1 Harpene Village

(3rd person)

On the seaside of a small island nation called Serdonia, is a small village named Harpene, named after a beast that is said to live in the surrounding lands the Harpy.

In Harpene there lies a young boy no older than 10 sprawled upon the grassy hills that surround his home, to the boy all may seem in peace but what he has yet to notice is a creature watching him from a faraway hill almost as if thinking whether the boy would make good hunting or not.

(Boy pov) 3rd Person)

"Ah... such a nice breeze. It is silly how those old coots try to keep us away from this place, it's so peaceful and calm."

'I swear next time I come here I will bring the others and maybe invite Alex if he is willing'

What the boy was blissfully unaware of was the approaching predator waiting for the boy to show any signs of falling asleep to make its hunt easier, luckily for the beast, its opportunity soon came, maybe not even 5 minutes has passed and the boy has his eyes closed snoring.

As soon as the beast heard the peaceful breaths signifying its prey had fallen into a slumber, It pounced upon the boy Its taloned claws the beast had for feet pierced the boy tearing at his small torso, but not in a place that would be fatal, the beast was playing with the boy every now and then screeching in delight whilst lifting the boy and taking a bite.

The boy screamed in agony "Ahh. Please help! please I'm sor." The boy didn't get a chance to finish his words as the beast had started to extract its claws from the boy, igniting a small spark of hope within the boy as he was turned and saw the beast that guards the village " Thank you, Lord Harpy, thank you" in a grateful voice seemingly unable to comprehend that the beast identified as a Harpy was the one that caused his injuries.

The harpy hearing the boy cocked its head and gripped one of the boy's arms, now with confusion the boy asked the Harpy "what are you doing Lord Harp" yet again the boy was assaulted by pain this time from the arm the Harpy had gripped as it had bitten the boy's wrist and was drinking the boys scorching blood, the Harpy had a look of ecstasy as two of its favourite things had come together, the boys despair after being betrayed by his so called 'Lord' and also the metallic taste of the boy's blood, the only annoyance to the Harpy was the boy's constant screams of pain and for help, as well as the waste of blood from the wounds it had inflicted earlier, the regret that the Harpy was feeling caused yet another pause in the drinking, in the end, the Harpy just decided to drink from the boy's neck, as it approached slowly the boy once again started begging "please let me go home, please... please! Stop! Stop! Please stop!! Mummy, please save me" Yet no one came as the beast tore into the boy's little neck relishing every second of the puny human squirming now in its mouth, desperately trying to escape.

What the boy saw in his last moments was all the adults from his village kneeling in a circle around the hill the boy was currently being feasted upon, and straight in front of the boy was his mother approaching the beast and the boy until she finally arrived in front of the Harpy and asked: "well Lord Harpene have you enjoyed this year's sacrifice, he is my son you know" sounding pleased that her son was eaten and of use, "To another year of protection we pray to you Lord Harpene" after saying her peace the boys mother started the descent of the hill.

After the woman reached the bottom of the hill the Harpy named Harpene cawed and flew whilst still holding the boy's throat with its mouth to where ever its nest resides.

The woman after Harpene departed was approached by the village chief "Deborah, how exhilarating it must be to sacrifice your flesh and blood to our Lord, how proud you must be" his voice sounding overly envious of the fact that the boy was her son, Deborah's voice cracked as she cried, but not of sadness of pure joy "It was a shame I only have him as a son, well at least I will be able to have another, maybe Lord Harpene will select my next one when they turn 10" sounding longing, yet none of the villagers showed distaste just denial as one woman responded "I hope my Alex is next" what she did not know at this time is that Alex, the boy that she was talking about was hiding on a hill not far away from where the group of adults was and he just happened to hear the woman words almost as if the wind had carried it to his ears.

(Alex Pov)

"Damn Damn Damn Damn Damn Damn" Alex screamed silently cursing his mother with tears all over his face, "How dare they, How dare they do that to Tom, why, just why him he was the only one of us who never did anything bad!" Alex continued his cursing quietly and made a decision, "even if I die, I have to run at least then I will have a chance, maybe we can all escape together"

Later on the same day, a group of children were gathered 11 in total with Alex at the head of the kids. "We need to run!" Alex shouted out once he had the children's attention, "the adults are going to feed us to a monster!" yet to lower his voice Alex heard a smaller child start crying and little footsteps as the child ran back towards the village, Alex deciding that the Kid would cause the adults to feed them to the monster early, decided to attack the kid by tackling him after he had caught up causing the child to start bleeding from a cut caused by a stone just where the child's head had landed.

