Chereads / I'm A Monster, A Harpy / Chapter 2 - Chapter 2 - Strange Encounter

Chapter 2 - Chapter 2 - Strange Encounter

After throughly reading all of her abilities and titles the harpy girl stayed in the sitting position for a while longer, her mind racing through information before she slowly gets up, using the tree as support by pushing her wings against it and using the agile legs to get up, a feat that would be much easier with a pair of hands, or opposable thumbs for that matter. 

'I need to focus... If I'm going to survive I need the basics, like water and food, but to get either I need to know what I can do...' The Harpy says, barely pulling herself togheter because of hunger, afterall pain begets change. After saying which she spreads her wings a bit, a river would be the best place to find water and if she was lucky the normal fish would probably not be some end game monster, and even if it was rabbits and other small game should be around a body of water from her line of thought. 

Ariara, being a bit skeptical of the Flight skill started with small flaps, not really sure how casting such an ability would be done, but instead of just looking like a chicken Ariara draws a short breath as her body starts to take off the ground, her legs twitching in surprise at the feeling of the ground disappearing, looking at her wings, it seems to her like that wind magic is pretty fancy, small gusts of air coming from there to help her light body off the ground

But as Ariara rejoices this new discovery, wondering how much mana it consumes, this joy is short lived as an arrow flies just past her right wing, the Harpy squeaking at it, surprised by the sudden attack losing the small balance it was starting to make and taking instead a small fall to the ground, nothing really bone breaking but quite annoying, something she'll definetly feel in the morning because of the small stones she didn't note before between the grass. 

But something more important was standing just a few meters from Ariara, a small in height human-like guy, if the Harpy could describe it as anything it was like a dwarf, but that's not really to say much since the girl from another world was pretty tall, nevertheless the dwarf guy isn't very muscular, but what it was wielding was the thing that worried her the most: an axe. Not a big battle axe, more like a woodcutter one, which, mind you, still looked threatening enough. He isn't really showing off fancy armor, instead seemingly suited in a normal cloth, something that nowadays wouldn't even be considered clothing, and a bag on the back. 

But apart from the dwarf Ariara could also see another person, wielding the bow that just shot the arrow at her, this one was around her height, apart from the bow and a quiver which seemed to be closed, the bow already having prepared another arrow, he also seemed to have some kind of cloak covering most of it's body, the quiver over it on his back and a belt which seemed to have a few pouches filled with stuff in them. 

But just as Ariara gets up, the two seem to... Converse, the bird girl not really understanding the words though, most likely a different language as the words seemed twisted to her, almost too fast and as they're said they already seem to be over as the Harpy gets up, gulping as she sees something really scary, the dwarf, or whatever it was, his eyes had turned mostly red, the white of the pupil having turned like the color of blood and it seemed like that was what it was looking for as he rushes forward, brandishing it's axe and attacking the Harpy in a wide arc, seemingly struggling a bit with the weight of the axe. 

Ariara is taken aback, expecting atleast being able to try to talk her way out of the encounter but in a panic flapping her wings away from the warrior, the gusts of wings released from the wings allowing her for a safe dodge and seemingly pushing the guy back and out of position, an arrow being released and seemingly missing because of the sudden wind movement, pushing the dwarf in the direction the arrow was heading, a yell filling the air as Ariara can see an arrow poking out of the warrior's right shoulder, or rather the back of it. 

But instead of attacking again like the monster thought he would, the axe-wielding brute turns with a look of absolute anger, using it's other hand reaching over for the arrow and trying to get it out, instead breaking it and yelling more, with anger quickly starting to rush towards what Ariara thought was his companion, the archer breaking sweat and trying to put another arrow in the bow, the Harpy surprised, not even having seen where the arrow came from. 

Sadly for the archer, the arrow hits the brute, but it hits the right leg, an unfortunate place for an arrow that went wide from where it was supposed to hit even from melee distance, this being bad news because of the swing that came up next, with a swift attack the axe warrior seemingly pulls unorthodox strenght from nowhere, the archer standing no chance at blocking it, the coat not really offering an advantage as the two barge into eachoter, the brute's downward attack with both hands bringing down the enemy with itself because of the arrow in the leg. 

Meanwhile in this Ariara is surprised, but most importantly thanking her Gods above, she had a few fights at school or when she was young but to see actual bloodshed and being in danger herself actually activating her instincts, seeing the enemies going down togheter she quickly thinks, what could she do? Running away wouldn't be the best option... Scanning through her memory she quickly forms a plan, hoping her lucky stars not to give up on her yet she points her wings forward, focusing with all her being and hoping what she's planning works. 

And indeed, with a small delay a small spark of fire appears in midair and is thrown to the two enemies currently on the ground, sparkling a few times when touching the two before... Silence, a small blade of wind moving the grass and caressing Ariara's feathers, her not being sure however she casts the fire spell once again, and again, really scared of the warrior getting back up and slicing her body with the bloodied axe.

And then... Nothing, the Harpy looking at the two presumable corpses for a few minutes, apparently not catching on fire for some reason not known to her, wasn't it a fire starter? But after that thought quickly passes her mind the monster starts breathing again, something she had been holding and taking small portions of during the tense minutes after the attack of the dwarf on the archer. 

'I... I'll have to get used to killing...' The monster thinks to herself, braving herself up for the journey before sighing 'If I'm to survive... I need to make the most of everything' Ariara's thoughts fill with uncertainty over what she starts doing as she moves her left wing closer to her head before nabbing one of her feathers with her mouth and pulling on it, screaming internally as it plucks.