The Secret Asgardian (An Avengers Fanfiction)

Chapter 36: Promise

36. Promise

There it was again. That breathing. I spun around expectantly, but there was nothing there.

“Come and get me already! I’ll die of old age before you attack me – and if you know who I am, then you’ll know that’s really hard to do!” I yelled at the top of my lungs, but once more I was greeted with silence.

I’d been wandering through this god-forsaken labyrinth for about an hour now, and the only thing I had accomplished was to get an impressive blister on the side of my big toe. The sky looked exactly the same, and the maze was depressingly unchanging. I felt like I'd been walking around in circles for the past ten minutes, and I swore that I’d seen that statue three times now!

I studied the statue now, bored with walking. It was a hideous thing. The creature had a huge bird’s lower body and an ugly woman’s head and torso. Thankfully its feathers covered all of its gruesome body. Its wings were outstretched and its claws slashing the air in front of me. I thanked the gods that it was made of stone. An odd thing about it was that its eyes were liquid black. The rest of it was grey marble, except the eyes, which looked oddly alive. On the pedestal it stood on, the word ‘Harpy’ was engraved in big letters.

Faintly, I recalled Diana briefly mentioning a Harpy. I struggled to remember what she said, but I wasn’t going to stay here much longer while those evil eyes watched me.

I began to back away down the corridor, watching it wearily, and then nearly fell over as the statue exploded, pieces of stone flying everywhere. A very real looking Harpy now stood in its place, stretching its wings and cawing, like a crow. Its eyes latched onto me, and I froze for a split second.

“Food...” It rasped at me, licking its lips and sniffing the air with its hooked nose.

I threw a ball of fire at it, and the startled Harpy cried out as the fire burned its feathers. Snarling, it began run toward me slashing with its claws.

I turned and ran, not wanting to stay and be turned into bird food. I wheeled around the corner, and then cursed as I came face to face with a wall. I spun around and just managed to run the other way before the Harpy reached me. It cawed again, enjoying the hunt.

“You’ll regret this, you stupid creature!” I called back to it warningly as I ran, and it laughed an awful, hair-raising, shrill laugh. I could hear its talons clicking against the floor with every step.

“It’s been too long since I have tasted Asgardian!” It cried happily, and I almost stopped.

How did all these creatures know about Asgardians?

I reached the end of this passageway. Left or right? The passages were considerably wider now, and longer, which I took as a positive change.

I picked left again. This time, when I reached the end I wasn’t so lucky. It was a dead end. I turned and backed up to the wall as the Harpy approached slowly, drawing out the chase. I was panting heavily, and felt defeated. There was nowhere to run. I sent a stream of fire at it, but the Harpy deflected it with its own magic, now expecting my fire.

“I didn’t know that disgusting bird-people could use magic,” I remarked dryly, and the Harpy bared its teeth in a feral grin.

“I didn’t know that Asgardians were so easy to catch,” She snapped back, and I shrugged.

“Are you going to get on with it? Because I’m on a pretty tight schedule,” I said bluntly, and the Harpy prepared to lunge.

Suddenly, I heard a very familiar sound, and a blast of energy hit the Harpy squarely on the back. Its onyx eyes widened, before they closed and it slumped to the floor in front of me.