Last chapter was a little boring, and someone pointed out to me that there was a lot of dialogue and not enough description. That's a good point, I like description, but sometimes I don't do enough of it. This chapter was tricky to right, but hopefully there'll be a little more description and a bit of action in this chapter, but I'm afraid still a lot of dialogue. Reviews much appreciated (: Chapter 28

Arthur looked around him, and swore under his breath. Storming off probably wasn't one of his best ideas, because now Feu and Merlin had been swallowed up by the trees and were nowhere to be seen, and he had no idea where they could be, or where even he was. What Arthur could see was that the trees weren't so tightly packed in, and he felt the warmth of the sun on the back of his neck, it seems that they were almost out the forest, but that didn't change anything, he was still lost.

Continuing through the forest, grumbled under his breath how Merlin and Feu probably haven't even realised he had disappeared yet and continued making his way through the trees. At first he considered turning around and heading back, if he managed to retrace his steps, he might be able to find Feu and Merlin again. But for some reason he didn't do that, instead he simply continued onwards through the forest. He was nearly out the forest, what could possibly happen to him when he was so close to the outside world? And the forest no longer made him feel so afraid.

"Oh, you're alive," a rather nasty sounding voice grumbled behind Arthur.

Arthur whipped around, ready to retaliate to whatever, or whoever, had said that, but there was nothing but trees around him.

The voice giggled, its voice bounced off the nearby trees. "Look up! Stupid human."

Arthur did look up, and saw above him crouching on the branch of a tree a large, ragged looking bird. It was a fair distance away but he could see the huge talons and the positively ugly human head sitting upon its feathered shoulders. There was no need to guess what creature this might be. It was another Harpy.

"How's the hand?" No, not another Harpy, the same one that Arthur had already encountered and had tried to attack him.

"I doubt you would really care whatever answer I gave you," Arthur told it, glaring up at the Harpy.

The Harpy shrugged, or looked like it had shrugged. "Good point, perhaps you're not as dumb as I thought. But on the other hand, you're wandering alone in the forest, which is a very foolish thing to do." It told him almost happily. If Arthur was a bit closer, he had a feeling he would probably see it smiling.

"I'm not wandering about on my own," Arthur argued, "there are others with me."

"But at the moment you appear to be alone." The Harpy sounded very pleased about this. There was a flutter of wings, and another Harpy came to join the first on a branch, almost as big as the first. The wing span was enormous, it was nothing but a shape of black feathers, an ugly head and huge talons. Soon after the second Harpy joined, another flew to the branch.

"I'm assuming you're not here to give me company," Arthur told the Harpy, he had a bad feeling about the new visitors.

The Harpy laughed again, but then it paused, as if it was listening for something. "On the other hand, I may be wrong."

Just then, Merlin and Feu appeared out of the wall of trees, smiling happily. You could hear their voices and Feu's laughter before you saw them.

"Come along Arthur, we can't just stand around and do nothing, we have a Kingdom to rescue!" Feu said jokily, as Arthur had just been moaning to her about walking so slowly.

"Oh good Feu's here too!" The Harpy exclaimed joyfully, as another large Harpy joined its fellows on a nearby tree. "I sincerely hoped I would get the chance to see you before you left."

Feu's good mood immediately disappeared when she looked up and saw the Harpy, she groaned with annoyance. They had almost got out of the forest without anything going wrong that day, but of course the forest had to give them a goodbye gift, and when it came to Harpies, they were probably the most irritating and potentially dangerous animals the forest could have given them.

"What do you want?" Feu demanded.

"I've got a bone to pick with you, before I pick yours," the Harpy explained. There were murmurs of amusement from the other Harpies.

"I'm not interested," Feu told the Harpy harshly. She turned away from the birds, gesturing for Merlin and Arthur to continue to move through the forests, but the Harpy wasn't finished with them.

"I wouldn't run away just yet, if I were you Feu." The Harpy warned.

Feu should have never listened to the Harpy, but they were one of those creatures that captured your attention with commanding voices and morbid words and held your mind with their taunts. Feu was used to just ignoring the birds, but she remained still and glared up at the Harpy.

"We're almost out of the forest, can't you just leave us alone!" She snapped angrily.

"No, because we know why you're going," the Harpy told her. Feu was confused, so she stood and waited for the Harpy to continue. "Stories spread quickly when you're a creature of the air, and it seems so obvious now. Why else would they be here," it gestured a wing to Merlin and Arthur. "No one would want to even talk to you unless they were truly desperate." The Harpy taunted Feu. More Harpies were filling the trees all around as the creature spoke, there were now at least ten of them, and more were flying in.

"That is no concern of yours," Feu snapped at the Harpy.

"Oh yes I think it is because you see, I'm a bird and the Opinicus is a bird, so we're not very happy about you trying to kill it." The Harpy explained, in a strangely polite manner, which only meant the worst was to come. "Which means, dear Feu, that we cannot let you or your friends leave this forest alive."

