Flight of The Harpy's Heart

Matter at Hand

Aden and Father Edgar stepped inside the pavilion. Maeda joined shortly after, and yet, there was no single former smuggler except Oliver in the war room.

"Aden," Oliver expected him as the boy poured another wine for the participants in the war room.

Now they were all gathering around a large table, poring over maps and charts.

"Welcome, Father, Aden, and Maeda. Take a seat anywhere make yourself comfortable," Captain Willem said, his voice firm and resolute. "We need your input on our battle plan."

Father Edgar sat next to Captain Willem where Corporal Knightly gave his spot.

Aden and Maeda sat next to Ser Percival across the table against Captain Willem and Father Edgar who sat at the head table. All their eyes scanned the map and the marks on it. They could see the harpies' movements and the areas where they were most likely to make a nest.

The captain briefed the party on the current situation. "As you can all see, this is no ordinary enemy we're dealing with. These creatures are deceptively intelligent and have managed to outsmart us in under two days."

"The ruhimi was right," He went on, "The harpy's strategies are continuously evolving and they seem to anticipate our every move."

"they found the weakness of the hwachas," Corporal Knightly spoke up, "either they kept their distance or they flew low and started to engage the ground defenders."

Captain Willem added, "Our objective is to keep them at bay, but I didn't expect that they would be so observant – to know that the hwachas can't aim at them if they fly low."

Aden felt honored to be involved in the war room. It means that he and Maeda were seen as more than expendable walking meat for the harpies.

"We may now have the upper hand but it's about time they will see our weakness, exploit it, and employ strategy to outbest us." Captain Willem

"We are racing against time in here," Captain Willem, "Either they outbest us before the snowfall or we stand our ground until then."

"They may have scouts among themselves, as you can see before the goblins roadblock and them targeting our rear wagon." Aden reminded the recon knights.

"The adult harpies are most likely the scouts, they look like they are the ones in command."

"So they have their own chain of command, eh?" Gilbert chimed in

"Considering how they act, most likely yes." Corporal Knightly replied.

"I believe they have a queen in their flock," Father Edgar who had lived near the harpies nest gave his insight.

"..." Aden looked like he wanted to say something but something held him back.

"A queen?" Captain Willem raised his eyebrow.

"Aye," Father Edgar. "Rumor has it, she nestled with the harpies in their craggy towering mountains, sometimes seen on the sky of Martin Bay north of Monterei port."

"We have to focus our aim on the scout harpies, getting rid of them will plunge the harpies into disarray," Aden suggested. "Make them less aggressive and easy to take down."

"kill the queen, if we have to," Maeda added.

"Great idea but I don't think we can take out the queen with what we have today. we are underprepared," Captain Willem. "that's a job for the slayers."

Slayers, a term used to refer to skilled and experienced contractors who specialized in the hunting and elimination of exotic beings and other wildling creatures such as wyverns, harpies, mermaids, goblins, beastfolks, deadwalkers, saurians, and other intelligent beings. These courageous individuals took on the dangerous task of protecting humanity from these dangerous foes.