Tributes: Atreus, Domiinuk, Erullu: Galyx Tributes: Erullu, Atreus, Domiinuk

“What in the name of Galyx could they possibly want a wooly rhinoceros for?! They don’t even taste good!” The rider of the spotted harpia exclaimed after their team had been given their drawn lot. The riders of the two royal harpias and the tiny but fast chiro had gathered between their stryx to review and come up with a plan of action. The female rider of the group, who also conveniently rode the only female stryx in the group, shrugged at the statement, “Our tribe makes a rather filling stew with the marrow of the wooly rhino.”

“One, that doesn’t explain how we are going to take down such a beast, and two, that’s disgusting.”

“Remind me never to invite you over for dinner.” She had quipped back.

Their stryx at least, were slightly more focused on the actual goal at hand. The icy blue eyes of the harpia with the black back had looked up, away from their riders, to the other soil harpia. “Perhaps he underestimates our size?” he had querried the other royal.

“I think he’s just concerned for us.” The speckled harpia responded. “We’ve never gotten to hunt such large game before. Do you have experience with them? I’ve only ever seen them in passing from far above.”

There was silence from the other harpia, before his crest was lowered. “No. I’ve never hunted the wooly rhino either.”

“I have!”

The two large harpias found themselves once again peering down at the tiny chiro.

“You have …. What?”

“Hunted wooly rhino of course. Was there some other question being asked?”

The two dark faced harpia’s scoffed at the tiny bright eyed chiro. They could hardly believe their ear holes. The tiny chiro, who was barely a fifth their size, had hunted that behemoth of the plains?

“How?”

“Well its simple really, you just get them really angry!”

“That hardly seems like a good idea.”

“I wasn’t done yet! You get them really angry, and then they chase you. And you want them to chase you. And you want someone else chasing them.”

“Are you sure you weren’t just playing tag?”

“Do you have any better suggestions?!” the barking chirrups were a clear note of her impatience with the two boys. The quieted down, admittedly realizing they had no real useful input on the matter. “Anyhow, you get them running as fast as they can, and they you get them to run off a cliff!”

“A cliff?!” The white tipped crest of one harpia was raised. “Now why would they possibly do that?”

“Because they have really, really bad vision! Like worse than me. Well, you know people say I have bad vision but I really don’t I can see just as well as any other stryx and that’s still-“

“Okay we get it!”

They gathered again after the sun had set, cloaking the land in the quiet veil of darkness. Their breath sent up lighter clouds in the night sky, their breath visible as the frost of winter nipped at their toes. Their riders were bundled up in thick furs to stave off the cold. As all of their stryx preferred the night, and it would further limit the visibility of the rhinos, they agreed this would be the best time to hunt. The moon rose in a stately slow fashion through the partly obscuring clouds as they soared out over the plains. Well, the two harpias soared on their broad wings, the chiro continued to flap along at a regular interval to keep a rough pace with them.

“There!” The call had come from the harpia whose wing edges were wreathed in white. The others followed the point of his hooked beak, to pick out the forms of large, fuzzy lumps against the snow covered tundra. In typical rhino fashion, they traveled in a small group, probably eight or ten individuals. But there was nothing small about these creatures, each one weighing several tons. Even laying down as they were to rest, their long hooked horn stood tall in the night. The harpia’s partially folded their wings as they began to drop slowly down towards the rhinos. The chiro stopped beating her wings to glide down, matching their pace. 

She looked between the two much larger harpias. This hunt could be quite simple if they could just remember to follow her instructions. But were they good at that? She had never hunted with them before to know. Still, they were much larger than the other chiros she had hunted with. If they could keep up the pressure, the rhinos could be an easy meal. And all the more for her if the one harpia was as picky as his rider.

The cloudy marked harpia struck first, lowering his dark talons and feet to strike one of the rhinos squarely across the shoulders. He was hoping to bowl the beast right over, but even his mass was not enough to knock the beast prone. Which a pained bellow, the creature shot awoke, short but powerful legs kicking under it to bring it to its feet, waking the rest of the small herd and the harpia shot up and away.

