Chapter Text
Zoey would be lying if she said she wasn't scared out of her mind when she felt air slam into her back as a huge creature landed behind her. She was honestly pretty sure that this was the moment she would get killed for not listening to her mother's advice and going into the forest alone.
The chirp that sounded behind her didn't make the situation any better. She recognized it immediately, it was the same sounding chirp she heard in its distressed form from the bird creature.
The same animal who snarled at Zoey the second she freed it and then ran away.
It was honestly a huge relief when the creature showed her its ruined ankle.
“All done,” Zoey said, eyeing her work. The ankle was carefully wrapped in gauze and cloth, getting cleaned before that. The bird also looked at Zoey's work, studying it. it didn't seem to hate it or be uncomfortable with it, she looked happy that it was taken care of.
Then the feathered creature tweeted softly, looking up at the child with its black eyes with tiny white dots in them. It really looked like night sky. Zoey wondered if the small tweet was meant to be a thank you, since it seemed like the bird was capable of understanding her.
They sat in silence, the awkward kind where no one really knew what to say. Zoey kept her mouth shut. The kids around her hated when she spoke, mostly because she rambled if she wasn't stopped and she talked about nonsense.
Zoey didn't think she was saying nonsense, all this stuff she talked about was interesting to her. But if kids her age thought she was an annoying nerd… maybe she was one. And because she was one, she kept her mouth closed and lips unmoving.
This creature could be her friend and she didn't want to push it away. Zoey knew that it was stupid, but try arguing about this with a nine-year-old who doesn't have any friends. The bird was kinda weird, like her. It was humanoid, pink, and had four limbs with fully functioning wings on its back. This animal must be at least a little weird to others its kind.
The creature tilted her head to the side, questioning look on her face. As if Zoey was a puzzle the bird needed to solve. The human shook her head, trying to look more confident, but somehow, this animal was able to read through her.
It carefully reached out its clawed, scaled hands to Zoey. The rough surface met Zoey's soft skin, claws accidentally brushing against her palm. The bird rubbed the back of Zoey's hands with its thumbs, the finger slightly cold. The rest of the animal's fingers slid under Zoey's hands and then it squeezed gently.
The human stared, dumbfounded. Was this creature comforting her?
She looked up to see the creature's head still tilted adorably. It chirped questioningly, squeezing Zoey's hands as she did so.
Oh. It seemed it wanted Zoey to talk. That was normally something she would do without a second thought, but right now, it was like her throat refused to work properly.
“I-I, ehm, I don't know what to say,” Zoey said sheepishly, but forcing herself to keep looking into the creature's eyes.
The bird chirped, probably wanting her to continue speaking. The human settled on the safest option – telling the creature her name. “I'm Zoey, by the way. If it matters,” she introduced herself, smiling brightly at the pink bird that never stopped holding her hands.
The animal nodded, understanding. “Do you have a name?” Zoey asked. It probably didn't, but it felt better asking than completely ignoring the possibility.
To her surprise, the creature looked away as if thinking about answering, but then lifted its head again and nodded. Zoey squeaked and squeezed the creature's fingers. “What is it? Can you write it down? Can you write?” Zoey asked question after question.
The bird blinked a few times before it shyly and uncertainly smiled. Man those fangs were sharp. Then it nodded slightly.
Zoey beamed. “What is it?” she wanted to know. She was eager to learn, so she could stop addressing her as 'the creature' or 'the bird'.
The creature let go of Zoey's right hand, making grabby motions towards the notebook. Zoey set it down next to her when she needed the portable medkit. With the human's free hand, she took the notebook and offered it to the feathered animal.
It took the notebook, careful not to rip the cover with its claws. Zoey searched for the pencil she had, only then remembering it accidentally flew from her hand in panic when she felt air slam into her back.
“Hold on, my pencil's by the rock,” Zoey informed, pointing with her right hand at the smaller rocks by the water where the pencil layed. The pink bird let go of her other hand and Zoey jumped off the huge rock they were sitting on.
It followed, but instead of jumping off, the animal flew into the air, flapping its wings repeatedly and staying in the air but close to the ground. It couldn't use its leg, after all. Zoey stared at how graceful it was – like some kind of weird angel.
The child then returned to her task to retrieve the pencil. By the time she had it, the creature was on the ground, sitting on a smaller rock. Big enough that it could sit on it, small enough to let the bird's legs touch the ground.
