2020 GH: Scary Story 01: Chapter 1

It was nearing night time as the twinkle of twilight danced across the sky. The last of the sun's rays streaking the sky with colour, changing hues as the sun lowered itself to bed. If one squinted enough you would be able to see the stars starting to appear in the sky. Over time they would appear brighter and more plentiful.

Two raptor stryx dashed behind the foliage in the forest; hidden from their prey's view. Under the large pine trees two unsuspecting hikers were walking along, enjoying the lush forest before heading to their camp. They had ignored the signs posted along the path to come prepared against raptor stryx in this area. Wandering the forest without stryx spray the raptors could smell the lack of it in their presence.   

The larger and older silver stryx watched with his keen orange eyes. His fur was long and silky in texture with an assortment of different markings from large patches, to smaller splotches and marbling to striping along his crest, wing and tail tips. The marbled crested feathers on his head raised a bit as he was watching what they were doing. 

A smaller red-iridescent raptor moved in beside him to watch. She was his travelling companion, a part of his soon to be made pack. He snapped at her to be quiet and lower her head, the feathers on his head laying flat once more against his skull. She hissed quietly at being scolded but complied, narrowing her golden hazel eyes at the older one. Peering back up again she watched the hikers as they explored the flowering plants under some shrubs. 

Sniffing the air, the silver stryx Talon, caught the scent of another raptor nearby. Nudging the smaller stryx, Soliel, to follow him they set off after the humans that had wandered away from the flowers. They were a few meters away when the snap of a twig caught both the humans and two raptors' attention as the other raptor appeared in the clearing beside the humans. 

The raptor that appeared was large, likely a lone male without a harem or pack of his own. His feathers were a light bay colour with speckles of white across his hide. He moved towards the humans sizing them up for a snack perhaps. The humans were terrified and waved their arms to try and scare him away. Not that raptor!

Talon’s hackles raised as he charged from the undergrowth in a split second. He needed to move fast! Jumping over a fallen log in his path he hurled himself at the other large raptor while jumping clear of the humans heads. The humans ducked and made a run for it while Talon and the unknown stryx fought one another. Claws and teeth slashing any flesh they would each. 

The humans were running in the wrong direction however! Soliel had made a dash in the opposite direction of Talon by running around the log and just beside the humans hidden from their view. She had predicted where they would turn to run and she was correct. Just before they passed her she appeared before them, screeching at them. They screamed, the taller of the two hikers grabbing the smaller ones hands and turning to run.

Clever girl! Talon thought as he dragged his claws across the unwelcome stryx’s face! It snapped at him, narrowly missing. He watched Soliel chase the humans over his opponent's shoulder. Distracted, the bay stryx lunged and bit down on his neck. Talon screamed in pain as it tightened its grip, his scream becoming gurgling gasps. Choking for air he brought up his dual-clawed wings and gouged the other stryx’s eyes. It released him and screamed in pain flailing about as it could not see.  

Gasping for breath Talon recovered and screeched at the intruder the best he could. His throat was sore and he could feel as his own blood coated his throat and outside neck running down his chest. Running forward he leaped into the air a t-boned the bay stryx’s side with his claws. Bouncing off he landed a few feet away as the other one went crashing into the bush. To his surprise it got up again even with all its wounds. 

Thankfully it turned and ran away the best it could. Crashing into trees as it travelled away from the humans and Soliel. Soliel! He almost forgot. Sniffing the air there were no more raptors in the area. He sniffed the ground the best he could before he was unable to because of the blood running out of his nose. She headed this way, right? 

It was night time now and Soliels preferred time to explore and hunt! She would have been able to pick up more in the light the moon provided. The trees foliage blocked out the light, dimming what could have been. Talon was frustrated as the fight took so long; he no longer had an advantage seeing in the dark. 

Huffing he took off in the direction Soliel was last seen running. Following her tracks he picked up on he did the best he could, Talon made quick work of travelling through the brush knowing the area by heart. Injured or not, he was a tough old bird. Rounding a large pine tree he spotted the humans and Soliel. She had them cornered but they seemed determined to scare her off themselves. Sighing as he knew the little one was no good at being terrifying he raced out towards them. 

At the sight of the larger, bloodied raptor the humans stopped waving around and froze. He was right of course as they grabbed at one another. He slowed down and started to stalk them. Every so often he would clack his large talon on the ground. Soliel let out a cry as she saw him in such a state, but he ignored her. His eyes were locked on the humans. 

The humans said something quietly to one another as they slowly moved backwards. Just a little more and they would run. Then he and Soliel could herd them towards the exit back to their human world and out of harm's way. He made a short call - like that when he was communicating with his pack. The humans froze , they must have known what that call meant in their raptor language as they turned and ran as fast as they could. 

Humans are smart, but not that smart as once again they were going the wrong way! Talon made the call again - though he was only calling to Soliel, not that the humans needed to know that. Rushing forwards both raptors chased the humans out of the forest. They continued to chase them until they could see the village up ahead. They were not more than one hundred meters away when Talon pretended to see a human with a weapon. 

Calling to Soliel they rounded about and returned home to the forest and to tend to his wounds. Sure the humans were petrified and Talon disliked them, yet they saved his life once. So Talon returned the favour every now and then. As well as teaching Soliel that not all humans were bad.