The Battle

My attention split between trying to locate the cave mouth and the terror unfolding from the palm of my hand I continue to find my way round the granite plinth of a peak. Through the portal the view swings and careens wildly as Rosa scrambles about the cave.

“It’s coming.” She says frantically. “There’s nowhere to hide!”

“Fight Rosa, fight!” I say. “I’m coming.”

Moving swiftly along the bottom edge of the scree I come around to see another face of the peak. My eyes peeled for anything out of the ordinary I desperately scan the area. I don’t see a cave, but what I do see is the bright white of sun-bleached bones scattered among the dark wet gray of loose stones. Looking up the vertical cliff from region the bones are most concentrated I spot a ledge about fifty feet up. There! It had to be. The ledge formed the top edge of a fissure that ran diagonally down through the living stone. Along that fissure juts out a very narrow shelf I may be able to use to climb along.

I scutter up the slope of jagged shifting rocks, sliding one step back down for every two steps I stride up. At my hand I hear panting breath and rustling. I bring the ring to my face, the wretched smell waters my eyes. “I’m close. Find a weapon. Hold it off as long as you can.” I wished I could pass her my pugio to give her fighting shot but I knew the crossguard would not fit through bracelet.

“RRRRRR!” Rosa’s wicked sounding snarl echoes up. That’s it my Lady, fight! She sounded so much more dangerous than she actual was, hopefully intimidating enough to give the creature pause.

“Krrrrrreeeek.” The harpy’s grating caw sounds a mix of eagle and crow with just a hint of an almost human-like undertone that sent chills down my spine. That was not the sound of a creature intimidated. Curious, amused perhaps, but not afraid. “KREK!”

“Aaah!” There is a whoosh of a stick or bone swinging through the air. “Stay b-back you…BITCH!”

“KREEEE!” It cries back at her.

Gods it is so close to her!

“HEY!” I shout up toward the ledge, continuing to fight against the sliding rocks. “HEY! I’M HERE! Come and get me!”

Through the portal I can hear my voice in the distance, confirming that I was indeed at the right spot.

“Krrrkk?” The harpy had heard me.

“Come on! Come and fight me!”

After a final frantic scramble I at last reach the base of the cliff. A few feet above me is the fissure. Fuck! I needed my hands my free for this. Looking back down to my left hand I start to say something but notice the chaotic sounds of rustling and fighting. Rosa snarls and the harpy screeches, the fight was on!

“Gods, no!” I was too late.

There is the sound of a whack followed my snapping teeth and cracking wood. Somehow in her struggles Rosa still gripped tight onto her half of the bracelet. As a flash of oily black feather slips across the portal an idea strikes me. Pulling my dagger out I place the ring up against the rock face.

“ROSA!” I scream as loudly as I could. “PUT THE BRACELET ON IT!”

“RRRAaaahhhhh!” Half roar, half cry of terror, Rosa yells. There is a flurry of activity before I see the pale gray of flesh press up against ring.

Not wasting a second I plunge the blade of the dagger through.

“KREEEEEEE!!!”

I can hear the beast’s howl of pain both through portal, through which black-orange blood now spurted, as well as from the ledge above. I try to hold the blade deep but the creature throws Rosa back. Then things go disturbingly quiet. The view is still, all I could see the solid stone of the floor of the cave.

“Rosa?”

“KRRRRRRKKK!” The pained rage filled growl of the harpy is all I hear.

I pocket the bracelet and sheath my dagger. Jumping high I grasp onto the shelf. Hugging to the rock face tight I start to climb. Right hand, left hand, right hand, left hand, I progress up along the fissure. Under my breath I just keep repeating over and over. “I’m coming. I’m coming Rosa. I’m coming.” Over half way up, thanks to the slick greasy blood covering it, my right hand slips! My legs go with it and I find myself dangling in open air holding on with three fingers. Through pure **** of will I power myself back up and continue on. “I’m coming Rosa. I’m coming.” Gods! Please be alive!

With a final mighty lunge I hurl myself toward the larger ledge. I pull myself up onto it just in time to watch the gray fury twisted face of the harpy emerging from the darkness of a triangular cave mouth.

“Krrrrrrrr.” It growls and shakes its black feathers.

“Come on then.” I growl back through gritted teeth. “Let’s do this.”

