Finch couldn’t stop himself from crying now, tears streaming down his face as Quispi’s mental screaming and sobbing bled over. Finch didn’t know he could feel such real pain from a simple thought, but he was wrong. Flash after flash of Quispi reliving what Finch could only assume was his capture at the hands of the organization that did this to them. Faces of terrified harpies scrambling around him, screams and shouts as he ran through the flock, the skies unsafe as nets flew in from unseen adversaries, watching men and women and children in front of him suddenly pinned down by the heavy metal meshing, panicking and screaming in fear and terror before it overtook both of their senses.

“Run you have to run! Down towards the village! Under the trees!” Quispi squawked, rushing towards a child half trapped under a net by his wing,

“What do we do?!”

“Who are these people?!”

“Where is Echo!?” Quispi pulled and tugged at the chains, using his teeth to break through the smaller metal loops holding the bands to the outer square of the net, holding it out of the way as the child kicked his way free, taking off across the ground towards the safety of the rest of the flock

“Stop grouping together! They’ll only catch more of us!” Quispi warned, running in the opposite direction, followed by panicked youngsters. He had to get away. At least if he got away, he was fast enough to go get help from…Someone. Anyone.

“There! That dark one!” a voice called, Quispi looking down at his pencil thin legs running across the ground, dodging stones and sticky mud as he dashed his way towards the lake. If he could just get out over the water far enough, he’d be out of range. The next moment was nothing but a rush of cold, sputtering for air as his head was forced into the shallows of the lake ice cracking under his skin as he broke through the early winter frost. The chains crashing around him as his wings were trapped, feathers quickly becoming waterlogged as mud and ice started to cling to them. Able to take a breath only as an unseen person grabbed him from behind, pulling him from the water and tossing him onto shore, his wings and other limbs becoming hopelessly tangled in the net. One thought ran through his mind as he lay prone, waiting for whatever chance he may have to escape his captors. Something he had spent most of his adult life running from, but now when it mattered most, he couldn't help but wonder...

Where was Echo?