Chapter Text
Red.
What a strange color.
It is often used to mean something, a representation of some outside concept just by the way it is used. It could be taken as anger, hot and wild fury burning into all those who come near, or it could be seen as love, soft and singing to all those with a beating heart. Yet, in this situation, it could be no more distinguishable than the black of death.
A creature, something otherworldly; as if coming from a myth itself, could be seen hunched over the red of a small animal corpse. The red of iron, the red of fresh flowing blood, the red of hunger. Red had stained its mouth and feathers; the creature not giving its appearance any concern whatsoever while it stuffed whatever scraps of meat it could off of the small carcass into its mouth. The creature brought its head up, the small bird wings lining where the shape of an ear should be stuck up alongside it, having seemingly noticed some noise in the distance. In an instant its eyes were snapped to gaze towards an approaching figure, undoubtedly looking much larger than it was from the very prominent dark-grey wings flicking the leaves of the bushes.
The creature jumped backwards, spreading its brown and golden wings high to either take flight or pounce on the being walking towards it.
“Helloooo- oh, geez!” The new being yelped, it too jumping backwards at the sight of the fresh animal carcass and the creature stained with red right behind it. The thing pinched its nose, no doubt affected by the smell of the quickly rotting ‘meal’ in front of it. It watched as the creature on the other side of the carcass grew more alarmed and more coiled in place, looking as if it was about to lunge either at the grey-winged being or the air at any moment. In some odd attempt of calming the creature down, the being held out one of its palms in surrender. “Sorry, sorry! Bad time. I didn’t expect you to be, well... eating.” The new being said, glancing down at the mangled and red former animal ripped in half laying on the floor between them.
The creature’s eyes squinted, as if fully trying to absorb all possible visual information on this odd thing that had decided to speak to it. The creature lunged at the new being, pushing them to the ground in one fell swoop and taking a veeeeeery close look, finally determining that for 1: they weren’t a threat, and 2: they were some sort of holy being, judging by the lack of any animal features other than the dark grey wings.
The creature, as if suddenly gaining the ability to think with anything other than animal instincts, stepped back and gripped into the dirt with its talons before crouching down to keep a good eye on the angel. “What is a fallen angel doing in this part of the forest?” It managed to ask, its voice oddly androgynous despite its overtly feminine appearance. Well, as feminine as it could look anyway, drenched in blood and covered with feathers.
“Oh, wow, you can talk?” The angel asked with genuine curiosity.
“Yes, I’m not stupid. You just startled me earlier.” The creature replied, its tone rapidly growing unamused. The creature leaned in closer to the angel’s face, squinting to once again see if this winged being was a threat or not.
The angel pinched its nose before answering, “Well, it’s not often you’d see a harpy actually out in the open. I just had to come and see!”
The harpy leaned its face down even closer, making the former angel pull its head down further into the dirt. “Do I smell bad?”
The angel immediately brought up one hand, showing its palm as if to comfort the harpy. “No, no, it’s just.. eurgh...." The angel once again pulled its head back, squinting in hesitant disgust at the red all over the harpy’s face. “The blood..”
The harpy blinked and pulled back its head, shifting into a half-sitting, half-crouching position on the ground nearby. “Well if that’s the only reason, I’ll be going now.” The harpy stretched its wings, getting ready to take off when the angel sat up, leaning on its arms with an expression of worry on its face.
“Wait!-” The harpy stopped in its tracks, turning its head to look back at the now sitting angel. “um..” The angel, clearly not expecting the harpy to listen, stayed on the ‘m’ note for a short while before finally continuing, “will I ever see you again?”
The harpy’s face was unchanging, its expression unwavering as it stared at the angel through lidded eyes. “That’s oddly sentimental for someone you just met.” And then, it was off. The harpy leaped upwards and escaped through the air faster than its words could be processed.