Zoey gave it her pencil and prayed it knew how to write. The creature opened the notebook on a random page, staring at the blank paper for a few seconds. Then it looked up, looking at Zoey with sad puppy dog eyes.
“You have no idea how to write, do you?” Zoey asked, looking at the tight grip the clawed fingers had on the pencil.
It shook its head slightly, something like frustration on its face. Zoey brought her hand to her face and sticking her tongue out in thinking, putting on her thinking-too-hard expression. The creature awaited.
The child got an idea. “How about I'll write down the alphabet and spell out each letter and then you circle the ones your name is created from?” Zoey offered. It seemed like a good idea to her.
The bird looked away, also lost in thought. After a few seconds, it looked back up with a small nod, offering back the notebook and pencil.
The human took them and started writing down each letter, starting from A and making her way to Z.
Once finished, she handed the notebook to the creature again. Then she gave it the pencil so it could circle the proper letters and started spelling out each letter. The creature listened carefully.
After Zoey was done with spelling, the bird circled four letters – A, I, M, R.
Zoey stared at the circled letters. “You're Aimr?” she asked, eyeing the bird skeptically. The animal's feathers fluttered in outrage, mouth agape and eyes glistening with are you serious expression. Zoey had to stifle a laugh at how ridiculous the creature looked right now.
It let out an irritated squeak, mouth never closing as it shook its head.
Zoey giggled. “Okay, sorry. Can you like… try to write it down? Y'know, arrange the letters into your name?” Zoey asked, gesturing wildly with her hands out of habit, like she often did when she was either unsure of what she was saying or it felt embarrassing to her.
The bird blinked, then stared for a few seconds, before it slowly nodded. It returned its gaze to the paper and with an unsteady hand began copying the highlighted letters.
The human child watched as the first letter formed. The handwriting was shaky and completely made based off the original one somewhere on the page. The first letter was “M”.
Zoey fought back the happy and proud squeak upon seeing the effort. This was the first time ever any animal recreated human writing!
The rest of the letters appeared on the page, creating a name. “Mira,” was written on the paper.
Zoey looked at the letters with awe before she remembered that she had company. She tore her eyes away from the notebook, instead looking at the pink animal on the rock. “You're Mira?” Zoey questioned, pointing at the name while looking into the creature's eyes.
It nodded, smiling proudly at its work.
Zoey then realized that Mira might not be an “it” but instead a “she”. She should still ask though. “So… are you female?” Zoey blurted out before she could stop herself.
At how Mira looked at her, it was obvious Zoey made it sound weird. “I-I mean, Mira is a female name and now that I think about it you kinda look like a girl,” she rushed to explain, gesturing wildly.
Mira blinked, then nodded slightly. She didn't make any sound though. Zoey scratched the nape of her neck with her right hand. “Sorry, I was just wondering,” the human child muttered sheepishly, not meeting the animal's gaze.
Mira squeaked softly, perhaps in understanding Zoey's thoughts. The human and the creature were staring at each other. Mira looked more like she wanted to continue having a conversation or something like that, Zoey just wondered what even Mira is. Surely some kind of bird, but she's never seen something like Mira.
Mira suddenly tweeted, the sound questioning and curious. She was wondering what was Zoey thinking about. “I'm just wondering what you are. I've never seen something like you, and that's sad because you're really pretty,” Zoey explained her train of thoughts, eyeing Mira from head to toe.
Mira picked up the pencil again and looked back down at the page with the alphabet. She circled some additional letters – H, P, R, Y and then circled A one more time.
Before she could arrange the letters into a proper word, Zoey already knew what word was Mira trying to make. “Wait, is that supposed to say 'Harpy'?” she asked, not able to contain her excitement that creeped into her voice.
Mira chirped in agreement as she shyly nodded. Zoey's eyes brightened like crazy, her smile turning into an amazed grin that dragged itself from ear to ear, showing off the few gaps in her teeth.
“Oh my gosh. You're a harpy!” Zoey beamed, excitedly jumping up before continuing. “I always thought harpies were just myths. At least that's what the books I read said. But you're real!” Zoey said, the kid-happiness unable to stop radiating from Zoey.
The Harpy had a warm expression, as if she enjoyed seeing Zoey happy or excited. The kid wondered if Mira wanted to be her friend. It would be so cool to have a Harpy as a friend!
Mira handed the notebook and pencil back. Zoey took the items back, rolled the notebook into a roll and hid it in one of her pockets, pencil following suit. Zoey didn't think she'd need it right now and she wanted to spend more time with the harpy, since she would probably fly away soon.
