“Next time, kid, I’ll break those freakish wings o’yers, you get me? Now be grateful, you little gutter pigeon.” He swiped the ground with a claw, casting dirt and stone fragments in her face as she lay on her side, clutching her midsection and groaning. She lay there for a while, occasionally letting out a shuddering breath as she covered her head with a wing, accompanied only by the sound of the wind and the spattering noise the water made as it fell onto the ground.