The Drivetrain Widow

The Silt-Menders swore they could coax a machine into flight if they fed it enough dead teeth. They worked the warrens under the marsh for a generation, and the iron came down from the Forged Vale by the cartload. What they built instead was patient. It waited in the flooded dark, and when the last Silt-Mender came down to check on his work, the Widow was the only thing that climbed back out. What hangs on your wall wears the shape of a butterfly because that is the shape a thing takes when it has learned to lure.

Every layer line is a ridge of intent, printed in stacked color so the rot and the verdigris live in the plastic itself. Never painted on after.