“Ugh, she talks so much about wandering around outside like it's so great but her fur is hella dirty!” 

“At least our fur is clean!” 

“At least we have all our fur!” 

A chorus of cackles erupted behind J.D as she walked away from the pens at the border of town. As always she pretended not to hear them, and focused down on her front paws as she tread towards home.  

These pens held the closest things she had to friends, these friends being the ones who gave her her name J.D. 

J.D, of course stands for Junk Diver. A dig at her home, and her fascination with human garbage. She’d never tell them her real name however, so despite the intention to hurt her she wore the name with pride. She couldn’t help it, the junk yard was filled with so many useful things! Just because the humans discarded them doesn’t mean they’re not still good. What was that thing humans said? ‘One trash is treasure to another man’s… treasure trash?’

Once she got far enough away that she knew they couldn’t see her, she ran her hand through her hair. She groaned as her fingers got stuck in a tangle and after a good tug she pulled out a rubber band knotted into itself with bright red hair jutting out of it. 

“Oh…” 

J.D sighed, and continued walking through the forest on the edge of humanity’s reach, the junkyard came into view. Off to the side, where the first row of trees met the slanted trash piles, stood a structural amalgamation of wood, metal and other trash. It was a clash of colors and textures, not attractive and didn’t appear to be structurally sound, but it held and it was home. 

It had the bare requirements of a house, a door, a window or two, a second floor, even a lopsided balcony. Any adventurous child’s dream fortress, minus the trash. It was undoubtedly a house, but from a distance it blended into the rest of the garbage in the dump, well disguised. 

“Welcome home, me!” She greeted herself. 

J.D slipped into her house and once she nudged the door closed on the world behind her she breathed out a sigh of relief. Home, away from the world within walls she built her very own self. She climbed the steep makeshift wooden steps to her second floor. The miss matched prongs on the ladder-like-stairs creaked under her weight. 

The walls were slanted up here, seemingly held into place by her numerous book shelves that held her treasure trove of nicknacks. Along the walls were pretty rocks, empty bottles, rings, colorful figurines and toys. At the far end of the room surrounded by hanging rainbow disks, was a mass of wires and cables mostly encased in mismatched plastic panels. Each rainbow disk J.D had hung from the wall once she’d pulled the music from it. 

The young Oddcrura dumped her pocket out onto the floor, and sifted through the items to pull out a new disk. She gently blew air on it and brushed it with the back of her hand, mindful of her claws. She inspected the shiny surface, gazing at the letters and pictures on the disk. She didn’t know how it was possible but this small disk held music. 

J.D turned her attention to the technological amalgamation and after a horrible cacophony of machine grinding noises and button presses the small screen lit up and a round tray popped out of the mass. Humming J.D gave the music disk one last brush, placed it in the tray and plugged in her pocket screen. A delightful chime rang from the device as began the slow process of transferring the music to her musical archive. 

She awoke when the disk tray popped out and smacked into her finger. J.D had fallen asleep watching the progress bar slowly creep across the screen. She yawned while she pushed herself off the floor and rubbed her eyes. Glancing at the heap of wires she could tell the transfer was over, with a practiced ease, she popped the disk out, closed the drawer, turned off the archive and grabbed her pocket screen.  

She reached for a nearby bundle of twine and tied it around the rainbow disk and hung it from the ceiling with the others. She leaned back and smiled as they faintly reflected the moonlight that now streamed through the upstairs window. 

J.D leaned out the window slightly and took a deep breath in through the nose, the fur on her neck prickled. Quickly she snatched tarps stored in the corner of the rooms and threw one over her music archive and pinned the other over the window. The shiny disks clanged together softly as she brushed against them. She grabbed two more tarps and headed downstairs, and nearly slipped on her way down.  

As she finished pinning up the other tarps to the windows and gaps she heard the first plinks of rain against the scrap metal roofing. Satisfied, she turned towards her bed in the dark corner of the room.

“Let’s see what we’ve got here!” J.D hummed while she flopped onto her bed and pulled out her pocket screen. 

She wiggled around until the stuffing in her mattress settled comfortably around her. She shook the rectangle device until it woke up. The screen brightened, illuminating the cracks and imperfections of the device, and with a big smile it unlocked and showed rows of little square icons stacked on top of each other. Most of which didn’t work. When J.D tapped on them they’d load forever and show a funny little symbol crossed out. No matter how long she fiddled with the programs and hardware she couldn’t get them to work. 

However the square with the picture of what looked like a funny pair of legs worked fine and it was all she needed right now anyways. J.D wasn’t sure why the symbol was legs and not ears when it's where the music was stored, but she no longer dwells on it. She tapped on it and was greeted by the fresh letters and pictures of the new songs added to her pocket screen. She started at the top, and closed her eyes and listened. 

The first few songs were light and upbeat, so she tapped her hoof softly on the wall. As she listened to the new melodies her nap from earlier started to creep back, reminding her with a yawn, that it was interrupted. She hummed along to the tunes as her eyes drifted closed. The last song faded out, and a new different tone started. She acknowledged the emotional change with drowsy awareness. It sounded beautiful but it started to bring up melancholy feelings. The lyrics started and the vocalist sang low and long notes, drenched in sadness. As the words seeped into her mind the walls of her house melted away into concrete barren walls. They loomed over her, and squeezed her in, she hadn't seen them in so long, they were once so familiar but they suffocate her now.

“Aardwynn?” 

Her heart stopped and she whipped around. Behind her sat the one she’s been missing. A gentle face speckled in freckles framed by soft vermilion hair gazed calmly at her, with a touch of concern. 

“Mom!” J.D ran to her and crashed into her fluffy chest. She wrapped her arms tightly around her and it wasn’t long before she felt the gesture returned.

“Are you alright, Puff Ball?” her voice washed a soothing calm over her, but couldn’t melt the pain in her heart. She misses her so much. Tears burst from her eyes. 

“Oh… Oh…” a gentle hand ran up and down her back. “It's alright, you’ll be out of here soon, I’ll make sure of it.” 

J.D stared up at her through the blurry haze, aghast that her mother misunderstood. 

“But what about you! You have to come with me!” J.D spoke between sobs. 

“Oh Puff Ball, you know I can’t. You remember my stories don’t you? The little lost Oddcrura followed the setting Sun, until she reached the river?” 

“A-And she followed it down stream… to the-to the…” J.D hiccuped. 

“To the home of the twisted trees, where the rest of her family lives. Just remember that, and you’ll make it home.” Her mother soothed as she continued the story's ending. 

“But home is with you! I never found the river! I don’t want to keep walking farther from you!” J.D looked into her mothers soft green eyes and saw her frown. 

“Keep looking, Aardwynn.” Her mother said in a steely tone as she placed her hand on J.D’s cheek and gently wiped away her tears. “You’ll have to go soon.”

She leaned into the hand on her face, and tightened her arms around her mothers torso. 

“I know, I don’t want to…” 

J.D blinked her eyes open and rubbed at her face, the dried tears leaving itchy tracks on her cheeks. She squeezed her arms into her chest still feeling the lingering hug despite the empty space within her embrace. After a moment of quiet she reached for her pocket screen. When it failed to light up she sighed and tossed it on the stool next to her bed, she’ll hook it up to the suncatcher later. 

As she got up, her stomach rumbled. It was time to go find breakfast.