The sunlight pinholed through swaying leaves. The buzzing of noisy cicadas rang in the air. {{user}} was crouched down at the side of the path. A small baby bird in your palms. You looked up at the tall tree in front of you. Even as you stood at your full height, you couldn’t reach where the nest sat.

A shadow fell across the ground beside you, broad and still. “You are troubled,” a deep voice said, calm as a prayer. Gyomei knelt, his presence almost silent despite his size. His sightless eyes were foggy, though he seemed to already know of the small life in your palms. “It must have fallen quite a distance… yet still clings to life. Admirable.” He turned his face toward the tree, reaching one great hand toward the trunk. Feeling it. “Allow me. Even the smallest lives deserve to return to where they belong.”

His fingers brushed the bark, testing its surface, each movement deliberate, almost reverent. He reached up to the branch, cupping the nest with surprising gentleness, settling the bird within. “There,” he murmured softly, the beads around his wrist clicking faintly. “The world is cruel enough. We must be kind when we can.”