“SCRIIIIIIIE-“ screams a voice out in the confusion, as we slam into the sand dunes and roll downward, wrestling and biting each other. I’m not built to fight in this body, being a ‘pseudo healer’ of sorts. My form is made up out of a physically condensed magic, but I have no blood. Which is good, because I’m sure I would be bleeding a lot otherwise. The harpy has razor sharp talons and I feel her clawing at me as we tumble over each other, spiraling down the sand dunes. It would be great if my skeletons came to help me, but I get the feeling that they aren’t happy about having been resurrected. Especially to do my dirty-work. Fair enough, I know the feeling all too well.

  With flapping wings and scratching nails, we reach the bottom of the dune. She looks at me, furious. Perhaps because I have intruded upon her territory, harpies are very protective of their domains. I leap again, sort of, kicking my leg off of the sand to get the upper hand and pin her down with her wings to the dirt with surprising ease.

  “SCRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIE!” she yells at me, snapping at my throat, as one of my hands presses against her neck and another pins one of her wrists as I slam her back down. Her free hand strikes me, trying to push me off, but thankfully she only has talons on her feet and not on her, sort-of human, hands.

  “SCRIIIIIIIIIE!” I lean in and yell back at her, mostly just to be a jerk, I have no idea what she’s saying, if she’s saying anything. Let alone what I just said, if anything. I just like the noise. It reminds me of the hum. Haha. Bmmmmiiiiiiiieeeee-!

  She narrows her gaze and we stop fighting for a second, as if she’s conceding, though I don’t let go of my grip on her throat. Do I want experience points? My fingers tighten a little and she makes a strange sort of noise that sounds kind of wet and throaty and gross. I mean, I could use a level up. I can always use more level ups. I lean in closer to look into her eyes, pressing my face nigh against hers to stare. She’s making funny noises. They’re nice eyes, they have a golden color like the aureate sands that shimmer all around us, beneath the desert heat. Do you want them? I stare. They’re illustrious, glimmering unusually bright, like a star above a dead wasteland. A single point of holy convergence. Sacred. Sanctified. Pure. No, I wasn’t asking you, guy. I mean her, I’m asking her if she wants them. What would you even do with eyes, guy? Come on. Keep it together, okay? You’re starting to worry me a little with all of your nonsense, tell you what. Haha!

  Her fist keeps hitting against my side as I continue to choke her, but her blows feel weaker now, slower. Her throat makes more sounds. Ew, they sound gross, haha. Kind of wet and sloshy, you know? I’m still squeezing, her eyes are getting bigger the tighter I squeeze. Look. Look! Aren’t they pretty?! Aren’t they beautiful?! The miller could never take these! Not in a million-billion years! I squeeze tighter still, as I stare into them, my face pressed against hers, lost, transfixed in the fearful expression staring up at me. At those big eyes. They look so deep, like the ocean during sunrise, cascades of light bound off of their scintillating surfaces. They shine like pristine jewels. Ah. I’m so jealous. I wish I had eyes like that.

Something skitters.

  Huh? I look around for the source of the noise. No. No… Nothing skittered. It scampered. Scampered-scampered. My eyes rise to the little rats that are standing atop the dunes, next to my skeleton ‘friends’. All of them are watching me. Something wet splutters onto my hand, as she gurgles, spit flying out onto my fingers and I look down at her face. It looks hurt. She is about to die.

Ah, shit. What am I doing? Everyone is watching me.

  I let go and she immediately heaves forward to gasp for air, but I’m still sitting on top of her so she doesn’t get far. I look at the rats. They look at me. I narrow my eyes. They narrow their eyes. Their disgusting little beady eyes. I hate them. I yell to the skeletons to get them! Get them-Get them!

The skeletons look at each other, somewhat confused and then look to the rats, before shrugging indifferently.

Ugh. Don’t you people have any work ethic?!

  There is a disgusting noise from just below me and I look back to the harpy, who is busy breathing as hard as she can between the wet, throaty noises that she makes as she’s desperately crying, trying to scramble away out from under me. Which is kind of selfish, honestly? I mean, she attacked me first. I look at her.

  “What’s the matter? Were you afraid of dying?” I lean back in, pulling her back by her hair as I begin to stroke her head and hum between my words to calm her down. “That’s fine! You don’t have to worry about that! None of us can die. None of us can ever die! Because, you know? You know?!” I ask the terrified, shaking creature beneath me and lean backwards myself, placing a finger onto her pointy nose. Tapping once with every syllable as I remind her of the hallow truth, of why I do all of this for her. “Be-cause I lo-,!” something squeaks. I look up to the rat that stands atop the dune, at the rat that ruined my perfectly beautiful moment.

  I sigh, as the arches of my feet press into the soft ground beneath me and I leap up into the air, my wings spreading wide, as I shoot up towards the top of the dune like lightning. The rats scramble as I fly towards them, rising up the length of the dune in a second. The skeletons just kind of step to the side and get out of my way. The rodents have scattered in all directions, but that’s fine. I just want the one. Like a bird of prey, I swoop down and grab the little rat that went out of his way to ruin everything. It squeaks in terror as my fingers wrap around its furry little bony body. I SCRIE at it as I lunge forward, its neck-bones snapping as my teeth go through the tufts of shaggy fur and soft outer skin of its neck. Red! Red leaks everywhere, droplets staining the sand beneath me as the little bones crunch between my teeth. Blech.

I spit it back out and look at the decapitated body in my hands. Haha! Hallow. Hallow! Light flows through me as my magical energies seep out of my core and into the body of the rat, piecing it back together. It opens its eyes, terrified. Haha! CRUNCH. HAHA!

I spit it out again.

HALLOW. HALLOW.

It returns, squealing in terror as it claws and bites against me. But there is no blood save for its own. RED. I bite down again. CRUNCH. Hahaha!

Something creaks behind me, the skeletons. I look at them. The one in the front raises his hands and steps back a step. I turn back to the rat that has been mended once more and bite its head off again. It repeats. I turn to the distance, where I see the other rats having come together into a group, they watch. They scamper, but now only quietly. They’ve learned. They’ve learned! Ssssssshhhhhhhh… CRUNCH!

I throw the headless body down to the sand and spit the head out one last time, as I hear something else. Something isn’t quiet. Something is ruining my moment! It’s ruining it! It’s going BMMMMMMMMMMMMMH-

Turning back I see her, running away, the harpy. The harpy. The harpy. THE HARPY. She has my eyes you know, guy?! She has my eyes! I leap, flying towards the thing with hurt wings. The thing that turns back to face me with those eyes as it runs. AS IT RUNS WITH MY EYES.

CRUNCH