full she swam to put it on the cart that sat, wading in the shallow water.

She swam now, into the warm water. She swam deeper and deeper into the abyss of ocean with one thought in mind. She held the star she'd snuck away underneath her, hiding it from the watching eyes above, but letting it become a beacon for the creatures down below.

When she began to find it hard to breathe, she turned right. She swam into a kelp forest; a mass of unharvested kelp on the outskirts of merfolk domain. It was so dark down here that the only thing that gave light was the star, now held out as a beacon. She waited now, in the thick of the kelp and the heavy water, waiting for her friend to come.

She could hear, faintly, something large moving through the kelp around her, and she held the star above her head. Soon, her friend came, their body twisting around the small clearing. Their body was ever so faintly illuminated by the star that they now both held.

They were darker than any other merfolk she had seen, black scales and black fins with the faintest navy green markings around their eyes and what she assumed were their ears; long, dark tendrils floating in the water behind them.

They surrounded her now, their faces only a few centimetres apart, with their tail loosely wrapped around hers. The first time they had grabbed her like this, she thought she was going to die down here in the dark, on the outskirts of her city.

The two of them drew closer and closer, and her friend let out a few chirps as their foreheads touched. Webbed, three-fingered hands touched her face and neck. There was four, she'd noted. The top two were much larger and less webbed, but the bottom two were almost that of a frog. She wondered why they had four.

Her friend chirped some more, took her star gently, and as quickly as they'd come to see her, they'd left again. Their only remanence the warmth left on her face, and their chirps that echoed through the forest.

Beautiful, she thought, as she made her climb back up to the city.

-------

He wondered why they were running. He and his tribe had fled into the mountains a long time ago, when he was but a foal, and now they were running once more. They ran from the mountains with the same fear that they had run to them with.

The fear of death.

His tribe was small, less than a hundred centaurs, just enough to make a stable community. But as they fled down to the fields of the East, their numbers had grown steadily. There was now far over two hundred of them. He didn't like to be so surrounded by new faces, but with hardship came good things. He'd found his partner for life, a Sorraian colt who'd come from the peninsula.

His lover was curled into him, their bodies close to the warmth of the fire. The Sorraian was curled over a mattress - a round mass of cloth and sheets - and in turn he was leaning on him. The smaller was just 17, just shy of becoming a stallion, whereas he was a stallion of 3 years. His body mass and aura were very telling of that.

When his father had died, he assumed the position of alpha male. A full grown Clydesdale now, he towered over the other males in his tribe. If anyone had wanted to become the alpha, they'd have to fight his mass and sheer power.

"You still awake?" He asked his partner.

"Yeah, barely. What's up?"

"I'm worried. For my tribe, our tribe. Every day we are forced to move rather than let our wounded heal. And with growing numbers we can't guarantee grazing lands for everyone."

"We'll be alright, I promise. The fields are plenty for this tribe. I lived there, as a foal. Any news from your sister?"

"Yeah. She's going on a mission again. With that pipsqueak avian friend of hers."

He brought his arms around his partners waist and squeezed, kissing the back of his head. When he knew his lover was asleep, unbeknownst to his words, he looked up to the cloudy sky.

"I hope you're safe, Sadie. We miss you."

He swore that the stars flickered after that, for him.