MythoMorph☆

12

Murder! Raven was murdered! Honestly I can't believe I didn't know before. He wouldn't have a reason to hate everyone if he wasn't.

   “Who did it?” I asked. The shadow looked away for a minute before looking back at me.

   “That's not important right now. What is important is that we get away from this boy.” He said while glaring at the boy pulling us along.

  “He can't be that bad.” I thought to Raven, only to notice that he had disappeared again. Great.

   “I actually have to meet up with some people.” I said to the boy once he stopped dragging me. The boy looked mad for a minute before regaining his composure.

    “Look I understand that your….. species might be distrustful of humans. I've read the stories. I'm not going to hurt you.”

     I internally shuddered at the stories about harpies being hunted down by humans. Their normal home, the cliffs and forests being burned. Subconsciously I also remembered the stories of harpies luring in men just to kill them from dropping them from a great height.

     “That's what's wrong. You humans always suspect that we are scared of you. Those stories are just stories. The biggest item a harpy could carry would weigh much less than a human. Humans always see us as monsters because we look different.” I argued.

    “Just calm down, I'm not here to hurt you, I'm just looking for a team to profit off of. After all, buying a winning team would get a lot of publicity.”

  Raven materialized beside me growling at him. His eyes, the only part of his body made from white light instead of shadows, were narrow and glaring. 

    “See? To them we are just objects to profit off of. If you get told they won't care about you. What you want. They'll force you to do things you don't want to do. I can feel your rage boiling inside of you. Let's show him how dangerous we really are. We are nobody's little birdie.” 

    My vision went dark as Raven took over. I was watching as my wings and arm got a shoddy extension making them larger, stronger and by far more dangerous.

   That's when it hit me. Little birdie. That's what Uncle used to call me. No… Raven must've heard the nickname one of the times after all he's been waiting in me for years. 

  Raven lunged at the boy; He screamed and ran as my flesh tore through the fabric and into his skin, staining it red. I gave chase. When I noticed the rifle of the gun

  “RAVEN NO!” I screamed at him. He skidded to a stop as the tranquilizer whizzed past right in front of our face, hitting a small palm dragon instead.

He quickly left my body as frightened guests morphs and humans alike backed away as I shrunk back to normal. I crouched on the ground looking around at everyone. They were terrified. Sapphire and Cobalt pushed their way through the crowd to me.

    My mind flashed to the view of a woman screaming at me to get up. I didn't know them though. My view went back to normal after only a second. I heard Luna and Cobalt yelling before I blacked out.

  I later woke up in the car with Luna. She smiled and her ears perked up and tail wagged. Thankfully, she was glad I was ok.

  “Hey. Where are the others?” I asked, noticing that they weren't here.

   “They made sure you were ok, but then these guys brought you to the car. I asked if I could come, too.”

  “But you were looking forward to this. This was your one fun day a year.” I felt so bad for ruining her day.

   “No. Sure the pretty clothes and music and food are nice but that's not what makes it special. When I'm with my friends I'm having fun. You didn't ruin anything.” She grabbed my hands.

    “But-”

    “No buts.” She smiled, pulling me close. “If you still feel bad you can make it up to me by cuddling.”

    “Ok… fine.” My face blushed as I sat down and Luna leaned on me snuggling close. I wrapped my wing around her in order to keep her close.

    “But what was that? It happened at the arena and earlier today your eye got that weird black film. It's still there. Are you ok?”

    “Don't you dare tell her.” Raven's shadowy form appeared in front of me.

     “I don't care. she deserves to know. Besides, we've already ruined this day for her.” 

     “Luna, I don't want to scare you. Honestly I don't know a lot about this myself.”

     “I can handle it.” She looked up at me with big round eyes.

     “Ok. Remember when you mentioned how you used to be human.”

     “Yeah…” she said, cuddling closer with a small frown on her face.

     “Ok, well I wasn't always a harpy either.” I took a deep breath. “I'm not completely sure how it happened but I do know I have some vengeful spirit inside of me. He takes control sometimes. Like in the arena.”

    “That sounds like a phantom curse. The ord- the place I was raised in told us about magic. Especially curses. Normally a phantom curse is self-inflicted. I heard they needed a vessel but we weren't told what happens to them or what species it has to be." Luna said, deep in thought.

    “Don't do this.”

   “It talks to me sometimes. In my head. He lets me do things I never thought of. Honestly he scares me. We don't see eye to eye a lot. He tends to recklessly take control when he wants. He does seem like he cares though.”

   “He probably wants to keep his vessel alive until he completes the requirements for the spell. Usually something to do with how they died.” Luna said, speculating.

   “He… did mention that….” I said, not quite wanting to tell her about the murder.

   “Stop this now!”

   “What's his name?” She tilts her head.

   “If you say my name, I won't hesitate to tear this little rat apart.”

    I bit my tongue for a second. “I don't know. He refuses to tell me.” I said, hoping she would believe me.

   “Huh. That's odd. He told us if we ever cast the spell we would have to bond with our vessel.” She said as she tapped her chin.

   “Who said this?” I said, noticing she mentioned ‘him.’ Maybe this person could be helpful in helping me figure out how to get Raven out.

   “Oh, no one. Just a teacher me and Cobalt had. He disappeared though.”

   “Hmm. Ok, let’s cuddle now. No more doom and gloom. Oh and please don't tell the others. I want to take my time with this.”

  “Don't worry. I know what it's like to not want people to learn things about you. Especially how dangerous you are.”

    I wrap my wings around Luna to comfort her “You aren't dangerous.”

    “But I am. Whenever it's a full moon I am so much of a danger they have to chain me up!” She said clearly, holding back tears.

   “Hey look at me. I don't think you're dangerous. Neither does Cobalt. In fact Sapphire will probably think it's cool. But I won't tell until you're ready.”

   “Thanks… I appreciate it.” She snuggled close to her head on my shoulder and body snug against mine. I wrapped my arm around her and rested my head on top of hers. Then my wings wrapped around her making sure she was comfortable.