The second harpia struck the rhino on the opposite side of the herd a moment later, claws scraping along rough armored plates until they finally found purchase at the joint of two plates. But the beast was so massive, the harpia was jerked right out of its forward momentum as its talons caught and held fast on the back of the beast. His rider gasped and sudden stop, the saddle straps snapping tight to keep him from rocketing right over the head of his stryx. The rhino stood with a roar, its head swinging around with that long curved hron to dig into whatever foe was on its back.

Just in time though, the chiro’s many fingered paws struck on the horn, causing the sharp weapon to miss the harpia as the rhino’s head was pushed around the other way. “Climb you fool!” the shriek was high, and then the chiro was gone again as the rhino simply shooks its head, tossing the chiro off its horn like it was nothing. The harpia quickly opened his grip and shoved himself off the rhino’s back and into the air before it got a chance for another swing.

The herd was awake now, bellowing and moving away from their resting spot, heavy feet disturbing the new fresh coating of snow from the ground. Moving, but not the direction they needed them to go. The chiro saw this, and darted back down swooping mere feet from the noses of the front rhinos. Angered, they tried to charge at her, but she was out of their range again by the time they saw her.

“Get them to follow me!” She yelled at the harpias as they swooped up and around for another assault. Instead of following them up, she folded her wings the drop the remaining several feet onto the ground, hopping along like a somewhat deranged bunny for several body lengths until she could turn to look at the rhinos and make her loudest chiro screech at them. She was right here, on the ground, daring them to come get her. And rhinos didn’t turn down such a foolish dare from a predator. They swung their heads, bodies following after as they charged for the chiro. The chiro began hopping along the ground in front of the rhinos, for chiros did not run like a anaruq, but instead bounced like a slygryph. She knew she wasn’t as fast as a rhino like this, but she had to make it convincing if she wanted the to stay this direction.

The rear two rhinos bellowed in pain as the two harpias struck them, scoring shallows gashes along their thick hides. They pushed to run even faster, butting up against the rhinos in front of them as the harpias swooped up and away for their next passes, riders clinging tight during these acrobatics.

Two firm pats from the chiro’s rider on her shoulder let her know it was time, and so on her next hop her wings snapped back open and she flapped up and away from the rhinos. Just in time too, as the whoosh of the walls of muscle and hide charged past harmlessly underneath her. She climbed up to circle and join the harpias who continued their assault from the rear, driving them ever closer to the cliffside. Yes, yes they were going for it. If they continued on for just a few hundred more meters they’d be right over the side and it would be easy picking from there. Oh no! The chiro shrilled in distress as the first rhino began to veer the group away from the cliff. If they missed now they probably wouldn’t be able to drive them back in this direction!

“Take the rearmost one!” Her rider called out the young men on the harpias as the chiro dove to try and strike the rhino on the side it was turning towards. The rhino hardly noticed the tiny chiro, shrugging off the strike as the chiro bounced harmlessly up and over the rhino’s back.

It did not, however, just shrug off the spotted harpia as he swooped down to latch talons into plated hide once again, continuing to flap and shriek to steer the still charging beast from the hips. The rhino continued to barrel forward, but curving slightly back towards the cliff as the harpia tried to push and steer the four legged wall of muscle. The rhino attempted to strike the harpia, but couldn’t reach far enough back to hit the dragon bird clawing at his hips. Instead it started to pull up, slowing to try and spin to shake the stryx from its back. They were slow close to the edge of the cliff!

The rhino raised its head to begin a swing to arc back, only for its horn to clack against dark talons at the top of its arc, the cloudied harpia swooping in in a desperate ploy to drag the rhino just a few short feet more to the cliff side. With a horrendous shriek and flapping wings, all three beasts and their riders toppled off the edge of the cliff and out of sight. The rider of the chiro gasped as she saw them topple over the cliff still clinging to the rhino. Were they mad?

But just as quickly, the two harpias thundered back up from the edge of the bluff, having released the rhino once it was over the edge to fall to its fate and not take them with it. You see, stryx had wings, and rhinos did not. The harpias lets out exulting cries as they rejoined the chiro in the skies, the remaining rhinos pounding away as fast their short legs would carry them.

“So how do we get it back?”