Drawing the dagger I step forward, as far from the edge as I could get, as it slowly emerges from the dark. Its inky feathers against black of the cave made the fleshy parts stand out, making it appear a pallid ghost floating in the dim. Up close it is far more terrifying than I even imagined. It is huge, stooped low to fit through the cave it is still as tall as I am. Its wide maw is filled with crooked razor sharp piss colored teeth. Its massive raptor feet ended with onyx black talons. Its gray mottled skin bent and shifted like tough old leather, it’s low slung breasts hanging off its torso like empty saddlebags. Down its right side, from a deep wound in its shoulder, ran the same sticky dark amber blood that stained my blade. It pulled its right wing behind it limply. The harpy could not fly away and I had it cornered. My grip on my father’s passed down weapon tightens as the realization that this was a fight to **** sinks in. Did he wield this in his last moments too? It seemed a random thought, and a strange one, yet for some reason it brought me comfort.

As it sees its own blood on my weapon it lets out a deafening shriek. “KREEEEE!!!”

Silently I stare into it with all of my burning hatred.

Its disturbingly large perfectly round eyes stay locked on me as I shift to its left, its head turning with me as I moved. The ledge was maybe six feet at the deepest and ten in width with the cave mouth just off center. It had a slight slope to it and I was trying use that by moving to the higher edge to try to gain some sort of advantage. Seeming to be cognizant of its injured wing the beast remains in the mouth of the cave, not wanting to risk a fall. Also, it knew what I was here for. It knew I had to come to it. A sheer drop to jagged stones behind me, a mythical beast in front of me, I hunch down and ready myself. My mouth is bone dry and I can taste the reeking stench of the creature’s lair.

It studied me, sizing me up and gauging the threat I posed to it, as I did the same. I saw how hopeless this was. It was larger, stronger, with teeth and talon that could tear a healthy ox to shreds. None of it mattered, it stood between me and my Lady. Be she alive or dead I would spend my last breath trying to see her again. Each of us sensing the tension about to snap we bear our teeth and hunker lower as I prepare to charge it.

The harpy suddenly lurches, as if shoved. It starts to twist and shake as I watch two small pale hands appear up at its shoulders then the tips of two sharp horns peek into view. Rosa had climbed onto its back! As quick as a blink of my eyes her long sinuous tongue strikes out and wraps around the harpy’s throat. Its huge eyes bulge grotesquely as Rosa’s powerfully muscled tongue squeezes for all its worth.

“KRRLLK!”

“RAAHHHH!” I charge forward in the distraction and slam my shoulder into the harpy’s chest, driving my dagger deep into its belly and sending all three of us back into the cramped quarters of the cave.

In the dark and the stench I fight on instinct. I stab and stab and stab again, ramming the blade to its hilt again and again with all of my strength. Its great foot grasps me around the ribs, squeezing the breath out of me with incredible power, as I tear its feathers and bite its leathery flesh and punch and kick and stab with wild fury. Above me I hear its gurgling screeches cut off by Rosa’s strangling constriction.

It is no fight for the poets. It is nasty and brutal. There are no tactics or maneuvers or grand speeches of honor. For dear life we thrash and scrabble blindly, each of us doing all we can to inflict damage on our enemy. In the chaos it flails backward with me on top of it and I hear a sickening thud and a hard grunt as Rosa is driven back into the solid stone with all our weight on top of her. An instant later, its neck free from Rosa’s **** pressure, it sucks in a wet gurgling breath and lets out ear-splitting cry. “KREEEEEEE!!!”

That bellow of **** rage gave me a target. I thrust the dagger upward and feel its sharp blade bite flesh. As quickly as it started the harpy’s piercing call is cut off. Below me the monster bucks and spasms, no longer fighting me but seized by the throes of ****. I push the blade deeper, in under its chin, and hold to it tight as I feel its life and strength gradually drain from its body. It felt like hours, though it was no more than half a minute, when I finally feel it slump dead.

Rolling off of it I heave with what strength I had left to hoist it off of Rosa. I kneel down beside her and let my relief out in a great gasp as I see her chest rise and fall. She was alive! ****, but alive! Words cannot describe the joy that fills me.

“I got you.” I whisper. “I got you.”

I cradle her in my arms and lift her limp body from the floor. One…two…three steps toward the light of the cave mouth and I collapse back to my knees. I am breathing slow, each breath a labor. My limbs are heavy. I’m tired. So tired. Keeping her held to me in my left arm I feel along my right flank at an ache in my ribs. I pull my hand away to see it glisten with bright fresh crimson mixed in with the harpy’s amber life blood.

“Well…fuck.”