A New Order of Chaos

Taken Hostage

The night was the perfect veil to escape. Or that was the hidden figure in the shadows thought.

The mission of the creature was to observe and report back to its base. Not engaging a fight. Not revealing the base position. The rest of its colleagues named it 'an easy piece mission', nothing to be worth the mention or the effort. But, not to the creature. The creature believed that fortune, recognitions by its peers and a high rank in the army would be the reward for this mission.

The creature we're talking about is a harpy. And we couldn't agree more on how wrong she was.

Her army had spotted some suspicious activity in a nearby mountain formation. More people than usual coming and going. A very massive gather of power. That was what Lamia claimed, though not much of the rest of the army would trust her word. Specially, since she returned with that almost extinct Mormo. That creature was even more disgusting than the empusas, his half-sisters in a way. He was more bloodier than the evil centaurs or more stupid than the evil cyclops! That's falling low into a new standard.

The harpy walked in silence towards a set of bushes that she found suspicious. She had no idea what she was going to find, but she hoped that something that could reassure her value in the army. Flipping her wings up, she overflew the area, only to see a family of rabbits making a lot of fuss. The harpy smirked, ready to plunge down and have a feast with them, but she remembered her mission. She would feast later. And, probably, with the blood of her enemies.

She found a second set of bushes that looked suspicious, but she avoided to land. She overflew that area, but nothing was behind. And, this didn't happened only those times. It happened a third and a fourth time. By now, the harpy knew something was wrong. She looked up, probably to get more altitude, but that was her mistake.

A net fell over her, with weigh on the end of it, pulling her down to the floor. She shrieked and wailed, trying to get off the net, but with every movement she made, she got herself hurt. She kept trying, but all she got were wounds on her wings and arms.

"Trying to escape is futile" a male voice entered her ears, making her look around. She found no one close to her to make that kind of voice.

"What have you been listening to, Delta?" this time, it was a female voice replying to the first one. And, it sounded frustrated.

"That was original!" the first voice complained. By now, the harpy was being surrounded by a large group of people, all of them wearing cloaks and hoods over their heads. The harpy could distinguish the male from the female, by their figure. She could also tell all of them were human because of their smell. They were also demigods as well. If I get free, I could take their heads back with me...

"You guys have to argue in front of a hostage?" another female voice wondered to them. The harpy wasn't sure if that same voice was the one who smacked the back of another one.

"A harpy" a boy had crouched down to see her, which only earned a hissed from her "Well, she's different from the ones I've met..."

"You never encounter a rogue harpy?" another female questioned, curiosity filling her voice "You guys are weird..."

"So, what should we do with her?" a third male voice, followed by a finger pointed at her, asked around.

"I say we take her to interrogation" a fourth boy supplied. A female figure took a step closer to her.

"We don't need that... We can do that right here..." the girl kneeled down, while the boy got up. The harpy could feel the eyes of the girl deep in her brain, as if she was reading her mind, but she knew that was impossible "Who do you work for?" The note of her voice and the authority that emanated from it made the harpy wanted to answer. So, she did.

"Lamia" The word slipped her mind, too late for her to stop.

"Why, you little-" another boy charged to her, but two other stopped him.

"Rho, calmed down!" one of them ordered. It was obvious that guy had personal issues with Lamia. The guy got free and walked far from the harpy.

"Where has Lamia her army?" Another question came and the harpy couldn't stop herself to answer. But, instead of using words, the harpy simply pointed out the direction.

"Close enough, but far away to be detected..."

"It's obvious this isn't the work of Lamia" a fourth female noticed "Lamia simply camped where she was told..."

"How many soldiers does that army have?" the girl asked again.

"Many. Enough" the harpy replied. She wasn't smart, but she was smart to know that, if her army was facing only this bunch of demigods, her side would win.

"This is no useful... Let's take her with us" one boy suggested "We may find out better the blind spots from that army"

"You have a point, Kappa" the girl who was kneeled down, turned to see him "Besides, ambush or not, we're getting exposed here" Several of the hooded demigods nodded and it wasn't long until a couple of arms picked the harpy up "Rho, do your thing" The guy that wanted to attacked her before got closer and placed his hand over her face. Suddenly, everything turned black for the harpy, who began to fought her captors. She would screech and fight, flap and hit, but the demigods didn't even bother. She was taken hostage.

She knew no one would come for her. She was replaceable after all.

But, on the other hand, being taken means also information.

All she had to do was to get all what she could before escaping.