𝐖𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐊 𝐇𝐀𝐕𝐎𝐂! percy jackson

xiii. Three Blind Mice

━━ chapter thirteen
three blind mice

✿✼:*ﾟ:༅｡.｡༅:*･ﾟﾟ･⭑

━━They found the blind dude with the harpies. It wasn't that hard. Fiona just followed the screeching, the feel of someone who was alive who shouldn't be, and the flock of the harpies in the air, dragging the others along with her. Now, you're probably wondering how she knew there would be harpies, well, don't you know the story? Phineus was a seer and a terrible man when he could still see, so, naturally, the gods blinded him and cursed the harpies to steal his food from him forevermore. Make sense? Cool, because Fiona isn't explaining it again.

She was in a bit of a mood. One, dying and coming back just made her grumpy only to know that by the end of this, she'd be dead anyway. Two, she was getting seriously mixed signals from Percy (like, he offers her to rest her head on his arm and promise for the water to not hurt her, and then completely just friend-zoned her with a yeah, you remind me of the only girl I remember from my past━because, like, if that wasn't a sign to back off, then she doesn't know what━only for him to then just lean on her that whole time he was sick, and then rest his head on her shoulder), and third, she's annoyed that him giving her mix signals was affecting her so much! She was Roman! Legacy of Victoria. She was Fiona Midgrass, daughter of Pluto, and Fiona Midgrass does not get bothered over mixed signals from some boy.

Fiona led them to a parking lot with nothing in it but a picnic table on a square of cracked asphalt, marbled with weeds. On the picnic table, was a pile high with food from all the different food trucks around them. There was a guy in a bathrobe with it all, brandishing a wheed whacker around at the harpies that tried to swoop down and take his food. He was obviously blind, with milky white eyes, but that didn't stop him from hitting his mark.

"Back, dirty chickens!" he bellowed.

Fiona didn't like harpies━they were annoying. But these harpies, they were thin as twigs. Their human faces had sunken eyes and hollow cheeks, and their bodies were covered in moulting feathers. Their wings were tipped with tiny, shrivelled hands, and wore ragged burlap sacks for dresses. As they dived for the food, they seemed more desperate than angry. Fiona felt sorry for them. The victory Phineus was getting was not a victory he should be proud of, starving these creatures who have no choice. She narrowed her eyes and gritted her teeth as the old man swung his wheed whacker and grazed one of the harpies' wings. The harpy helped in pain and fluttered off, dropping yellow feathers as she flew.

Another harpy circled higher than the rest. She looked younger and smaller than the others, with bright red feathers. She eyed the others below her carefully for an opening, and when Phineus's back was turned, she tucked her wings in and made a wild dive for the table. She grabbed a burrito in her clawed feet, but, before she could escape, the blind man swung his weed whacker and smacked her in the back so hard that Percy winced. The harpy yelped, dropped the burrito and flew off.

Fiona wanted to punch this man across the face. He had just gotten a cowards victory, hitting that harpy in the back. She pulled out her dagger and went to go at him, but Hazel held her back and Percy shouted, "Hey, stop it!"

The harpies took it the wrong way. They glanced over at them and immediately fled. Most of them fluttered away and perched in the trees. The red-feathered one, however, with the hurt back, flew unsteadily down Glisan Street and out of sight.

"Ha!" the blind old man yelled in triumph and killed the power on his weed whacker. He grinned vacantly in Percy's direction. "Thank you, strangers! Your help is most appreciated."