The wind whistled lowly across the moor, causing weeds and scattered patches of grass to bob up and down from the mostly barren ground. Nearby, waves of water sucked and sloshed against the dry walls of the river bed. A few crickets chirped in the distance, their normally harmonized music now chaotic squalls of despair.
The reeds rustled, and a small figure emerged from the sparse foliage. A green-feathered pelican, his hat dusty from the dry breeze, walked to the old abandoned shack that stood lonely by the river bed. He raised his wing to give the front door a few taps, but before he had the chance, the wood panel that kept the shack sealed shut cracked open. Two bright blue eyes gleamed in the dark of the shack, and the pelican drew a sharp gasp when a female's voice spoke to him.
"What do you want?" the figure in the shack demanded, her tone steady and commanding.
At once, the pelican stood straight. "Uh, I have a letter to deliver to you. It's from…Animal Village."
A pair of paws snatched the letter from the pelicans shaking wings. Overhead, clouds were beginning to form, darkening the outline of the figure in the shack even more. Her eyes shone first in doubt, then in surprise when she glimpsed the handwriting on the letter. It was almost as if she were familiar with the handwriting, the way just the address had been scrawled across the front of the envelope.
Then, the figure in the shack spoke sharply again. "Well? What are you planning to do, stand there all night?"
The pelican shook himself. "N-no. Of course not. I just … There isn't a return address on the letter, so I …"
"So?"
He shook his head. "Nothing. What matters is that it got delivered."
"Very well then. Goodbye."
Without hesitation, the figure in the shack slammed the panel of wood against the opening in the wall yet again. The pelican stood outside by himself, shivering in the September night wind. He waited for just a moment to see if he would be beckoned again, but unsurprisingly, the figure inside of the shack was finished talking to him. He whirled around and took flight into the sky, flying north of the dirty, barren town to Animal Village.
Inside the shack, the dark figure hungrily and greedily ripped open the mysterious envelope to read the letter inside. Her eyes frantically skimmed from the top of the paper to the bottom, her heart sinking with every word:
"You have to come back. Things are not well in Animal Village. There is no food, and a shortage of clean water. Our population is shrinking as the days go on. Don't tell anyone I sent for you. We need help. I can help you once you get here.
Signed,
You know who I am"
The reader of the letter looked up and curled her paws around the paper, crinkling it into her fists. A surge of anger bubbled inside of her, and she knew she must return to the very same town that had, at different times, both built and destroyed her.