Disclaimer: I don't own AMC's The Walking Dead. Everything belongs to whoever owns them, my wishful thinking aside.

Authors Note #1: Set post-season five, but before the beginning of season six with some past scenes in season one for good measure. This fic focuses on the daemon!trope, from "His Dark Material's" series, by Phillip Pullman. I recommend reading the wiki on the subject, but here is what is relevant for this story. *Dæmons are the physical manifestation of a person's 'inner-self'/soul that takes the form of an animal. Before puberty, children's dæmons can change form to become any creature, real or imaginary. During their adolescence a person's dæmon undergoes "settling," where the dæmon assumes the form of the animal which the person most resembles in character. Dæmons and their humans are almost always of different genders, except for homosexual characters which, are referenced as having a daemon on the same gender. Touching another person's daemon is strictly taboo and unless done with the full consent of both the daemon and the human, is a feeling akin to rape. It is acceptable between lovers but considered deeply intimate. A daemon and human can only be separated by a relatively small amount of space, so even if your daemon is a bird, they cannot fly far or high from their human counterpart.

Warnings: adult language, adult themes, fantasy-elements represented and discussed.