The Thicket Has Towers

Canvas Forest City never slept.

Above the treetops, the paintbrush towers of Paintbrush Thicket blazed with neon light — tall, narrow structures shaped like enormous upright brushes, their tips glowing blue, gold, and amber against the evening sky. Hover-bikes hummed between them. Digital billboards flickered with news feeds and advertisements in three languages. Below, on the wide promenade, humanoid deer in fashionable coats browsed storefronts beside regular humans, all moving at that busy, shoulder-to-shoulder city pace.

High on a rooftop overlooking it all stood Paintbrush Buck.

His bright blue supersuit caught the wind. His small antlers were sharp against the skyline, and his black mask made his warm brown eyes look even steadier. The giant blue paintbrush materialized in his gloved hand with a quiet hum, and he twirled it once — just a habit.

Below, someone was stuck on a ledge. Again.

He smiled and dropped off the roof.

The Crinkle in the Air

Buck landed softly on the ledge and scooped the little old woman — a short, round human in a polka-dot apron who smelled strongly of cinnamon rolls — off the narrow concrete lip before she could wobble another inch.

"Baker's delivery or wrong turn?" he asked, setting her safely on the rooftop.

"Both," she said, clutching her empty tin. "Thank you, dear."

He grinned and hopped back into the air.

That was the good part of the evening.

Three blocks east, something strange happened. A teenage deer girl — she had spotted brown fur, small ears, and a heavy backpack — sprinted out of an alleyway. She wasn't running from anything. She was running *toward* Buck, waving her arms.

"It's out!" she shouted. "My machine — I didn't mean for it to — it's sending out pulses!"

As if to prove her point, a bright crack of white light split the sky above Paintbrush Thicket. Then Buck felt it. Something was pulling at his powers — tugging them outward, like a magnet dragging iron filings across a table.

His paintbrush flickered. Vanished. Reappeared. Flickered again.