Young Writers Society

Queenie stepped up behind Bobby and placed a hand on his shoulder. She knew, somehow, that the fruit he'd taken was safe to eat, but she couldn't recall where she'd seen it last. Then again, she couldn't recall much of anything.

She left the explaining to the others, however. Frankly, she didn't care enough.

"Frankly, I've never heard of such a creature." Tarkin eyed the tomato that Ari had conjured with extreme caution. It wasn't the strangest thing he'd seen in his time in this jungle, but it wasn't something he was willing to trust just yet. "This group was running from it; perhaps they can provide insight?"

Amoku looked at the girl, "What about the harpy? Oh we have no problem here. Just an immortal harpy that hates us."

"Would you please tell us what exactly that is?" Tarkin asked. He was losing his patience.

Loki's stomach grumbled.

Part of him wished he had asked for the tomato instead, but a single glance at the boy who had taken it made him feel guilty. The boy needed it more. Loki hadn't ever been like that before, but he had been...

He furrowed his brow, the little bit of knowledge and memory slipping away before he could fully figure out what it meant.

He gave the snake a little pat on the head with his finger again.

"A harpy is like a human mixed with a bird," Loki said. "I...I think they're not always mean? We might have just annoyed this harpy by throwing a stick at her."

He glanced down at the snake on his shoulder. He couldn't shake the feeling that this snake somehow knew exactly what he was talking about. It wasn't just the way that the snake carried itself - even though its posture did make it seem weirdly human. There was something else, too. It had to be the feeling of friendship he had earlier.

But that wasn't helping at all.

Loki frowned, but he quickly hid his confused frown behind a friendly smile.

"I'm Loki, by the way," he offered. "Loki A. Lias."

Amoku sighed, "A harpy is a half-human, half-bird, but I guess you can already deduce that from what she looks like. And since she is immortal, we can't kill her. Oh yeah, and depending on the type, they eat humans and have poisonous talons."

Ari groaned. “Oh, great. Well, I don’t suppose throwing tomatoes at the harpy would help?”

Loki gave Amoku a startled look. Though he couldn't see his snake's face at the moment, his snake also gave Amoku a startled look. That just felt wrong. There might have been different types of harpies, but he was pretty sure they didn't eat people. And their talons weren't poisonous - they were just sharp. And painful. And really good at leaving deep cuts.

...Why did he feel like he knew that from experience?

"I don't think the tomatoes would help," Loki quickly replied. He shoved his confusion and worry to the side. It would be easier focusing on this conversation than trying to figure out the memories he no longer had. "I think that would just make her even angrier at us."

"If the creature is immortal, as this fellow says," Tarkin mused, gesturing to Amoku, "then we have no chance of actually killing it. Deterring it or containing it is a possibility, however. I lack the resources to make any such attempt, but if any of you have something of use I'm sure we could subdue the threat post haste."

"We could also try running and hiding from her," Loki suggested. He glanced at the others in the group, trying - and failing - to read their reactions to his suggestion. "She would have to get tired of chasing us at some point, right?"

Amoku shrugged, "I don't know. She's been continuously chasing me for the past month. I think trapping her would be the best bet. We can't run. She has quite a bit of stamina-- definitely more than us. We can't hide, I think she knows this jungle like the back of her talon. We can't kill her-- she's immortal. Does anyone have something worthy of trapping a salty immortal bird-lady?"

Ari thought for a moment. "Hmm... we'd probably need something to pin her wings down so she can't just fly away. Are there any large boulders around here? Or maybe... how do you guys feel about cutting some trees?"

Bobby had migrated mostly-unnoticed to the outskirts of the group. He didn't trust the military-looking guy, or the girl who could conjure food from nothing, or anyone here, really. Not even Queenie seemed fully trustworthy to him, though he had an unexplainable instinct telling him that she wasn't going to hurt him.

None of this felt right.

"Do we have to kill the harpy?"

Amoku gave a sad smile, "We can't."

"No, I mean, do we have to."

Queenie seemed to pick up Bobby's meaning and, thankfully, took over. "He's saying we could talk to them, or find a way around them. The harpy probably knows more about this place than we do. I don't know about the rest of you, but I'd at least like to inquire about how we got here, or why we can't remember anything."