The Harpy

The Harpy is the third episode of Fantendo Fragments's first season, and is written by . The episode is centered around Quetz, and is primarily a lighthearted and comical episode showcasing the character's daily routine.
Reception for the episode has been (TBA) thus far.
==Transcript==
The episode begins with the sun rising over a beautiful tropical island, sunbeams shooting through the treetops as the wildlife begins to awaken. The camera falls through the trees, eventually reaching a large nest. Inside, a strange creature resembling a hybrid between a human girl and a colorful tropical bird is sleeping soundly, barely reacting to outside stimuli.
Bird Girl: *soft snoring*
A shadow slowly looms over the sleeping individual as tense music builds. The mysterious figure in the shadow lunges downward- only to be revealed as another older-looking hybird with deep golden plumage, pecking and nudging her in order to wake her up.
Bird Girl: AHHHH!
Bird Woman: Quetz, it's time to get up!
Quetz: I'm up, I'm up, I'm up!
The younger harpy, introduced as Quetz, erratically flaps out of the nest and lands back in, looking startled and nervous. The older harpy lets out a soft, motherly laugh.
Bird Woman: Good morning, Quetzarin. How was your night?
Quetz: It was nice until now...I'm still really tired...
Bird Woman: Well, rise and shine!
Quetz: Good morning to you too, Mom!
The mother harpy begins stretching her wings and flapping them again, ready to take off.
Mother: Now then, I'm going to be off doing stuff today. I just needed to get you up so you'd be aware I'd be gone. Be a good girl and stay out of trouble for me, will you?
Quetz: Alright... You sure I can't just sleep in, though?
Quetz's mother responded to this by pecking her again.
Quetz: AHH! Message recieved, Mom!
Mother: *soft laughter* Try to just have a nice day, alright? I'll be back before nightfall.
Quetz's mother flew off, leaving the young harpy all the more ready to embrace the day. She looked off toward the horizon; the islands of Sana Tomas beckoned her to explore, the beautiful sunrise glistening off of the water. Quetz had nothing better to do- it was time to do some exploring.
----
Quetz touched down in Marina de Mango, which was the part of the island where most of the humans congregated. Humans were weird and funny to Quetz, and she liked them a lot. The humans in the town were nice to the harpies, and Quetz had managed to make friends with a few of them over the course of her life.
Of course, with how bad her memory was, she could hardly remember them.
At any rate, her attention was focused on getting some breakfast. She flew over to a tree nearby a local restaurant, taking in the luxurious smell of tropical fruit and potatoes. It was so crispy and good-smelling she wanted to just swoop down and take the fresh meal from the chef's hands... But no. She had to restrain herself, crouching down in the tree.
Dining Man: Marie, look! It's one of those harpies!
Dining Woman: Oh my! She's so colorful! Here, little friend.
The couple apparently had noticed Quetz hiding out in the tree, and the woman was extending a small plate filled with a little pile of fruit. Quetz was nervous at first, but then stretched her wings out in an attempt to grab the plate, dragging it back up into the tree to begin chowing down on some breakfast.
Nice and juicy, the way she liked it. The couple kept talking while they watched her.
Marie: You were right, Pierre. These harpies are some of the most beautiful creatures I've ever seen!
Pierre: I know! I've never seen anything like them throughout all of my travels. You know, the locals say they're magical.
Marie: Do you think they can speak human language?
Pierre: Probably not English or French if they could. The harpies seem a lot more like animals than humans.
Marie: But they have clothes! They understand humans a lot more than any other animal I've ever seen, too. Plus, you've said they're magic-
Pierre: Hahaha! Marie, that's just local superstition! I think the harpies are just a little blessing from evolution; the mistake that turned out wonderful.
Quetz had no clue what these silly humans were talking about. She was just glad they were so nice in giving her a bite to eat.
----
Quetz had been running off of the energy from her breakfast for hours, and had been out flying since. She just found it relaxing to fly over the water like this. She could let her mind go on autopilot, skimming across the surface of the water like the majestic bird she was.
She stuck her wing down in an attempt to touch the water's surface. In an ideal situation, this would lead to a spray of cool water erupting from the water, creating a beautiful roostertail of mist streaking after her.
Unfortunately, this actually lead to her getting caught in the water and spinning out.
Quetz: Yiaa-ARGURBLFLRU
The young harpy rolled over the water like a plane crashing, her hollow bones too light to sink and forcing her into crashing smack dab into one small islands that existed as part of the local atoll. Dazed, she flapped around wildly trying to right herself, spitting out a buff of sand.
Quetz: ...Note to self. Never again.
It was the third time this month she had attempted this.
----
Back in the dense jungle, Quetz's mother sat in a nest, using her avian feet to tie together a large net made from various vines and fibrous materials the other harpies had scavenged. Letting go of the finished product, another harpy swiftly grabbed it and flew off with it, off to go collect an aquatic harvest for the group.
Harpy Hunter: Thanks, Coatil! I'll be back with the gathering soon!
Coatil leaned back in the nest to relax. It had been a nice day's work so far, and Quetz should have been staying out of trouble for the most part. Just an average day... Another smaller harpy flew up to talk with her.