Mira seemed like she wanted to stand up, judging by how she placed her hand on the rock for support and started trying to lift herself off the small rock. Zoey offered her hand to the harpy, who gratefully took it. “You can lean on me for support if you want,” Zoey offered when Mira was standing, though only on her uninjured leg. The harpy's left arm was snaked around Zoey's waist, her right one balancing in the air.
Mira offered her a smile, but didn't lean fully. Maybe because she'd be too heavy for Zoey's small body, considering she had wings and tail and was covered in feathers.
Not even after one step, they heard speaking from the forest. Both girl whipped their heads to the sound.
“Fucking wolves, dude,” a man said, getting closer.
Zoey snapped her head to look at Mira, but the harpy was untangling herself from Zoey. Before the human kid could do anything, Mira glanced in the direction of those noises and in one swift motion leapt into the air.
Zoey tried reaching out to the harpy, but Mira was quick as lightning. In a few seconds, she disappeared in the crown of a tree next to the huge rock where Zoey took care of Mira's ankle.
The kid exhaled with growing panic. She quietly climbed up the giant rock and realized from where those voices were coming from – they were multiple meters from the trap Mira ended up in, not looking at it but instead talking to each other. In a more muscular man's hand was a dead wolf, its dead body being dragged behind the two humans.
Poor animal, Zoey thought sadly.
“Yeah, man. But I swear, I swear that I really caught that pink thing into the trap. It's pretty close, I set it like, fifty meters from here,” the other said, looking around and not yet realizing that his “prey” got freed. Zoey remembered that his friend called him by his name, but Zoey forgot it.
The one dragging the dead animal laughed at him. “Sure, buddy. Whatever you say. Though if the trap is so close, shouldn't I be able to see something big and pink and shouldn't I be able to hear those distressed sounds you described?” he asked, smirking smugly at his companion.
The one who set up the trap shot him an angry glare. “It probably stopped being loud,” he muttered, looking away from his friend.
The one with the wold laughed again. “Yeah, sure. That's the case,” he mocked.
Zoey nervously glanced at the spot where the trap was. It was around thirty or forty meters from the water supply, probably because a lot of animals visit this place and there's much higher chance of them getting trapped than somewhere else.
Zoey knew the exact second the trap setter realized Mira wasn't in the bear trap anymore.
A weak “No,” sounded from around forty meters from where Zoey was sitting.
“What's happening, dude? The pink bird escaped?” the muscular man mocked between cackling and howling with laughter.
“Shut the fuck up! That thing was right there, if only you didn't make me come to hunt down this stupid wolf, I would already have it!” the other one yelled. “I bet you only called me over because you were jealous that I caught something no one's ever seen before!” he accused. Zoey could see that he pointed a finger at the laughing man.
“Yeah, yeah. You caught me red-handed. I was jealous of your imaginary bird, so I called you over to a boring wolf worth 500 bucks,” he mocked, arms raised up, though shaking with uncontrollable laughter.
The man who set up the trap was completely red in the face, looking at his friend like he was thinking about all the ways he could kill him and snatch away his belongings.
Then Zoey's heart dropped into her pants. The red-faced man looked at her. He saw her. Zoey quickly put on a shocked and scared, but most importantly dumbfounded expression of a kid that just saw its parents kiss for the first time. She blinked to really seal the deal and prayed that Mira won't do anything stupid or the men would discover her.
“Hey, kid!” the angry one shouted at Zoey. She flinched, even though she didn't want.
The muscular guy turned around and when his eyes layed on Zoey, concern and confusion knitted his eyebrows together. “What's a child doing in the forest? Alone?” he muttered, rubbing the nape of his neck with unoccupied hand.
The trap setter glared at him. “Doesn't matter,” he told him, before looking back at Zoey. Then he started going closer, step after step. Zoey did her best not to run away. This could get really bad. He could beat her up, or ask questions, or scream at her. Or he could find her parents and do who-knows-what.
And if Mira really cared about Zoey (which the girl hoped she would, the harpy, despite meeting her like an hour ago, seemed friendly and willing to spend time with her), there was a chance she'd leave her hiding spot and hurt the men.
And Zoey didn't want Mira to end up in chains or dead, or even worse, captured and being presented to the people living in the small town. Zoey could picture Mira, locked up while the stupid people would point and shout at her, take pictures, inform higher authorities and the whole forest and beyond could get searched in hopes to find more of her kind.
