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Kei had never been scared of the dark. For him, it had always been a constant companion, one that would be with him for as long as he lived, just as it had from the day he was born. To be fully honest, he was surprised he had lived this long to begin with. The life of a harpy was often a treacherous one - between being the type of animal that regularly engaged in territorial disputes with other flocks and something humans considered to be a rare trophy species, it wasn’t unusual to be fighting for his life. Add blindness on to that and he might as well have been served up on a silver platter, roasted and seasoned like he once saw the humans do to a chicken. How he had managed to survive as many seasons as he had was no small feat, a grand one that should be fully credited to the efforts of his flock.
Not that he was going to be a problem for them for much longer.
He didn’t blame Shoyo and Tobio for what happened, even if a part of him felt petty and took comfort in blaming them entirely. None of them had been expecting the sudden storm that had whipped up around them, likely divine in nature, leaving their berry gathering adventure to become a hell of a lot more like a deadly flying lesson. So when they got separated, it was hardly a shock. The blame part came in from the fact that they’re the ones that dragged him out there in the first place, as familiar as that area had always been for them.
But regardless of all that, the truth of the matter was that Kei had found himself alone in an unknown place, literally blind and still reeling from whatever his head had slammed into on his rather abrupt descent.
And to top it all off, he had found himself in a human trap.
When he had awoken in the rope netting had him suspended in the air, though he wasn’t sure how high up he was. Nothing seemed too badly damaged, thankfully, but that mattered little given the rest of the situation, because while nothing was broken, that didn’t mean he didn’t hurt. Anytime he moved the muscles in his left shoulder, he could feel a sharp pain that raced along the nerves of his wing, and his left leg ached where it stuck out one of the holes of the net. At least, he hoped nothing wasn’t broken. Right now, he was more worried about his wings. They were what would save his life if he managed to get out of the net before being found by humans, and right now, he could feet the rope digging painfully into them, could feel the rough fibres digging painfully into the spaces between his flight feathers, leaving a growing ache that burned its way to the thin bones.
He had to get out, and fast. The problem came down to how, and the more he struggled, the worse the netting chaffed and burned.
But Kei had been so focused on trying to escape, on snarling out curses and threats of what he would do to his herd-mates when he saw them again - whatever he could to cover his growing panic, that he almost missed the way the area around him had gone eerily, hauntingly quiet.
And it was only because everything had gone so silent that Kei had picked up on the sound of something solid brushing against dry grass. He froze, ears straining toward it, to the constant, almost hypnotic rhythm of it - like weaving through waist high grass, the soft rustle of a breeze through wheat. Except, there was not breeze.
The first thing that came to mind as he listened was the memory of a small snake that had startled Shoyo to the point that the other harpy had tripped over his own legs and flipped onto his back, almost breaking a wing in the process. And between the laughing and yelling, Kei had listened to the snake slither away.
He imagined that if that snake were several times the size it had been that day, it might sound something like this.
His next thought was that he was about to be eaten by a basilisk. He had only heard of them in stories told by the older members of his flock when he himself had only been a hatching, but it was the only thing that he could think of that sounded as big as what he was hearing now. Maybe those stories were a lot less about Suddenly, the human owners of the net were a lot more preferable, even if it still meant certain death. At least with them his death would be quick, instead of being eaten alive like he imagined he was about to be.
Kei held his breath, squeezing his eyes shut and waiting for death. His pulse raced, bounding against his ears and he tried to focus his mind on that instead, to drown out everything else, but his blank mind refused to cooperate. He didn’t bother praying to the gods; he was sure he already used up all his blessings having survived until now. Not to mention that he was sure that they were the reason he was in his current predicament. Even if his flock found him now, they’d never risk lives on a basilisk. Why sacrifice more than the one already doomed to die. He could smell something sweet, honeyed and like the juice of fresh pears. Not what he was expecting, but at least it wouldn’t be the worst scent to be the last thing he’d smelled.
“H-hey, are you alive?”
He blinked, slowly raising his head. That… wasn’t what he was expecting. Instead of the fangs and pain, the suffocation of being swallowed whole, he had gotten a soft voice instead, something timid and stuttered, one that reminded him of a warm spring day. It was more masculine, he was sure, with a lisp that hissed over portions of the words.
“Hold on, I’ll get you down!”
Kei didn’t have much time to contemplate it, to bring his mind back from the brink of catatonic panic and register any of the words before he was suddenly a victim to gravity. He landed on his left side, and the impact knocked the wind out of his chest. His head hit hard packed earth and sparks danced through his endless darkness once more.
“S-sorry! It was-s the only way!”
The words washed over him for a moment before finally coming into focus. The rope was carefully lifted off of him, relieving him of the heavy weight of thick cords. A cold, scaly hand brushed over his arm, and despite the apparent helpfulness of his rescuer, Kei flinched back, almost scrambling away if it weren’t for the remainder of the net. The reptilian creature, whatever he was, just apologized again and again, pulling a bit more insistently at the ropes.
When he was finally fully free, Kei stumbled to his feet before hurrying away from where he had last heard the snake creature - only to immediately find a gnarled root to trip over. This fall didn’t hurt as bad, but he was already so sore, so bruised and aching.
“Wait, you’re bleeding!”
