Tributes: Atreus, Domiinuk, Erullu: Daius Tributes: Atreus, Domiinuk, Erullu

The two harpias had locked onto each other as soon as they had arrived atop the plateau for the gathering of hopeful stryx looking to complete the race in honor of their patron deity Daius. Perhaps it had been because they had arrived at nearly the same time, or perhaps it was simply because they were not expecting to see another royal attending the race. Either way, as the master of ceremonies motioned them to line up between the poles set up along the edge of the flat plain, they both poofed more than a little while sizing each other up. Their earthen toned plumage blended in with the sparsely vegetated top of this rocky outcropping, even more so as the sun had yet to rise. One could even argue that their similarities to the light dusting of snow that had settled along some of the rocky edges which had not yet been disturbed by the arriving stryx was quite similar, for both harpias sported dashes of white along their brows and wing tips. Even their long secondary dragon tails which swept rhythmically across the ground as they took long, deliberate steps towards the race line up were similarly tipped in white. One might almost assume they were brothers, as they shouldered some smaller hawks out of the way as they picked what they considered to be their prime launch point out. Of course, as their wings that had been somewhat rudely used to usher other smaller stryx out of the way bumped up against the other earthern royal harpia’s they simply settled for a glare and a soft hiss.

Their riders had corrected both of them for this, as fighting before the race had even begun was well known to be a disqualifying fault. Not all stryx were known for being the height of courtesy, but they could at the very least keep their teeth and talons to each other until after the race had begun. They consented to simply puffing their feathers at each other while their riders exchanged pleasantries and went about checking their riding saddles before the race. The far edges of the sky where it touched the frozen earth was beginning to lighten, signaling the start of the race was drawing near.

A series of high pitched trills caused both of the heavily feathered harpias to tilt their heads, a classic avian reaction to unexpected noises. They both looked at each other, wondering if perhaps this other challenger were not as sound of mind and body as initially surmised. No harpia past fledgling would make such a noise. But when they each felt a nudge against their legs, they uncomfortably siddled to the side and looked down to see what had caused it. A significantly smaller stryx was shouldering her way up between the two boys. She nearly hugged the ground, walking with both her hind legs and resting her weight on her front wing claws, a stark contrast to the harpias and their very upright positions.

“Hail yee!” Came the high pitched call as large ears flicked independently of each other, a flattened face peering up while a pair of hooked beaks peered down. She was a chiro, tones of greys and silvers wrapping around her body as though she had been dipped in oil. Her face stared up at them like a tiny moon, or perhaps a star, surrounded by wisps or darkness. Her rider was equally cloaked in darkness, her gear allowing her to blend in with the smokey back of her stryx.

“Did you need to be… right there?” the harpia who also had shared a blanket of darkness in his markings querried the much smaller chiro. He was tempted simply to step upon it to make it move.

“Oh absolutely!” came the rapid response, “Isn’t that the same reason you two are here? Clearly this is perfect angle of the precipice dropoff compared to the direction of the head wind in relation to-“

The chiro was abruptly cut off as her rider reached forward to pat her head between the radar domes of her ears, before waving up at the two riders of the harpias. “Sorry about that y’all, she’s the chatty sort, you know how chiros are. She’d talk the ears right off your harpias if they had any.”

The other harpia was about to respond, but the beat of a drum cut him off. That was the signal that the race was about to begin. All eyes focused out along the horizon, waiting for the horn to blow which would signal the start of the race. The glow along the horizon was golden, with oranges and reds spreading up to dance along the bottoms of the high frosty cirrus clouds. Puffs of steamy air were exhaled from beaks and muzzles alike in the frosty winter morning, forming a curtain above the heads above the line of racers.

The horn was sharp and bleating, much like the animal it had surely been cut from. A scraping of talons against rocks was like nails on a chalkboard as all of the awaiting stryx flung themselves free of the rocks. Free of the ground to continue on a free fall into the canyon the plateau bordered. The rules dictated that stryx were not to beat their wings until they dropped below the walls of the canyon. So it was an eerily silent fall for their riders as they all clung to the backs of their stryx, falling with gravity into the open gash in the earth. The silence was over soon though, wings snapping open as soon as keen stryx eyes could tell they were under the canyon walls. The harpias brushed wingtips against each other as their broad wings snapped open, but neither could spare a glance for each other, having eyes only for the course ahead. The golden eyed harpia honestly expected to have smacked the small chiro that had been between them at the start, but he supposed she just could keep up with the might that was a royal harpia.

Neither harpia had noticed when the small bundle of dark fur between hadn’t opened her wings when they had passed the edge of the cliff. No she had kept her wings tucked close to her side, her rider hugged in close to her back. They continued to fall, letting gravity drag them faster and faster, the cave floor growing ever closer. But the chiro, clicking rapidly as she descended, knew exactly how far away that ground was, and at the last moment snapped her wings open and flapped as fast as she could. Her silvery grey wings with black edges a blur as she converted all of that momentum into forward speed.

Both harpias were jostling for position to move past other stryx with their broad and powerful wings beats, relying on sheer mass and power to propel them to victory in this race. Neither was expecting the tiny little chiro that had been squeezed between them at the start of the race to suddenly pop up so far ahead of them. How could she have gotten so far ahead? With those tiny little wings and no feathers? The harpia with a dash of gold felt a rumble escape his beak as his rider urged him forward, to catch up with the chiro. From his right he heard the other royal harpia, equally surprised, let out an offended shriek. How could she be so fast?

The flock of stryx thinned and stretched as they raced along the canyon, slowing stryx falling back as faster stryx pushed further ahead to be the first to careen through the narrow passages and around sharp bends. The chiro was up front, alongside several hawks and a particularly brazen corva. The harpias fell more towards the middle of the pack, they had strength on their side, sure, but their bulk slowed them at every turn. Still, each powerful wing beat pushed them further away from the slower tytos and gryphs who brought up the rear of the pack.

There it was, after rounding the last bend, the finish line! A series of golden ribbons strung across the canyon at various heights. People and other stryx were perched along the outcroppings and upper canyon walls, peering down and cheering at the racing stryx.

The harpias surged forward, pumping their wings despite the burning they could feel building at their shoulders. They could see the pointed wings hawks ahead of them, getting closer, close enough that perhaps they could even grab one in their striped beak – the rider of the blue eyed harpia tugged at his mount, he knew that look when his harpia was looking to lash out.

No matter how hard they flapped though, even if they’d stretch their toothy beaks as far as they wanted, they could not even touch the spiked tail of the monochrome chiro. Her rider tucked to her, the chiro’s mohawk whipping in her face, she urged her mount on, neck and head with the closest hawk as they blazed across the finish line. The chiro banked away from the center of the canyon, flaring her wings to bleed off speed before gently clinging to the wall of the canyon to make room for the large stryx following behind her who would no doubt need more room to stop. Sure enough, the pair of the largest harpias in the race blasted past at the same time, ruffling her fur as their wake washed over her. The chiro’s rider turned to look towards the announcer with his giant horn voice projector. Had she won? They had been so close to that hawk.

“The winner of the Daius Race is – Erullu!”

The black and grey chiro let of an excited shriek, they had done it!

“As winners of the race, they will be the first to pick their teammates for the tribute to Galyx hunt!”

The chiro’s rider peered up along the cliffsides, to find the massive ochre royal harpias who had taken up perches opposing each other on each side of the canyone. She smiled, chiros were fast, but when it came to taking down big prey? She knew just who to pick!