Sea and Sky

Chapter One

He tears through the underbrush, cuts and bruises appearing all over him, the wing he thinks is broken twinges painfully and he staggers forward, towards the only place he knows is safe. the mountain flock he thinks just make it to the mountain kingdom   He continues on, running for his life, his feathery legs shaking with exertion, his bare torso freezing despite the hot sweat that was running down his face. Then he spots his break, a cave a few feet off the ground, if only he could get there with out leaving a trail. He begins to furiously flap his wings, pain shooting through them as he lifts off the ground and propels himself towards the cave, concealing himself just in time to collapse behind a boulder and his pursuers enter the clearing.

"Fuck!" he hears one of them scream as they notice his footsteps have petered off. "he must have flew off, not sure how he managed with that broken wing of his..." A second voice says as he lays trembling in the cave, a glistening pool of water next to him.

"We have to search, he can't have gone far, fan out, don't leave any rock unturned" The boy begins to shake, footsteps coming nearer the cave

"Over hear!" a voice says and he turns, seeing another boy in the pool, his long hair in french braids, murky green eyes pleading "I can help you, please!" the boy pleads, panic evident on his face as the footsteps draw nearer

"How?" the small boy whispers, his wings tucked tight to his back

"Hey!" they shout as the boy yells for the panicking boy to hold his breath. They dive under the water and shoot through a passage under the back of the cave wall, 10 seconds, 20 seconds, 30 seconds they're underwater before they emerge, one sputtering and coughing the other calm. The stranger swims over and places the harpy on the mossy shore before speaking

"You'll be safe now, they can't get to you here in the grotto"

"The grotto?" The other asks still coughing

"Its a special place for people like you and me" He says before a flick of a green scaly something appears above the water

"y-your a merman!" he says

"yes, and your a harpy" The merman says stating the obvious as the harpy did moments before "My name is harry" he says smiling

"M-my name is louis" he replies stretching out a hand for the merman to shake. They shake before harry frowns.

"My father is looking for me i must go, your free to roam here, your safe, make yourself a home inside the oak hollow or near the shore, wherever you prefer. goodbye louis, i hope to speak to you again sometimes soon" he says and then he's off leaving louis completely dumbfounded and in total shock. safe he hasn't been safe in years, always trying out outrun the humans trying to capture him for they're own gain. He sits on the shore all night and most of the next day until a figure swims up to him with a worried look on their face.

"You haven't moved" Louis shakes his head and tries to flap his wings, failing miserably, only managing a pained squeak as his broken wing sears in pain. "Oh my god!" harry says "Your hurt, i need to get you to our healer, quick c'mere" When louis doesn't move, harry scoops him up, making louis cling to his back as he propels through the water, his long green tail beating the waves in the cove as he shoots for the other side. louis throughs are clouded as he looks around seeing mermaids and harpy's as well as centaurs and satyrs. There are cyclopses and unicorns, pegasus and hippocampus all roaming the waters, shores and nearby forest. Soon they reach a squat little building and harry sets louis on the shore, telling him to go inside. Louis does, he stumbles in and up to a chair, sitting in it as he observed the empty room. There was a bed and all kinds of jars of herbs and sharp things that louis did not want anything to do with. His wing was throbbing and he was falling asleep in his chair, so he went and lid on the bed, which was made of finely woven fibres of white shiny hair. He didn't know what it was and didn't care, because the blanket was soft, the softest one he's even slept on, and placing his head on the fluffy pillow, he was out like a light.

What seemed like seconds later, Louis jolted awake by the sounds of footsteps, His feather on end he scooted into the corner of the hut talons extended, ready to put up a fight your safe now  the merman had told him but it gave him little comfort as he sat trembling in the corner. Then a woman entered the room, he large amber wings tucked behind her back, he stele blue eyes, moving to a very terrified louis. Her brown hair was up in a messy pony tail, held in place by what looked like seaweed.  Then she dropped her bag, the contents spilling everywhere as tears welled up in her eyes. She ran at louis, who shrunk back in the corner, folding his unhurt wing over himself as a means of protection but it didn't deter her. She slammed full force into him, sobbing into his shoulder as he awkwardly rubbed her back, wing falling back behind him. Confusion coursed through him who was this woman?

"Louis d-dont you remember me?" she asks pulling back and gripping him by the shoulders, looking into his soft blue eyes with her almost identical ones. Then he remembers

the lightning strikes happened every couple of seconds, and the baby harpy was afraid, really really afraid. His mother stood over him, her wings shielding him from the harsh elements. They sat in their nest, thinking they had outrun what was following them. Then it strikes, an arrow shoots through the sky and embeds itself in his mothers side. She squawks loudly in pain before gripping her baby and taking off as fast as she could. They make it a few hundred yards before another arrow shot past them, grazing her wing. Spiralling out of the air, they landed hard in a dense forest and louis mother stood, pulling her three year old up

"fly, go to the crystal caves, my friend can help you, her name is Casey, Ill come collect you as soon as i can, now go, your strong lou, i know you can do it. Make mama proud" He goes to protest but she pushes him and he takes off shakily, only recently having gained his wings and learned to fly. He was scared, so so scared

"Mama...." he gets out weakly before collapsing into her arms, crying as much as she was "I-i looked everywhere for you....what.. how?" he asked and she chuckled tearily

"Let me fix your wing first, then we can talk"

So 20 minutes later when his wing was bandaged, held in place against his back, louis sat across from his mother in her nest in the mountain most of the harpies in the grotto called home.

"Louis, first things first, you may have a sibling? Or maybe more?" Louis gasped and his mother called out into the cave and six little harpies came flying shyly out and settled by there mother. The two oldest looking ones were holding two babies with downy wings. Louis makes grabby hands at the little girl harpy and she waddles slowly over to him, her wings flapping lightly behind her. She falls into louis arms giggling and louis holds her up

"Hi sweetheart" He says in a high pitched baby voice "Whats your name?"

"Thats doris" His mother says pointing at the baby "And ernest" she pointed at the other baby "Daisy" a younger harpy with white wings "Her twin, phoebe" with light pink wings "and this is Lottie, and this is fizzy" she finished pointing to the older girls who both had golden brown wings.

"Wheres they're dad?" Louis asked and jay smiled weakly,
"Well Ernest and Doris' dad is out, hell be home later tonight, but the other father died, he was captured by humans when he went out to..to find you" She says and a tear rolls down her face. Louis places the baby on the floor and she totters back to Lottie. Then he leans forward and hugs his mother fiercely

"I've missed you so much..." He says and she nods tearily

"I-ive missed you too Boo, id given up hope in ever seeing you again..." then she hugs louis tighter to her chest, afraid if she lets him go hell dissolve into thin air.