Samule Shumard (Hecking proof reading)

Stymphalian species- 

H. Stymphalian, common names included Skysailor, 

-

"Do you want a piece?"
Sonii frowned up at the god. "A... piece of your food??"
He dug through his camera bag, "Yeah! It's just candy."
Her suspicion remained. "What is it?"
The god pulled out something wrapped in brightly colored paper and tore it open.
"It's uh," he squinted down at it, "I don't know, I guess it's probably just sugar."
That would explain a lot. "You shouldn't eat just sugar."
"Yeah I know, but I'm going to." He offered her a grin- a real grin, not one of those condescending god grins. "You want some?"
 
It was just such a bizarre situation. Sonii had never seen a god share their food willingly, much less eat something so ridiculous. She tried to think of a reason to decline, but it didn't feel like trap. Just a strange friendly gesture. Sonii shrugged, "Sure."
The god picked up one of his gauntlets and used a claw to cut off a chunk, then held it out to her.
It was blue, for some reason, and sticky. Sonii slowly peeled it off, absolutely bewildered. She glared at it, sniffed it, and took a tiny bite. 
Oh. That's why he's eating pure sugar. She shoved the rest in her mouth.
The god doubled over laughing. "Do you like it?" There was a little bit of playful sarcasm in his voice.
Sonii returned it through a mouthful of candy. "A little..." 

- 

- 

- "-Sam what the hell are you doing!?"
Even through the hurricane, he could hear Milvus' panic through the radio.
"I'll lead it away from land and get it lost, like we did with the hornets!"
"-That isn't a swarm of hornets, that's a goddam roc! It's faster then you!"
"You need to help Heron, and Mom's not here. That leaves me, Mil."
His radio was silent for a long moment. "-If you don't come home..."
"You'll burn the house down, I know."
"-Please be careful."
"I will." Sam turned off his radio as the bird came into view. It was drifting along the beach like a dinosaur, stalking sirens hidden in the eelgrass. His heart pounded, but he didn't slow down. Sam climbed, then dipped into a stoop, his wings whistling and his single warclaw balled into a prickly metal fist. Sam slammed his claws into the back of the bird's head. It wasn't enough force to kill, but probably hurt. Feathers flew. The roc screamed it's complaint and took to the air after him - Rows of pseudo teeth and barbed talons riding on some of the fastest wings nature ever built. He had it's attention, now he had to keep it. 

-

Heron cursed as he drug their sister under the roof. "If you ever pull a stunt like that again, I swear-"
Milvus had multiple broken bones, as well as puncture wounds from the bird's pseudo teeth. She couldn't stand, and Heron was clearly afraid she might bleed out right there, because he threw down his backpack and went into firefighter mode.
She mocked him from the ground as he mixed a clot gun. "What? What are you going to do?" Her voice was calm and she laughed a little when Heron shot a nervous glance at her. Sam shivered. This was bad. 
Heron's cocky middle child voice broke. "I don't know. Cry I guess. Sam, hold this."
 
Sam took the gun and held it upright to keep plasma from spilling out. He really didn't like seeing his family covered in blood, so he looked back out at the hurricane instead. The bird still lay crumpled on the ground, but there was still that weird buzz in the wind. As he watched, lightning flashed and a second shadow drifted over the body, And then the sky went dark and it was gone.
"I need that now."
He handed the gun to his brother, "There's another bird!"
"Yeah," Milvus pointed to the puncture wounds. "I know! Ow" She gasped as Heron put pressure on her chest and struggled to breath for a moment. "I'll... I'll deal with it as soon as Heron lets me up."
"The hell you won't!" He held gauze down with one hand and snatched bandages out of his backpack with the other. "You won't even be able to get off the ground!"
"If I jump off-"
"No! Milvus what the fuck? If you go out there you're dead!"
"Do you have a better idea?"





 
_

"What, you think you are so much better then me? Then them?"
Sonii's knife slid out of reach as the god pinned her. She made a desperate attempt to snatch it and missed.
Edgar curled his fingers around her a little too tight as he lifted her to eye level. "Oh, you were going to stab me? That's very rude. I thought we were friends!?"
She was done being friends. "I hate you!" 
He raised and eyebrow, "Is that it then?" 

