Swift Winds lore

pt2

### **"Out of the Pit, Into the Shadows"** 

Time didn't exist in the hole. Days, weeks, maybe years blurred together in the constant fog of voices, laughter, and watching eyes. Swift stopped counting after her claws were worn down and her voice gave out from screaming back at the silence. 

But even in madness, something inside her refused to die. 

It happened in a moment. A crack in the stone. A tremor in the walls. A glitch in the nightmare. The whispers paused—just for a second. And in that moment of stillness, **Swift ran**. 

She clawed, climbed, bled. Her wings—once majestic—were tattered and torn, but they still carried her upward. The path wasn't clear, but her instincts roared louder than the voices. **Get out. Get out. Get out.** 

And then—light. 

Blinding, searing light. 

Swift burst from the depths, collapsing into a world she barely recognized. The air was real. The sun was warm. Grass brushed her paws. But as her eyes adjusted, she didn’t feel free. 

Because something came with her. 

The whispers were gone… but the **feeling remained**. That creeping sensation on the back of her neck. That shadow in the corner of her eye that vanished when she turned. That voice she thought she heard in the wind. 

She was out—but the **hole was still inside her**. 

At night, she’d stare into the sky, her wings wrapped around her shaking form. She couldn’t trust the silence. Couldn't trust her mind. Every dark corner looked like a mouth ready to swallow her whole again. 

And the worst part? 

She knew **Ace** wanted this. He hadn’t just thrown her into a pit—he’d crafted a **cage inside her mind**. 

Now, Swift roams the wilds, half a ghost, half a legend. A creature who broke free from her prison… yet carries it with her, forever haunted by a place no one else can see.