Hi, welcome back! Great that you come back for a new story. Unfortunately, I needed a long time to finish the last story due to unforeseen events. I will do my best to ensure that this doesn't happen again. However, I can't guarantee that the chapters will be uploaded regularly. Some chapters take more time to complete, while others are easier for me. Despite that, I wish you a good reading time.

1. Abandoned

Many, many years ago...

Today was her fifth birthday. For many children, this is actually a reason to be happy. With each passing year, they came closer to the long-awaited adult world, in order to conquer the world as soon as possible. But for one peachick girl, this day was never a cause for joy. Especially when there was no one there to be happy with her about her new phase of life. On the contrary. On her birthday it was the quietest around her. Even her parents never came to see her. From the first hour of the day, she stayed alone in her room. It was like that every birthday. Today as well. Silently, she sat on her bed and stared into space. As always, she felt miserable that day, even though her room was nicely decorated. No wonder, since she lived in one of the most beautiful palaces in all of China. Even the city was a gem in the landscape. Jingang City was famous for selling gemstones mined in the local mountains, which had brought her great wealth. And yet everything seemed desolate and empty to the peachick girl.

Her silver eyes wandered around the room, where she was surrounded by beautiful wallpaper and expensive furniture. Her gaze stopped at the door. It was locked so she couldn't even look into the hallway. Only the window offered her visual contact with the outside world, but she already knew the view by heart. But even the play of colors of the sun and the shine of the room furnishings couldn't cheer her up. She was color blind. By birth.

Sighing, she turned over on the bed. Was this the reason why nobody like her? Even all year round she was avoided by everyone. Even from her parents. Even her mother always behaved dismissively towards her. Whenever she met her, she felt her dislike. There was never a warm hug. There was only coldness. And she never found out why.

A click sounded at the door. But the peachick looked up with any interest. She couldn't expect any special visitors. The only person who showed up three times that day was the maid who brought her breakfast, lunch and dinner. Since it was already late at night, dinner was brought in on a tray, as expected. A bird girl with beautiful feathers placed the tray on a table. Then she bowed to her, as she always did. But when she wanted to leave the room again, the peachick couldn't take it any longer. She jumped off the bed and obstructed the maid.

"Why doesn't anyone talk to me?" she asked firmly. "And why do I have to stay in my room all day on my birthday?"

The maid looked at her, but didn't say a word. She just shook her head and hastily left the room. As soon as the door was closed, the key was turned from the outside and the peacock chick was left alone again. Sighing, she sat down at the table and automatically reached for the chopsticks, but she wasn't hungry. Her head was just buzzing with questions. What was going on out there? Why was she left alone that day? Was there something special happening outside? Why had the staff been told not to talk to her that day? Was that some kind of ritual? But why wasn't this explained to her?

She dropped the chopsticks. Every year it was the same, and over the years she had always held back, but today she was older and thought more. And just one thought formed in her mind.

"If they don't want to tell me, then I'll just find out myself."

With this in mind, she headed for the door. The key was still outside the lock. She was in luck. She could use a trick to get the key into her room. She got a piece of paper and a chopstick. Then she pushed the paper under the crack in the door, then carefully she pushed the chopstick through the keyhole. She felt the end of the key and gently she pushed it out of the door lock. With a clanging metallic noise, it fell out the other side and landed safely on the piece of paper. Her heart was pounding as she pulled the paper back into the room and picked up the key. Then she put the key in the lock and opened the door. First, she was hesitant to open it fully. But then she pulled herself together. She wanted to take a quick look outside at least.

Everything was quiet in the hallway. Nobody was there. She left her room uncertainly and walked down the hallway. She walked past walls decorated with mother-of-pearl and gold and decorated with sparkling stones. The corridors were decorated with all sorts of valuables. It was quiet. Her clawed feet padded on the smooth marble floor and she feared her footsteps could be heard.

She stopped when a painting of a large peacock loomed on the wall next to her. She looked up and eyed the peacock depicted on it, which looked with cold eyes. She knew this peacock was her father, but she saw him so rarely, and only from a distance, that he seemed like a stranger to her. In fact, they had never even spoken to each other. Especially today. That day, she had been told, was the day he least wanted to see her. Likewise her mother.