The number of Harpies filling the trees had passed the number twenty. Feu's sharp eyes flicked to each branch, taking it each dark shadow of the Harpies in turn. She could feel the blood in her veins turn hot, soon it would begin to boil and then her eyes would change colour. If that happened, they were definitely in for a fight. The worrying thing was, this was what the birds probably wanted.

"Merlin, Arthur," Feu said slowly and in a low voice, not taking her eyes off the Harpy that had done much of the talking. "If you turn to your right and keep on walking, you'll be able to find your way out of the forest."

"We're not leaving you behind," Arthur told Feu harshly, Merlin looked very worried but he agreed with what Arthur said. "We're not going to run like cowards."

"Then you'll be a fool to stay," Feu hissed at them.

One Harpy seemed to have given up waiting. It stretched its wings and took off from its branch, circling slowly, drifting as if it was only being carried by the wind, slowly getting closer to the prey standing on the ground.

"The Harpies cannot leave the forest, so I suggest that you run!" Feu shouted this last word as the Harpy suddenly swooped down towards her, but she had been ready for it. A clawed hand swept out, catching the Harpy in the chest, it screamed and fell to the ground in a see of black, filthy feathers.

This created cries of anger and annoyance from the other Harpies, and more took off from their branches. The feral form of Feu hissed up at them, her bright green eyes almost glowing with fury.

The cries of the Harpies seemed to have sent a clear message down to Merlin and Arthur. Their screams were enough the make the blood turn to ice with fear, leave you frozen to the spot or, in Merlin and Arthur's case, turn and run through the trees.

Some Harpies tried to fly after them, but Feu leapt up and knocked the birds out of the air before they had a chance to hurt her friends. The smell of rotting bodies surrounded the smell of the Harpies, as more swooped down, filling Feu's vision. She desperately tried to fight her way through the sea of black, stinking feathers. Every-now-and-then she felt claws tear at her clothes, rip at her skin and pull her hair. She kept her eyes tight shut so the Harpies couldn't tear them out. The smell of blood filled her nostrils, a mixture of the Harpies' and her own.

Feu knew she wouldn't be able to fight them all, so she began to search instead, searching blindly for the Harpy that smelt more like dead bodies than any of the others.

Feu felt her hand clasp the wing of a Harpy, and the cries and threats the Harpy gave her told her she had the right one. Still holding onto the wing, and ignoring the large beak that kept on trying to bite away at her flesh, Feu fled from the sea of Harpies. She headed to the trees that were closely packed in together, so the Harpies couldn't fly in after her.

As soon as Feu had left the battle-scene, the forest immediately fell quiet once more, but the Harpy she held tightly with both hands was still squawking loudly.

"What do you want with me!" Feu demanded, shouting over the cries of the Harpy, which immediately seem to shut up when she began to yell. It gave a horrible smile.

"All these years I've had to put up with you Feu, living on my land, stealing my food. When I heard about the Opinicus, I knew that this would not be an opportunity to miss."

"But if you know about the Opinicus," Feu said slowly, "then you know about the rest of the story as well."

The Harpy raised a fifthly eyebrow.

"You already know how the story ends." Feu explained, but she knew the Harpy understood what she said.

The Harpy gave another, horrible smile. "Oh that ending, yes that story might have reached my ears as well. Sacrificing yourself for the good of other people, ugh, how human!"

Feu's feral form had disappeared, but she had to fight the anger she felt rushing through her when the Harpy spoke. "My time is already coming to an end, and who would dare change the tale of such a powerful Seer?"

The statement made the smile fall from the Harpy's face. It glowered, "I know what you're suggesting Feu, but I want to hear it from you anyway."

"Let me live, so I can die another day." Feu said sternly, she made sure it didn't sound like she was begging.

"Oh, but we have a problem with that Feu," the Harpy's voice was becoming worryingly nice and polite again.

"What?" Feu asked heavily.

"I'm having far too much fun to stop!" The Harpy laughed loudly, flapping its wings excitedly, but there was no escaping Feu's grip, which she immediately used to her own advantage.

"True," Feu nodded calmly; she let out a large, fake sigh. "Which just means that I'll have to rip out your throat right now."

The Harpy stopped laughing abruptly, it would have continued taunting Feu, but it saw a glint of green in her eye, and didn't want to take the risk. Instead the Harpy fell limp and just glared at the Doe.

"All right then Feu, you've made your point." It told her. "I just wish I could be there you day you die."

"Sorry," Feu smiled nastily at the Harpy as she let go of its wing. The Harpy had to flap its wings frantically to stop itself from crashing to the ground. When it retained some balance and height, it turned its attention back to Feu.

"Sometimes Feu, you can be so harsh and cruel, I consider liking you." It told her.

Feu shrugged, "I'm afraid I'm not that bad."

"A pity," the Harpy looked disappointed for a few moments, but then it smiled again. "You know, all this time you've been talking to me, you've left your little friends to be chased through the forest by about fifteen, rather angry Harpies."

Feu went pale.

The Harpy chuckled. "Oh I'm sorry, did I forget to mention that to you? Never mind, I suppose there are worse deaths than being torn about by a group of birds, or isn't there? I'm not sure."

Feu was no longer listening; she had already disappeared through the trees.