Peaharpy Sidequest: Rare Variant

“There, that should be enough feathers!” Tempest released the final peacock from her grasp, watching as it scurried away from the group.

 

Tempest and Sheeran, accompanied by Pester, had been tasked with helping the Tack Maker with her order, which entailed gathering peacock feathers from the gardens. Three hours into the night and they had a satchel full of feathers and a few mildly traumatized peacocks.

 

“Good! Let’s return these feathers to the Tack Maker then.” Sheeran said rather blandly. He hadn’t been too excited to be used as a chore doer by the Tack Maker, but deep down he knew she meant no harm. He was just a bit bitter about being outsmarted by a peacock earlier in their endeavors.

Pester agreed silently, readying for takeoff with his satchel of feathers around his neck.

 

Just as the group was about to leave the gardens entirely, something caught Sheeran’s eye. A large, red and white feathered peacock! Well, the fanlike tail anyway, the upper body was rummaging through some bushes in the distance. This wasn’t just any ordinary peacock, this was the very one Sheeran had lost a game of chase to earlier.

 

“Wait here! I’ll be right back.” Sheeran whispered to the other two, quietly tiptoeing towards where the peacock was munching on something in the bushes. Sheeran, upon getting closer, felt something was off about this peacock. It wasn’t standing like a normal peacock would, and seemed to have longer, more muscular legs, with a set of sharp talons not too unlike his own. This must be some rare breed! No wonder its feathers were such a color, very different from the others inhabiting the gardens. Maybe it had been crossbred with a species of falcon? Or maybe even an eagle! This would fetch quite the price on the market if he managed to catch it and somehow smuggle it past the gardener who owned the place.

 

Sheeran, lost in his eager thoughts, set his next step down right on a patch of dry, brittle leaves, making a loud crunch as he applied pressure. The peacock looked up abruptly, startled by the noise. It’s head fan flared up, hooked beak dappled with a fresh coating of blood from its meal–

Wait a minute…head fan? Hooked beak? Carnivorous? This wasn’t a peacock at all. It was a peaharpy!

 

Sheeran froze in his place, hoping it wouldn’t detect him from behind the bush it was eating in. The peaharpy looked around quickly, deeming it safe to continue eating. It seemed to have caught one of the peacocks in the gardens, and was picking at it as a midnight snack.

 

Once Sheeran was close enough, and had caused no other disruptions, he lunged for the peaharpy. The creature looked up just in time to be pounced on, grabbed by the scruff, and lifted into the air. It squawked loudly, alerting Tempest and Pester.

 

“What’s going on over there?” Tempest called to Sheeran, who was now fighting to keep the peaharpy still enough to place it into his bag.

“Nothing!” Sheeran called back, feeling his grip on the peaharpy loosen. Just as it was hovering over the open bag, it clawed at Sheeran, clipping his neck and snagging a few brown feathers.

 

“Auugh! You little–” Sheeran cursed under his breath upon seeing his blood glistening on the peaharpy’s talons, which were still curled around the fistfuls of his feathers. Its beak was open now, showing off its needle-like teeth. Sheeran managed to shove it into the bag, ignoring whether it got a few more hits in on him or not.

Once he had the clasp on the satchel secured he huffed in satisfaction, turning back around to return to his group.

 

“Have fun?” Tempest asked sarcastically. Sheeran rolled his eyes playfully.

 

“Yeah, while you guys were over here judging me, I snagged the real prize!” Sheeran revealed the cuts on his talons and the one on his neck. The peaharpy called from within his satchel.

 

“What in the world are you going to do with that?” Pester inquired. Sheeran smiled smugly.

 

“Sell it, of course. They go for a good bit of cash normally, but this variant? Cha-ching!” Sheeran flashed Pester a toothy grin as Tempest chuckled.

 

“Alright, now can we get back to the Tack Maker? She needs these feathers for an order due by tomorrow morning.” Tempest reminded Sheeran of their original task.

 

“Right, right. Let’s get going now.”

 

Sheeran

739 words-14 AP

Sidequest (original quest)-2

Extra stryx (Pester)-3

Personal-3

Total= 22 AP