That can't happen.
She straightens up, her posture rigid. The man is just about ten meters from her, his companion trailing close behind. “Have you seen a big, pink, humanoid bird? Size…” he eyed Zoey, which made her quite uncomfortable. She shivered. “…slightly bigger than you. Four limbs, two wings on it's back.”
Zoey forced herself to blink and then stare at him like he'd grown a second head.
His friend looked at him with utter disbelief. “You find a kid in the middle of a forest and instead of asking her important questions regarding why she's here, you ask her about your imaginary humanoid bird?” he asks, getting angry at his friend.
“I wasn't imagining it!” the other one screamed.
Zoey full-body jerked and instinctively brought her arms to cover her face. She started trembling.
“You idiot! Stop that right now, you're scaring her,” the man holding the wolf said, his words echoed by a loud crushing sound as he slammed his fist into the other human's jaw.
Zoey peeked through the gap between her arms to look at what happened. The angry man was bleeding slightly, his hands clasped on the right side of his face as he stared with fury at his friend. The muscular guy glared daggers at him.
Then he turned to Zoey. “Take this,” he said and gave her a pepper spray. “I won't take you home right now, I have an idiot to deal with and a wolf to handle, so just… stay at least little protected, okay? Do you know how to use it?” he questioned, pointing at the spray.
Zoey nodded.
“Good. Sorry for him, he's just like that for about an hour and half now. We'll leave.” With that, he grabbed the angry guy by the hem of his shirt and started dragging him.
He, of course, protested. “So you're all like, 'you're scaring the kid,' but you leave her here? In the middle of the forest like you said?” she shouted at the muscular guy.
The man holding the wolf shook him for a few seconds before he answered. “The girl on the rock was seen here multiple times and always ended up home alright. Ever heard the local kids? They say she's in the forest constantly, so I'm sure as fuck that she knows how to handle yourself. But you, on the other hand, are acting like a drugged drunkie,” he accused, venom in his voice.
Zoey was both proud at herself upon hearing the praise, but also a bit sad. The kids didn't like her and Zoey didn't talk to them, but it still kinda hurt when they talk about her behind her back. She was pretty sure they also added some mean stuff or called her weirdo at least twice, but the man was polite enough not to mention it.
The child watched as they disappeared in the woods, getting out of sight somewhere between the trees. Zoey then looked at the pepper spray in her hands. She carefully climbed off the giant rock and placed the can against it into a lying position.
Satisfied, she turned to the huge tree she saw Mira land into. “Mira! You can come out, they're not here anymore!” she shouted.
At first, nothing happened and Zoey got scared that Mira didn't want to do anything with her anymore. Zoey was a human after all, and wild animals were sticking around humans just long enough to get what they needed before they got away.
Zoey frowned sadly, looking at the tree a few more seconds before turned away, posture hunched over. Zoey just lost the only living being that seemed willing to be her friend.
Just as she made first few steps, she heard leaves shuffling and air whistling. That ignited a spark of hope in Zoey's chest. Maybe Mira haven't left at all.
Zoey turned just in time to see a pink blur of motion land on the ground, though only on one of the harpy's legs because the other one was still injured.
In the next second, Mira was wrapping her arms around Zoey, the feathered biceps and scaled, rough forearms snaking around the small girl's body. Then Mira brought Zoey closer to her chest, pressing her against the fluffy front. Mira squeezed, though gently as she put some of her weight on Zoey to stabilize herself.
Zoey, frozen for a couple of seconds, quickly returned the hug, arms wrapping around the harpy's waist, because that was the only place her wings weren't connected to her back. It was also a small spot between the wings and the peacock-like tail.
“That was sudden,” Zoey said, but squeezed the harpy back. Mira just chirped in return. She sounded worried, and not the slight kind. The kind where you're concerned your friend is dying and you don't know what to do.
“I promise I'm fine. They don't know about you and I'm alright,” Zoey assured the worried bird, patting the harpy's back with her hand assuringly. Mira tweeted, seeming relieved, judging by the sound itself and how her muscles relaxed.
Zoey buried her face a little more into the pink feathers on Mira's collar, nuzzling as much as she could. “You're so fluffy,” Zoey muttered.
Mira's feathers fluttered again, making her puffy, but most importantly fluffier. Zoey giggled.
They stayed like that for a while, Zoey finally getting hugged by someone other than her mom. Mira was a great hugger, but something told Zoey she wouldn't admit it.