A faint smile crept across Edgar's face. He already knew he'd won. "Do you wish to terminate our arrangement, Sonii? Or would you like to make better decisions?"
Sonii opened her mouth to shout brave curse words at him, but her voice turned into a little squeak as he started to carefully squeeze her ribs. Not enough to kill, just enough to hurt. 

Her magic started to well up uncontrollably as she gasped for air. It knew she was scared, and it was pissed. As it came a new layer of perception washed through her. She became aware of the tendons and bones that pulled tight around her, the blood vessels that fed them, a week point in the cartilage that held Edgar's last finger in place, and her knife - still lying on the floor below.

Not right now! 

Pain erupted through her chest as a rib broke, then a collarbone. Sonii's head spun and stars dotted her vision. 

They rarely agreed, but her magic was right this time. This pattern would continue until the day she died if she let it. There was no reasoning with Edgar, and she was the only one in the room who could fight him.  

A sudden chill in her palm kept her eyes open. Sonii slowly gripped the handle of her knife as her magic brought it to her hand and watched his tendons move. 

Fine.
 
"What did you say? I didn't quite catch it."
Edgar let her take a breath and waited for the answer he wanted. She didn't give it to him. "Please put me down."
"You're not really in the position to be making requests, Sonii."
"I asked nicely."
"So did I, yet I still seem to have grey hair. What a shame really. I guess I'll just go eat s-" 

His tendons and blood vessels lined up, and Sonii ripped her knife up through the god's fingers. It was a long blade and it made a deep gash, but her magic thought it needed to be deeper. 

His hand flew open at once and she fell. Sonii hit the ground hard and sat there on her hands and knees for a moment in shock. Her freshly bruised ribs throbbed and for a second she thought her ears were ringing, until the sound dropped a few notes. 

Edgar screamed as magic started to rip his fingers free from his hand. He dropped to his knees and tried to hold his hand together as enraged tendrils ate through bones and muscle.

She struggled to her feet to limp towards the door. He was going to try an eat somebody to heal that, and it absolutely wasn't going to be her.



Painfully, Sonii slid under the door and out into the evening air. She was met with mud, and lesser boots.  

"What the hell do you think you are doing?" 

She looked up 

-

-

Sam's breaths started to gurgle. Blood still dripped from somewhere under his wing, and a little trail of pink stained water had begun to make it's way through storm.
Sonii stood there as he slowly bled out, still poised to walk away.

A horrible guilt rose up in her throat. She stifled a sob and dropped her knife, apathetic to weather it disappeared or clattered to the ground. Luckily her magic accepted it this time, and it vanished.
"I'm sorry."
It was still hurt, but it seemed to except the apology.
She pushed wet hair back out of her face and wiped a tear away. "What are we going to do about him? He'll die out here."
Her magic suddenly became convinced that they could move him. It showed her faint thoughts of teal tendrils dragging Sam under the roof.
"Oh yeah," Sonii sniffed, "Sure." She pictured the clouds turning pink and raining starfish.
Her magic was a little annoyed with her sarcasm, but it doubled down and reached out, waiting for Sonii.
She wanted to ignore the idea, but she couldn't help wondering if it was right. Sam was small and light weight for a god. It was worth a try... 

"Fine! But but what if he-!"
As she worried, her magic reminded her of the time she'd knocked Brandon out cold, and compared it jokingly to Sam, just to assure her that the god most certainly wasn't going to wake up. Sonii took a deep breath. "fine." 

She glanced around the empty room and estimated where Sam would need to be centered if he were to fit, then walked to that spot and held both hands out. This would be just like summoning her knife, she was sure. All her magic needed an anchor, and that was Sonii's job.

It reached out and tried to anchor around his wings, but lost its grip before it even started to pull on him. It complained with pictures of fish about how slippery Sam was, and Sonii remembered how difficult it has been to see through his wings before, and how easily he passed through the island barrier. 

"Oh, hold on, how about his cloths?" She tried to translate into pictures in a way it might understand. 

She tried again, but this time