"A Life for a Life."

Long ago having been seperated from the caravan, Mitshia sat down on the large stone, looking over at her tired senza. The poor beast shook it's square like head, then sat down, it's hooves clattered against the stones underneath. "Th-that centaur sure was scary!" She said, placing her hands over her large stomach. "Right Clati?" Mitshia ran her hand over her bracelet.

The senza snorted.

Mitshia frowned. She really wish she wasn't wearing a stupid white dress, she stood out like a red thumb. She also wished she had underwear on too, but it was MUCH too hot for that garment! "You would think someone would come over here."

"But I don't see anyone." Mitshia sighed, before looking at the huge boulder in fron of her. It was so tall, it blocked out the sun, which Mitshia was grateful for. Covering her mouth, she felt another violent tug in her bowls, an urge to spew the non-existant contents of her stomach. After a moment, it passed, and she stared back upwards.

"AHHHHH! STOP! LET GO OF ME!" A voice screeched shrilly from far on the other side of the rock.

Mitshia stood up quickly, grasping onto her bracelet. Wincing at the pain in her stomach, she made her way around the rock as fast as her legs would take her. On the other side she saw a large creature, much bigger then she, growing and hissing at a much smaller figure, a little girl? No, a harpy chick! Mitshia knew more then anyone how dangerous harpies were, they were fast, had sharp talons that could easily lacerate the flesh, and were incredibly crude.

Mitshia reached down as much as she could and managed to pick up a small rock. She promptly lobbed the rock at the creature's head.

"Huh?" The harpy chick looked confused as the creature swung it's lion like head around to look at the woman. "Hey! HEY! WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?" She screamed, flapping her bloody wings.

"Whatever I can." Mitshia answered, staring up at the great maw before her. She swung the wrist that her bracelet was on up. Mitshia felt as though everything was slowing down. She could feel the gradual warmth of the mouth descend upon her arm, the hot stench of it's breath blowing into her face and making her eyes water. Mitshia felt something warm trickle down her chest, and strands of saliva which connected the teeth were broken, getting the sleeves of her shirt wet. Gulping, Mitshia remembered what she was planning to do. Clutching the bracelet, she felt a jolt from her womb race upwards, into her arm, and lighting up the dark red mouth in a brillant flash of blue and black.




The harpy chick screamed, watching the head of the small attacking manticore splatter into pieces of bone and blood. Arched upwards with the dangerous tail flashed over it's face, the body shuddered, then collapsed.Getting up shakily on her feet, she attempted to flap her wings, but found it much too painful to do such, and settled for an awkward gallop. "Hey! Hey! You! Woman!" She said, getting the body in front of her out of sight.

Mitshia blinked, surprised at the amount of energy the bracelet had channeled. Her ex-husband was right after all. Falling down onto her butt, Mitshia groaned, wrapping her arms around her stomach again. The harpy chick made her way over, standing over Mitshia. "...Hello, are you okay?" She asked.

"Pfft, just'a scratch." The harpy chick shrugged, tucking her very slightly red tinged beige wings into her sides, only one large gash dominanted her left side. A gigantic shadow flew over them, and the harpy chick looked up, before looking back down. "...Oh my FUCK! THAT THING FUCKING SPEARED YOU, YOU CRAZY BITCH!" She suddenly screamed. "AND WHERE IS THAT WORTHLESS OTHER LIMB!? FUCK! BLOOD COMING FROM YOUR CROTCH TOO!"

Mitshia looked, realizing her bracelet arm was barely scraps of tissue clinging to her shoulder. She took a hand away from her belly and felt her chest. True enough, there was a hole in it, although Mitshia could not tell how deep or wide.

The ground shook a little, and Mitshia found herself looking upwards at a much larger harpy with similiar colored wings. The first thing she said, amazingly, was, "you're dying."

"Mom!" The harpy chick grumbled. "Shut up!"

"Oh shut your mouth you little pest. Talk back to me and I'll pluck out your feathers! Worrying me like this I SHOULD be plucking out your feathers AND your hair!" The harpy mother squawked, before looking back at Mitshia. "You bitch, why the fuck did you save my daughter?"

Mitshia found things sliding out of focus slowly. "...I don't know..." She answered slowly. "Harpies ate my mother, brother, and two sisters." Shaking her head, she took a deep breath. "But... but... I never... wished they would all die."

The harpy mother leaned down, bringing herself much closer to Mitshia. "So? Did the heat drive you banshee-shit insane?" She snapped.

"No." Mitshia tried to lift herself up, feeling numb. "What makes you and me so different?" The harpy chick blinked down at Mitshia's face, then looked away.

Flapping her wings quickly, the harpy chick frowned. "Mom, something's..."

"Brave words from a dying twit." The harpy mother raised her wings though, blocking out the sun. "You are a crazy, dumbass, ugly whore... and you saved my brat."

The two looked at each other, the harpy mother and Mitshia. Unspoken words were exchanged between the two in that moment. The harpy chick watched, confused at the scene.

"What's your name, human?"
"Mitshia."

"I'm Barala, the twerp is Fezala." The harpy mother, Barala said.

Mitshia gasped, feeling a small twang of pain, and then numbness once more. "It was nice to meet you, Barala."

Barala looked at Mitshia. "...Thanks."

Fezala, realizing she was not getting her mother's attention, unfurled her sharp talons and gripped the fabric, she tore it easy and stumbled back to see a fleshy lump covered in blood. It moved, but it spoke no words. "MOM! MOM! THERE'S A CREEPY LUMP THERE!"

Barala rolled her eyes. "Not as creepy as that-" she turned her head to the headless manticore corpse. "Pick it up, be careful, and if you drop it I'll tear off your wings and shove them down your throat!" Barala directed her daughter, pointing at the fleshy 'lump'. "A life for a life."

"Huh?" Fezala looked up, while at the same time trying to carefully pick up the squishy thing.

"Nothin'. Move your ass! We're going to the nest!" Barala growled. "Can you be ANY slower, when I was your dumb age, if I didn't do what my bitch ass mother told ME...."



~~~

Wheeeee! So, a short story about the 'La' Nest. Barala and Fezala are a (unidentified?) type of harpy that migrate constantly, and apparently are nest identified by the last syllable of their names. Barala DID adopt Mitshia's son, but anyone have any suggestions for a name for him? It's got to end with 'La'! XD
There will be an explaination about that bracelet eventually.

How about naming him after his mother, like Mitla?

It took me a while to understand what was going on in this story, but in this case it was a good thing. You described things without making the immediately obvious, such as Mitshia being pregnant and the severity of her injuries after defeating the manticore. It’s a slightly more subtle style of story telling that I kind of liked.

And I applaud you for actually having the harpies talk as the are supposed to, rude and brash. Even I cant really write there unquie style of talking that well, so I was impressed.

A also like the idea of a human raised by harpies, it has a lot of potential to be interesting. Especially when its time to teach that child to fly. Hopeful they remember this http://www.cracked.com/article_17516_probably-most-important-page-in-parenting-workbook.html

How about Humala? I mean the baby is human, and it ends with La. So it kind of fits. I don’t know how creative with naming Barala and Fezala are.

Intriguing story ^^
Like Zalzas I didn't immediatly understood what was going on but I think you did a nce job at depicting the harpy behavior

I liked this! Harpies are rarely depicted well, but I think you did a good job here. I kinda suspected Mitshia was suffering from morning-sickness after she threw up, so I guess I'm psychic or something. Anyways, I'm very interested to see how the baby will grow up, I hope you continue this. C: