FSE

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Conchim offered a natural shelter under a couple of trees at the edge of the clearing where tough bushes formed a green cave underneath them, and Ulric and the girls made themselves comfortable with blankets and hides to sit on. They'd just eaten a bite when Conchim returned with the queen.

'Let me get you a blanket.' said Iphigenia and pulled two from her pack.

'Thank you.' said the queen and Conchim as they sat down on them, their wings elegantly draped across their lap and the two long, slender tips of her tail curled gracefully behind her. 'I hope you're comfortable enough here.'

Ulric nodded while focussing hard on the situation at hand and not the fine curves of the two harpy's chests. 'Sheltered from wind and rain, it's good.' he said and sat up straight. 'So, what's the problem you're facing, your Majesty?'

The queen cleared her throat. 'Please, call me Sawea. 'Human hunters have been catching the fish flying from one lake to the other in our territory. Before, they never came close and stuck to the further routes the flying fish took and didn't disturb our own supply. Now though, they catch a lot of the fish that would pass our hunting grounds and leave us with too little to survive on over time.'

Ulric hummed. 'Did you make contact with them?'

'They attacked us when we approached them and they used their nets to take down the ones that came near.' Conchim said.

'So, it's a deliberate action.' Elzbieta said.

Sawea nodded. 'That was our conclusion as well.' she said and entwined her fingers on her lap. 'I can only think that this is a malicious act.'

Conchim hit her wings on her thighs with her fists. 'We'll make them pay!'

'What do they usually do?' asked Ulric. 'How do they escape from you?'

Sawea looked at Conchim, who sighed. 'They shoot nets at the fish to catch most of them, and use those same nets against us. We get entangled in them and receive a shock, and they escape with the nets full of fish in the meantime. They're with enough people to have a net at the ready all the time and they're armed with bows. They also vanish every time without a trace.'

'How many people?'

'Sixteen to twenty, I think.'

Ulric looked at the others. 'I think we'd better take a look first and find out more about them.' he said and pondered. He looked at Kaui and Valdys. 'To be on the safe side, I'd like you two to stay here while Iphi and Elz come with me.'

Trixy chittered and he smiled. 'All right, you come along while Val asks the spirits here for more information.'

Susi nudged him with her nose. 'Susi come too.'

He stroked her head. 'I think it's too dangerous for you this time. I'd be less worried when you stay here.'

Susi's ears drooped. 'Okay, daddy.'

Kaui stroked her back. 'I could use your help in sniffing out useful herbs and materials to replenish our stock.' she said. 'With your nose we should find what we need much quicker.'

Susi's ears pricked up again and she wagged her tail. 'I'll help!'

Ulric gave Kaui a grateful smile and turned to Conchim. 'Can you take us to where they usually hunt?'

She nodded. 'They're not always at the same spot but I can lead you along the route that the fish normally fly.'

'Good.'

'Before you go,' said Sawea. 'could you show me the piece you have of the artefact?'

'Val?' asked Ulric, and she sat down next to him and held it out to the queen.

She took it and carefully examined it as she turned it over. 'This is part of a circular object?'

'Yes.' said Valdys. 'It should be a ring and by connecting the pieces in the correct order, open a portal to where the demon lord resides.'

Sawea returned the piece to Valdys. 'Although we barely have contact with others, we know the demon lord is very powerful. What do you hope to achieve?'

'I've been pulled into this world and this body from my own world.' said Ulric. 'I'm actually human, and according to wizards, I'd need the power of the demon lord to return me to my world and my own body. But there's also the report that the demon lord plans to conquer the world and we'd like to put an end to that as well.'

Sawea nodded. 'I see. It would be better if there was no bloodshed in the world. Do you know where the piece is that you're looking for?'

Valdys pointed towards one of the mountain cliffs. 'It should be in that direction. Is there anything special there? Like a building or a marker?'

Sawea shook her head. 'From here to the rock face is nothing but ordinary plants and trees. There is no construction of any kind around here.'

Valdys looked at Ulric. 'It should be here according to this piece and what Demetrus wrote about finding it. Unless I made a terrible mistake.'

He laid his paw on her hand. 'I'm sure you didn't. It's likely buried somewhere so we'll just follow the direction we're given and dig where it points in all directions.'

'It must have been buried in secret or a long time ago then,' Sawea said. 'but we'll help where we can in return for your help.'

Ulric smiled a little and gave her a nod. 'It's appreciated.'

'We'll have to deal with those thieves first.' said Conchim.

'You're right.' he said and stood up on all fours. 'Let's see who we're up against.'

Sawea smiled. 'Be careful.' she said. 'And thank you.'

'Leave that for when we actually have done something.' he chuckled and Trixy hopped onto his back. 'After you, Conchim.'

***

The small group travelled through the trees to stay out of sight while Conchim flew up occasionally to take a peek above the tree tops. 'There's a school of fish heading this way.' she said as she landed gracefully. Without the distraction of fighting, Ulric could get a good look at her large wingspan of four to five times her height, the shimmering of the darkest blue on her black feathers, and her V shaped tail with the tips reaching to her calves. He'd seen depictions of harpies but the real thing was something else. She was truly a shadow silently passing through the air and would vanish into the dark of the night easily. She folded her wings behind her back. 'We should see them pass overhead soon.'

Everyone looked up at the sound of fluttering coming closer. It reminded Ulric of the slightly crispy sound of the thin and stiff paper to build kites with, only in this case there'd have to be at least a hundred kites flying.

The glittering silver and blue-grey cloud filled the view in an instant. 'It's exactly like fish in water, wow!' he said and squinted his eyes. 'Except these fish have four fins like dragonfly wings?'

'Indeed.' said Elzbieta. 'It's the first time I've seen them apart from drawings in a book.'

'Fish can't be taken far or in the quantities to be profitable for merchants, so I doubt many people outside the area know about them.' Iphigenia said.

'They only migrate between the lakes and large ponds spread between the mountains here.' said Conchim. 'If they're hunted too much they'll die out and we'd lose an important food source.'

Ulric nodded as the last fish disappeared from sight. 'Shall we follow them to see if we encounter the hunters?'

'Yes. I suspect we'll see them soon.'

They hurried in silence after the school until Ulric smelled the scents of humans. 'I smell a group of humans up ahead.' he whispered.

'That must be them.' said Conchim. 'You'll see how they catch the fish.'

They arrived just in time to see four men aim heavy crossbows up at the fish, standing at the corners of a net made from thin rope lying on the ground. 'Two, one, fire!' said a fifth man, shielding his eyes while he observed the shimmering cloud.

The bows twanged as one and four thick bolts went up and snatched the net upwards. It spread further in front of the fish and ensnared most of them. The packed fish ceased to fly and the bundle fell down while the rest of the fish scattered in panic. The full net came down with a wet thud near several more men and women, who rushed towards it and secured it before any fish still alive could escape.

'Good catch.' said the one who ordered the bowmen, and Ulric suspected was their leader, a gruff looking man who looked like he'd been working at sea all his life. Screeches came from the other side and he turned to four other men surrounding a net. 'Harpies! Get ready!'

Conchim shot forward but Ulric grabbed her. 'Don't!' he whispered.

'I have to help them!' she said as she wrestled him.

He clamped her mouth. 'We'll help them if they're in danger of getting killed. If they get hurt we can heal them later but right now we need to watch what they're doing to find out how we can stop them.' Conchim tensed in frustration but realised he was right. She nodded briskly once and Ulric let her go. 'Trust me, I don't like it either but we need to know.'

Brun muttered an incantation while touching the net and a faint light yellow light spread across it and faded away. He stepped back and the bowmen aimed their crossbows at the sky while several others readied arrows on their bows. Five harpies flew fast and low over the tree tops with ammunition in their talons and hands. He spoke clear and calm. 'Steady, two, one, fire!'

The net shot up at the sky with the bolts but almost faded from sight in an instant. The harpies avoided the bolts but flew into the net and screeched at the shock they received. Stunned, they crashed into the trees below and fell down with he sound of branches breaking under their weight and the dull thuds of their bodies hitting the ground.

Conchim gritted her teeth and clenched the leaves from the bush in front of her. 'I'll make them pay!' she hissed.

'He put a stunning spell on the net.' said Elzbieta while the harpies were pulled from the net and rolled aside.

Brun turned to the group that had divided the fish in smaller bundles in the meantime. 'Done?'

'Yes.' said one of the women and hoisted her bundle on her back.

More screeches came from afar and he looked up at the sky. 'We're leaving!' he said and the men and women wrapped brown and dark green cloaks around them. Ulric held his breath in surprise when each of them vanished into thin air. Brun looked around once, then pulled his own cloak around him and faded from sight.

'They use invisibility cloaks!' said Iphigenia. 'That's how they get away.'

Ulric smelled the air quickly. 'They've left the area, let's help those poor harpies quickly.'

More harpies arrived while Iphigenia used her healing powers to treat the worst of the wounds of the downed harpies, and together they carried and supported them back to the home tree. Ulric made sure to walk carefully with two of them on his back and Trixy in his neck. 'We could attack them the next time, but the problem remains on how we can get all of them before even one of them escapes while invisible.'

'And how to avoid getting stunned.' said Elzbieta.

'Val? Can you see if there's some way to deal with any of this?'

'Already on it with Kaui as soon as you mentioned it.' she said over the link.

He smiled. 'The both of you are great.'

Kaui blushed. 'It's the least we can do to support everyone, Master. We also prepared healing potions for the wounded.'

'Thank you. We'll see you soon.' he said and his heart was filled with pride to have them at his side.

***

'Daddy! barked Susi as she darted happily towards Ulric when they arrived at the tree. 'You're okay!' she said and nuzzled him.

He chuckled. 'I'm pretty sturdy so nothing will happen to me any time soon.' he said. 'No need to worry.'

She looked up at him. 'Promise?'

He smiled and touched her nose with his. 'Promise.' he said. 'But now we need to take care of these hurt harpies.'

She wagged her tail. 'Okay. I collected many plants with Kaui for healing.' she said and followed him to an overhanging branch where the other harpies sat down and Kaui began treating them with the harpies who had experience in healing.

Sawea joined them a little later in their shelter. 'How did it go?'

'They use magic to make the nets and themselves invisible, and stunning magic on the nets to take us down.' said Conchim, her eyes full of anger. 'It'll be difficult to catch them all. We're at such a disadvantage it's unfair.'

'No use talking about fowl play.' chuckled Ulric. 'We have our own tricks up our sleeves. Didn't we see one of you use some sort of wind magic?'

Sawea nodded. 'Some of us can use it, yes. We can create gusts of wind to knock down enemies.'

'But it doesn't work on the nets.' sighed Conchim.

Ulric hummed. 'Not enough surface, yes.' he said and thought of all the times he read about magic. 'Don't you have something like wind blade, or cutting wind, a technique to use your wind magic to cut things?'

'No, I don't even remember any mention of it in our tales.'

Ulric looked at Valdys and she chuckled. 'Yes, I already found a few references in the library.'

He smiled. 'Can you use it to teach them in a day?'

'I think so, if they can grasp the concept quickly enough.'

He turned to Sawea. 'We'll need all the capable ones then.'

'We'll call them together.'

'That should take care of the nets.'

'We might also have a means to deal with the invisibility cloaks, Master.' said Kaui. 'I think we can find the materials around here.'

'Wonderful! We can begin our battle strategy.'