Chapter 1

First!!!
Vulture culture is a term used to describe a
community of people who are interested in
collecting, preserving, and studying animal
remains, particularly bones, skulls, and other
natural artifacts. This subculture is often
associated with a deep appreciation for the natural
world and a fascination with the life cycles of living
organisms.

Chapter 1: Our beginning
The sun hovered low in the sky, casting a golden
glow over the sprawling landscape. Around him,
the world seemed to breathe in a rhythm all its
own, a gentle hum of life that only he seemed to
notice. It was a world of endless possibilities—a
world Milo desperately wanted to understand.
At ﬁfteen, Milo was caught in the in-between, no
longer a child yet not quite an adult. The small
town he lived in felt both too big and too small, a
paradox he couldn't quite unravel. The people
around him bustled about their daily lives,
seemingly content in their predictable routines, but
Milo craved something more. Something beyond
the conﬁnes of his
Milo had always been drawn to the unseen, the
forgotten, and the discarded. It was this
fascination that led him to the peculiar subculture
known as "vulture culture." To outsiders, it might
seem odd—an interest in collecting bones,
feathers, and other remnants of the natural world
—but to Milo, it was a way of connecting with
something timeless and profound.
His room was a testament to his passion. Shelves

lined with skulls of small animals, each one
carefully cleaned and polished, nestled beside jars
ﬁlled with delicate feathers and stones. These
treasures, as he called them, were not just
objects; they were stories waiting to be told, and
Milo had taken it upon himself to be their author.
Yet, beneath his fascination lay a deeper quest—a
search for identity. Milo often wondered where he
ﬁt in a world that seemed so neatly categorized.
Was he the artist, the observer, or something else
entirely? The answers eluded him, dancing just out
of reach like shadows in the twilight.
School was a place of contradictions for Milo. He
was both a part of it and apart from it. His
classmates didn't quite understand his interests,
and while they were not unkind, their puzzled
glances reminded him of the chasm between his
world and theirs. He longed for someone who saw
the world as he did, someone who would
understand the beauty in the things others
overlooked.
On this particular evening, Milo ventured to the
edge of town, where the ﬁelds stretched wide and
uninterrupted. It was here, among the whispers of
the wind and the rustle of the grass, that he felt
most at home. The familiar call of a red-tailed

hawk echoed in the distance, a reminder that the
natural world held secrets he was eager to
uncover.
As he wandered, Milo's mind drifted to the stories
he had read about explorers and adventurers.
They, too, had sought something beyond the
horizon, driven by a need to discover what lay
beyond the known. Perhaps, in his own way, Milo
was an explorer, charting a course through the
complexities of adolescence and the mysteries of
life.
With a deep breath, he raised the camera to his
eye, framing the world in a way that felt uniquely
his own. The snap of the shutter was a promise—a
promise to seek, to question, and to discover who
he was amidst the swirling chaos of the universe.
And so, with the setting sun painting the sky in
hues of orange and pink, Milo took his ﬁrst step on
the journey to ﬁnding himself, guided by the call of
the unseen and the whisper of the vulture culture
that had captured his heart.