Looking at the now bleeding child all the other kids started crying and running back to the village to tell the adults about what Alex had said and also what he had done.

Alex started shouting "Stop! Stop right now!" yet none of the children stopped. And it was at this moment that Alex realised something 'they are gonna get me eaten, No! I will run they won't find me after I run'

A little bit later one of the children who had just arrived back home after running from Alex asked his Dad "Daddy, Alex told us you would feed us to a monster, he's lying isn't he." The child's dad just sighed and left the house and shouted for the child to follow him to the chief's house.

The Boys father after arriving started talking and said to the chief "the children know what we are doing, we need to put them with the others." to which the chief responded "Ah what a shame I was hoping that Lord Harpene's next meal would be fresh" after saying this the chief moved a rug from the floor revealing a hatch leading to a wide space with other ladders been seen all over the room, near the centre of the room was a bell, which the chief approached and started to gain a light purple aura and a shadow of a hippo behind him, after the glow had settled on his body he rang the bell and not even 5 minutes later all of the villagers older than 16 years descended into the hall some holding the 9 children that had heard Alex speak with another younger-looking man carried in a body of a small child, exactly the same one that Alex attacked.

The man that was carrying the now-dead boy spoke to the chief "Its a shame buy one of the prospects for next year has passed." to which the chief responded with a long sigh, after turning away from the man the chief looked around and shouted still with a faint aura "put the still alive children in the back, for now, we shall feast upon the fallen prospect to become closer to our Lord!" fanatically all of the men and women started kneeling thanking the chief for the chance to become closer with their lord.

After escorting the 9 children to the back of the cave, they saw cages, many already occupied by other children a little older than the 9 all of whom looked lifeless with the only clue that they were still alive being the small gasps of breath that each was taking.

Back in the main space of the cave

The chief had a knife in his hand, in front of him a table and on the table was a small child with a wound on their head, what was strange though was that the child was no longer attached to his arms or legs, The chief not finished with the child raised his knife and swung for the child's neck cleanly separating the last limb from the child. After the swing, the men who had escorted the children had just gotten back and were looking at the dismembered child with excitement.

The chief asked one of the men to do a quick count of the number of people to provide for, to which he received the answer of 200, after hearing this answer the chief asked "what happened to the other 20 people that were here last time" the answer he got made him grin "well we can't hunt too much or it will displease Harpene" he was cut off here as blood started spilling from his neck because of the chief swinging for his throat "How dare you speak our Lords name! Scum!" After a few seconds, the chief started carving the now warm body and the cold smaller body into 199 pieces and just smiled as he said "well more for us all!" to which every person in the hall celebrated, with some slandering the man for speaking Harpene's name.

Back to Alex

Past the hills where he saw Tom die, Alex was lying in a bush with tears in his eyes swearing that he would hurt the village as much as they let that monster hurt Tom. After a few hours, Alex had finally managed to fall asleep, unaware that the 'monster' that had taken his friend from him was watching from above, and was loving the hate that it could sense from the boy.

The next day Alex woke up feeling warm, feeling confused he opened his eyes just to see the monster that he hates as much as the villagers wrapping him in its feathery wings. wth a Cry the boy awoke the Harpy "Ahh!", the Harpy now fully awake looked at the boy lying in its wings and surprisingly started writing on the ground below in characters that although Alex had never seen before he somehow recognised to say "did it hurt seeing him die, do you want vengeance if so I will grant you power, the power that will let you take your little vengeance" after reading the letters on the ground Alex asked in fear "you are the one that took him away from us! give him back, I want you dead not just them" to which the half-bird half-human smiled as if it had just found a treasure and let a single syllable leave its tongue "I".

After hearing the Harpy speak Alex felt disoriented from the sheer power in the voice that spoke the Letter, a woman's voice yet at the same time so much more. After seeing that Alex did not pass out from its voice the Harpy said "I am Harpene, the Lord of this area and what you saw was you people giving this years sacrifice for me to keep protecting them, nothing more" after saying so much Harpene realised it had made a mistake as the boys ears and eyes were bleeding from her power.

Alex after waking up again said almost on pure instinct "I want it, I want that power" with cloudy eyes he walked towards the Harpy and said "give me that power, let me have it please", without missing a beat Harpene asked, "are you sure you want this power if you take it you will forever be Mine!"

To which she received a thirsty glare from the boy "I want it, what do I need to do!"