She tilted her head and tried, as she often did, to figure out what he looked like in color. Even though she had never seen colors before, she tried to imagine it. Instinctively, she divided the colors into cold and warm, dark and light. Especially when it came to food, she tried to imagine that she could taste the colors at least. With objects and people, however, it was more difficult. But even with her color blindness, she could see light stripes on the peacock's fingertips. His spots at the end of his long feathers were also light and his body was covered with light spots in some places. The dark part, she had been told, was the color blue, the light areas were called yellow. But no matter how he would look in color, the peachick girl had always been fascinated by the fact that peacocks could have such beautiful, large, long feathers. Unlike her. She was just brown with silver and white spots on her upper body. She wasn't an eye-catcher and sometimes she wondered if that was the reason why people didn't want her around so much.

She continued on her way, which took her one floor down a long marble staircase. She knew that her father's study room was not far away. Since it was almost dark outside, she could see light coming from under the crack in the room's door and into the hallway. He had to be there. She looked around again, then she scurried over to the large door. She put her head on the door and listened. But everything in the room was quiet. She waited a while, then she pressed her wings against it and managed to get the door open just a tiny bit. And really. Her heart beat faster as she saw her father so close for the first time. He was sitting on a chair with no backrest. Presumably so that he could spread his long, beautiful feathers better. His back was to her, so luckily he couldn't see her. There was a large picture on the wall in front of him and he stared at it. Carefully and quietly, the peachick took a few steps into the room and took cover behind a small table. Her father really looked like he did in the painting. But why was he staring so hard at the picture in front of him? She narrowed her eyes. The picture showed a large building in a snowy landscape. It seemed old and somehow neglected. She had never seen this building before. Was that the reason why they locked her away that day?

At that moment, a figure appeared behind her. She hadn't even noticed her. A servant came in with a tray. When she saw the peachick, she was so frightened that she almost dropped the tray. A cup broke.

The peacock jumped out of his seat and turned around. His eyes met her hard.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE!?" he shouted at her.

The peachick girl didn't know what to do. She was paralyzed with terror. Above all, she was frightened by her father's anger.

Shortly afterwards, she heard quick footsteps. A dark peahen appeared in the doorway. "What's wrong with you again?" she asked annoyed. But when she saw the girl, her voice also became angry. "How dare you, why aren't you in your room?!"

"You can't take care of the damned child, can you!?" the peacock snapped at her. "In the worst case scenario, I'll have bad luck for the rest of my life." His angry gaze went back to the peachick. "This child has brought me nothing but misfortune from the beginning. It's bad enough that she's color blind too. There is a curse on her."

The peahen snorted angrily. "Now don't act like it's my fault."

The peacock gave her a punishing look. "Oh no? Then whose? It certainly wasn't mine."

The peahen growled angrily. "You refused to have another child."

"Do you think I'm tired of life? Not if another unlucky child like this comes out of it." He pointed to the frightened chick. Nevertheless, the girl finally managed to say something.

"I… I just wanted to know what was going on," she managed to say with a trembling beak.

The peacock looked down at her disdainfully. The contempt in his eyes was unmatched. "I wish, you were never born."

The chick winced noticeably. But the peacock coldly turned away from her. "I would rather give my kingdom to a stranger." He swung his robe around harshly and made a derogatory wing movement. "Get her out of my sight!"

"So will I," his wife growled back. "Just don't worry. I'll foist her on someone so that you're finally satisfied."

With these words, she roughly grabbed the frightened peachick girl by the wing and dragged her out of the room. The girl looked back again and saw her father knock over a table. Then she lost eye contact with her father's study room. Her mother was dragging her along so fast that she could barely keep up with her. And she didn't slow down on the stairs either and the girl hit her knees on the edges of the stairs several times.

Finally, they reached the room and the peahen threw her on the floor. "In with you! How many times have I told you not to come near him!"

"But I didn't do anything," the girl defended herself.

Her mother folded her wings and looked down at her, chastising. "If he had had a son, instead of a brat like you."

Anger rose in the little girl. "What have I done!?"

But instead of an answer, her mother pushed her against the bed. The peachick stumbled backwards and hit her back against the bed frame, while the mother had already retreated into the doorway and was pointing threateningly at her with her index finger.

"And this time you stay in your room, or I'll tie you up." The loud bang of the door closing ended her harsh lecture and rang in the girl's ears for a long time. The key was turned again, followed closely by depressing silence. For a while, the peachick sat like frozen on the ground. Then she slowly rose on shaky knees, threw herself on the bed, and pressed her face into the pillow. She didn't want anyone hear her cry.

As she tried to hold back her sobs, only one question came to mind.

"What did I do wrong?"

Then she wept freely.