Pallula stood in front of the door for what felt like forever.
Her fingers were numb from the tight hold she kept on her cloak but if she let it go she'd be revealed and most likely be very very dead. With a nervous half breath she wished that Marlin would have just fixed the broken clasp before giving it to her.
She snapped to attention when the harpy began to pace the space unsteadily.
It's talons scratched loudly against the dark glass floor and with every step it turned its head this way and that.
Almost like.. it was.. searching for her. She stopped breathing.
There was no way it could see her. N-no way it could!
But what if it could hear her breathing? no. It'd know where she was exactly if that was the case.
Could it maybe... just sense something was off?
It was so close to her. She pressed her back harder against the unmoving door.
The harpy dragged its tail across the floor slowly causing a soft sound to fill the room. Pallula watched the creature as its tail swept back and forth leisurely. She felt a tiredness fill her head and a static disrupt her thoughts. She slowly rubbed at her forehead, this wasn't the place for falling asleep, and yet, the floor called to her like nothing else did before.
Sinking slowly to her knees Pallula tried to keep her eyes from flicking closed.
There was a comforting vibration in the air now as the harpy began to flutter its wing feathers together. It was too much- she closed her eyes.
A loud screech jolted Pallula back to the world of the waking and leaving her head spinning as she tried to look for the cause. Finding something unbelievable.
There was a waterfall falling from the sky drenching the screeching angel harpy. No that's not right, not from the sky it was from a creature that floated into the dim light from above. A strange melody escaped its mouth wrapping the area in a curious state of daydream. Was she still sleeping maybe?
It looked almost like... a deep sea siren? But.. sirens couldn't fly. right?
The harpy thrashed and screamed loudly at the new creature throwing a fit after being nearly drowned. It shook its wings out to posture at the siren with deep seated anger.
The siren narrowed its eyes at the screaming harpy and with a harsh expression snapped its tail in agitation. With a single movement the harpy took to the air swiping its talons at the siren but the siren dipped down around it looking bored.
Pallula watched the siren and saw how the waters that crashed into the floor came from its tail and glittered with stars. Was... this creature the origin of the Waters of Space? What was it doing here?
The harpy flew after the siren again and again and again and though its four wings offered it a mobility not many creatures had the siren still escaped it's grasp as easily as a sigh. It was beautiful and otherworldly nothing like any siren she had seen or heard about over her years of adventuring.
She tightened her grip on her cloak and rose slowly to her feet. Watching the battle rage on in the moonlight. Pallula glanced above them at the cracks that ran along the impossibly high ceiling that let the light in. There, that was her way out but could she even climb that high? Cold sweat clung to her skin as she looked around for any sort of foothold, there- the other side! It looked like there were remains of a stairway but...
The harpy crashed loudly to her left with an enraged wail, a terrible cracking sound filled the room when the harpy launched itself back into the air. But Pallula could only hear the harsh pounding in her ears as she turned to look where the harpy had been, the floor...
..was cracking.
With silence no longer a priority Pallula bolted across the battlefield. With every step the fracturing glass followed her with horrifying noise, growing louder and louder until Pallula felt her foot give way under her and she fell into cold glittering waters below. She thrashed and released her cloak but her stiff limbs didn't work properly after so many hours of inaction.
Pallula shot her hand out to grab at an unbroken part of the glass floor, holding her head just above the water. She couldn't kick her legs hard enough, the sound of static filled her ears as she slowly lost her grip on the edge.
Then in a moment of action she was thrown back across the glass when a great wave of water crashed into her and knocked her harshly against the opposite wall.
Fighting to keep her eyes open against the glittering waters she witnessed the harpy trapped, angry and thrashing slowly sink into the lake as the Siren pushed down at it. Pallula weakly gripped at the rocky walls, when each consecutive wave of water threatened to pull her back into the lake.
The harpy's wings were slowing and its weakened screams echoed off the walls at the unmoving siren. But even though siren's four hands were burning at the touch it didn't relent. And with a roaring melodic song the victorious siren saw the harpy's final moments. The glass around them had been broken and embedded into the harpy's wings leaving it no chance at survival and no way out of the water. The harpy's talons had clawed at the siren's arms but still easily slid off leaving the siren's scales unbroken and unhurt.
Releasing its hold the siren gave one last push and sent the angel harpy deep under the surface. Pallula watched in fear and awe as the siren rocketed back up towards the ceiling laying on a ledge half way up.
The water drained slowly back into the lake and left Pallula in a state of shock.
She sat there for awhile, trying to wrap her head around the idea she was still alive. That she could still breathe and that the siren somehow overlooked her.
Her eyes drifted to the great hole in the floor with an uncertain dread, that could have been her.
It had almost been her that was dead. She had her sword and she had her shield. She could... what, what could she do against a creature that treated an Angel Harpy like a toy?
The sound of the trailing waterfall was a constant sound that never seemed to fade and Pallula traced the water that ran down the wall back up to the siren. Her heart thudded loudly in her chest as she waited for it to turn its head from the moonlight and See her.
But it didn't, at least not yet.
The immediate danger was over but.. she was still stuck. Exhaustion pulled at her eyes once more and with the last of her energy she tugged her cloak closed over her shoulders. If the siren killed her before she woke up, at least she wouldn't feel it.
With one last shivering sigh Pallula let the darkness of sleep take her.
What a clever title I know, haha. >V>'
I've never really been a fan of calling things 'prologue' but this prologue is lasting a lot longer than I was really expecting it to.
Soon we'll get to the fun stuff, but I still hope this part is interesting too!! I promise next chapter will be super interesting and finally get this story going!!
In other news, this was my first time writing a battle scene! Hope it was okay!
SO!
Let me know what you thought! Or fav the chapter!! :D Let's me know you liked it even a little!! :D
Thank you very much for reading! See you all next Friday!
OH PS:
I did some doodles of what the harpy and siren look like in my mind! If you already have a visual of how you want them to look forever then that's good too but if you're curious about how i see them they're here:
The Siren:
The Angel Harpy:
A Quick Size Comparison:
I like the doodles. It really help me imagine the fight.
AHhh Thank you! I'm glad they were helpful!!
I had a feeling they might be since I didn't want to just take an entire paragraph or two describing the monsters when action should be happening.
Thank you for reading my story!! :D
Love the Siren' design its beautiful.