Was he? Everything hurt, so he couldn’t tell. He wanted to ask, but the thought of having to interact with the creature terrified him. Kei had to find a way to get away. Maybe if he flew straight up he might be able to. Not that he knew where he would go after that.
“Hold s-still, I promis-se I won’t hurt you.”
Kei reached for the roots around him, following them up to the tree they belonged to for some sort of anchor. On the incredibly painful unlikely chance that he survived this, Kei was never leaving his nest again. He would just guilt Shoyo and Tobio into providing him food and water for the rest of his unfortunate life.
“Clos-se your eyes-s. Whatever you do, don’t look at me.”
Well. That wasn’t going to be a problem.
Kei just clung closer to the tree as he felt something cold brush over his forehead. It was the creature’s hand again, with the same scales over the back of it. He wanted to lash out, to fight wing and talon, but he didn’t know what he would have been striking at. Where could he aim? What if the rest of him was hard scales as well.
“It’s-s a lot of blood,” the snake said, pushing some of Kei’s think, curly hair from his face. It was hard to focus on anything, on the soft hissing sound he heard like a summer of cicadas vibrating the air with a constant hum, or on the sweet, almost dizzying scent filling his olfactory senses. Something about it settled over his mind like a heavy blanket of snow. The hand pressed firmly over his apparent injury, holding pressure and bringing the stinging beneath to the front of his injury attention. “It will probably s-scar.”
That was the least of his concerns.
“What is-s your name?”
Kei frowned. He didn’t want to say, didn’t want to give it up. Too many creatures could use a name as leverage and he had no idea what he was dealing with. Maybe sensing his reluctance, the other creature laughed before saying, “If-f I was-s going to eat you, I would have already. I am Tadas-shi.”
It was a fair thing to say, but it didn’t pacify him in the least. Still, maybe it was the cotton filling his head from the sweet scent, but he found himself speaking out loud his one line of protection.
“A pret-ty name for a pret-ty bird.”
Kei’s eyes popped open and he snapped his head toward the snake, only to feel cold hands over his face, pinning him to the tree. “Keep your eyes-s clos-sed! It is-s dangerous-s!”
He snorted, face twisting into a snarl. “Don’t say stupid stuff,” he snapped back, before saying, “If you’re going to kill me, stop dragging it out!”
“I tol-ld you, I’m not going to eat you. I w-would have already. Bes-sides, I’m a vegetarian.”
That gave Kei pause. Despite himself, he found himself believing those words. He had developed a pretty good instinct for detecting lying, having no choice if he wanted to keep from being led into danger all the time. And right now, he couldn’t hear that fain change in breathing or the various other signs he had learned.
Regardless, that hands pressing his skull into the tree were really starting to bother him. He shook he head, dislodging the hands, ignoring that panicked Wait!, before glaring in what he hoped was the right direction.
Everything stilled and silence settled over the forest again, for just a moment before, “You’re blind.”
He stuck his nose up stubbornly, forcing a sneer to his face. Even if his courage was a lie, now was as good a time as ever to to make a show of it. “And what of it? Don’t want to play with your food anymore?”
“…You’re not v-very nice, are you?”
Kei felt that maybe he was owed a bit of allowance to be mean, but the snake just heaved a heavy sigh that came out more of a rattling hiss.
“I told you, I’m a v-vegetarian.”
“That’s supposed to make me feel better? As you so astutely pointed out, I’m sightless.”
“And today that saved you since you can’t follow instructions. You would be nothing more than a stone statue stuck to a tree forever without it.”
Wait.
Kei frowned. Stone?
…Slowly, the realization dawned on him. Only one snake creature came to mind in any relation to stone, and while he couldn’t imagine what this Tadashi looked like, he finally understood just how closely he’s been dancing with death. Whether or not he was vegetarian, and whether or not he had any interest in hurting him, at any moment, Kei’s sightless gaze turned in the wrong direction would have been an end to him.
He shuddered.
The gorgon heaved another sigh. “You’re f-fine. You need to make direct eye contact. You can’t do that, can you?”
Kei shook his head, not sure how to fully comprehend that statement. The stories of the gorgons were famous, after all. Even beyond his flock, he doubt it would be much of a stretch to say that everyone had heard about them.
“Your head s-stopped bleeding. Are you diz-zy?”
Kei nodded slowly. He was at a loss about what to do, what to say. The majority of the stories he had heard had all been about how gorgons were wardens of the forests, protectors in a way. Ones that were merciless to trespassers they deemed to be in poor compatibility to the environment around them.
“Can you s-stand?” Tadashi asked, and Kei nodded again, even though he wasn’t actually fully sure. Using the tree as his anchor once more, he forced himself to his feet, feeling a little shaky still. “You really are pretty! I don’t meet many of your kind around here.”
Even with everything else happening, Kei felt his face begin to burn. Shoyo always teased him that when he blushed, there was no hiding it against the paleness of his complexion - not that either had any difference for him, since he had no context for colour to begin with. All he cared about was that it was obvious when he got flustered and embarrassed.
“I wouldn’t know,” was all he could grumble out. Instead he asked, “What now?”
“F-follow, if-f you think you’re brave enough.” All at once, the cold hands left him completely, and he could sense the gorgon move away, could hear the slithering of his body across the grass once more.
Kei, pointedly ignoring the teasing and realizing he didn’t have a choice, took a deep breath, and did exactly that.