Harpy: Hey, Coatil! How are things?
Coatil: Oh, thing are doing fine, Pochi. How've the kids been?
Pochi: Oh, those two have been just fine. Nice and calm as always. Y'know, I always thought raising kids would be hard. It's a breeze compared to what I assumed... How's Quetz?
Coatil: ...Quetz has been a blessing, in all honesty. Sure, she's hyperactive half the time and sleeping the rest, she's not the best learner, and she can be flightier than any harpy I've ever seen... but she's my baby. She was given to me for a reason, and I have more love towards her than I would any eggborn. Quetz is the best thing that ever happened to me.
Pochi looked at Coatil confusedly, as if she didn't quite get her response.
Pochi: You're certainly a dedicated parent. Then again, what else could I expect from a former Compassbearer?
Coatil simply laughed and stretched her wings.
Coatil: Ha! Those adventuring days are behind me, my friend. I'm just a weaver now. I wonder if Quetz will go down that path, though....
----
Quetz dipped her talons in the small pool of water she had found, absentmindedly trying to catch the fish swimming around. It was more or less just passing the time while she thought.
She wondered to herself what exactly she was meant to do. Not necessarily to catch the fish, but just... life in general. Sure, she knew her mom loved her, but sometimes she felt like she was taking advantage of that. She was just kind of goofing off and sleeping all day. Even now she was failing at basic flying.
Quetz decided that tomorrow, she was going to make something more of herself. She would go off and make her own adventure. Even if nothing was actually wrong, she'd be going off to fix... something. She wanted to be a hero just so she felt like she was actually doing something. That's what heroes did, right?
She made one last failed grab for a fish before flapping frantically and lifting off. She was ready to head home.
----
Quetz arrived back to the nest with her mother already waiting there, food at the ready. She quickly settled in, grabbing a fish and scarfing it down.
Coatil: *laughs* So, how was your day?
Quetz: *muffled* I crashed in the ocean. Met some people. Got exercise.
Coatil: Well, it's nice to see you seemed to enjoy yourself. I'm glad I could get you to expend some of that boundless energy you seem to have.
Quetz: *swallow* On that note...
Quetz's mother looked puzzled, but hopeful.
Quetz: Mom, you were the Compassbearer, right? You were one of the people who apparently fought off some nasty villain a few years ago?
Coatil: Lamia wasn't a villain. It was... some thing that just needed to go away. I helped lead it somewhere else.
Quetz: ...I think I've decided I need to go on some adventure. Fight some bad guy. I wanna be a big hero like you were!
Coatil just laughed.
Quetz: Okay then, little miss hero. That can start tomorrow, if you want. Go off and try finding an adventure of your own.
Quetz: *happy chirping* Thanks!
Coatil: No worries, Quetzarin. Now, finish your dinner. It's almost sundown.
Quetz happily kept eating away at the fish while Coatil nervously looked off into the sunset. There was some ominous shape coming over the horizon... It was no storm, but she had frightful suspicions regardless.
----
Pierre: Marie, look. I know you're an insatiable tourist and all, but-
Marie: Honey, we came to explore! Is that not what we're doing right now?
The couple had made their way deep into the jungles of the island, heading towards a shrine one of the locals had pointed them towards. It was within their sight now; a small black stone pedestal, seeming carved from volcanic rock and wrapped with vines. It was a strange sight, to be sure, but such things were common across the island chain.
Marie: Are you scared of a little "magic"? It's nothing bad at all! I just want to take a look.
Pierre: Magic doesn't exist, Marie. It's more or less that I'm worried this is going to be breaking some law or something. We don't know what the locals do with this sort of thing...
Marie: They wouldn't have told us about it if they didn't want us going here! Look, there it is!
The shrine was now within easy walking distance; Marie gleefully ran over, hoping to snap a few pictures with the ancient relic. Pierre was still nervous about all of this, but he followed his wife in regardless.
Marie: See, it's nothing to be worried abou- wait, what's this?
The shrine had something hidden behind it, wrapped in vines. Marie grabbed ahold of it and yanked it out; it was a small, ornate mask, made from some form of metal. Iron, perhaps? It was certainly strange-looking.
Pierre: Marie, don't. This is giving me a really bad feeling. We shouldn't be here.
Marie began staring at the mask. There was something... captivating about it.
Then the mask latched onto her face with coiling tendrils of metal.
The mask's eyes lit up as Marie's head seemed to be engulfed in flames. It wasn't harming her, or at least, it didn't seem that way to Pierre. She just sort of stood there... and then she started chuckling to herself.
Pierre: H-Honey?
The flaming entity that used to be Marie appeared next to him near-instantly, almost as if she was... teleporting? What was going on?
Pierre wouldn't be asking any questions though, as his wife, seemingly under the influence of something, grabbed him by the neck and lifted him up into the air. Her touch was white-hot, and his skin felt like it was on fire... Pierre blacked out. He was thrown onto the ground, unconscious.
The masked woman began laughing to herself, the plantlife around her bursting into flame.
==Reception==
==Trivia==
Category:Episodes
Category:Fantendo Fragments
Category:Fantendo Fragments Episodes