The sun shone above Ilias Continent. The sky was clear and a gentle wind was blowing, making the green leaves of the forest below dance in the air.
It was quite the ideal day for a harpy to stretch her wings and enjoy a nice flight. That what one of those said creature thought as she flew above the forest which sheltered her village. For once she had not taken the sky to look for a man nor was she hunting for preys like birds or small terrestrial animals. She wasn't either in a errand to deliver a message across the continent and even beyond as she had in the past at occasions. She had just wanted to enjoy the day, feel the light of the sun warm her body and the wind between a feathers maybe even work a sweat if she felt like it. And so far she did not regret her decision while gliding upon the wind, flapping her wings every now and then to keep her altitude. It really got her in a good mood, so much like she quite felt like singing along with the birds and bugs or maybe dancing in the sky among the clouds.
Then, after some time, she felt something weird. More precisely, she heard some unusual noise. It began so low that she could have missed it but after a while the sound of the noise grew and grew. She never heard something like it. Now that she heard it quite well, she could tell that it was not coming from the ground. In fact it came from somewhere higher that she was, even through she was at a decent altitude.
She kept listening while searching for a visual contact with the origin of the strange noise. It was coming from the skies but it didn't sound like a bird at all. It didn't sound like a dragon roar either, not that she ever heard one. It was quite constant, so much that the creature doing it would have to use all its breath to continue emetting it. The only idea she had about the origin of the noise was that it was coming from a bug-type monster.
While she kept looking for it, she realised that the origine of the noise came from behind one of the few clouds that was doting the blue sky. One of the more mature harpies of her tribe may had advised caution and choose to wait or report to the village but she was quite young and overwhemly curious. And honestly, overthinking things was not something members of her species were reknowed for. So she flew up upwards fast, not wanting to miss the strange thing emetting the strange noise.
However the climb was not easy. The altitude she needed to reach was high, the oxygene was begining to lack and the temperature was droping. Where went her pleasant flight below the sun ?
Finally, she reached the cloud. The sound was now really loud and frankly not pleasant to the ears. The harpy flapped harder her wings, actually sweating a little. Diving was much easier than climbing in the skies. She penetrated inside the cloud, white blocking her sight all around, and a few moments later, got the rays of the sun blind her momentaly, stopping her immediatly.
While blinded, she heard the loud noise coming really fast just ahead of her. In the instant she understood that it was the unknown creature and her might just collide. Then she felt something flying just past her, changing sharply its trajectory to miss her. At the meantime a strong gust of wind pushed her several meters away in the air and while she let out a surprised cry. The young harpy quickly stabilized herself and, not feeling blinded anymore, turned immediatly her gaze to the thing which nearly rammed her.
Her eyes went immediatly wide as she layed them on the origine of the strong noise. It was at around a hundred meters away from her, engaged in a turn. With the good eyesight inherent to her species she could easily catch every details of its appearance.
The strange creature was like nothing she has seen before. It was quite small, its wingspan around two-third of hers.
It had a thin, white body. It's skin looked like something between painted white wood and white metal. It's wings were strange too. They were straight and looked like they couldn't flap at all. And while they were white too they had a big red circle on them. The same red circles apparead on the side of the body too. In addition, it looked like three small wings were attached to the tail, two horizontal and one vertical.
The nose of the beast was weird too. It was black and the tip was grey and felt like it was vibrating. But after focusing on the tip, she managed to understand that something was in fact rotating at an amazing speed and was apparently the origin of the strong noise.
However, what surprised her the most was the head. Or what she thougth was the head. First it was transparent and looked like the glass used by humans to not let air goes through their windows.
But more importantly it looked like another creature was inside the head of the bigger one. The smaller had a comically big head and looked like human girl. She had also brown clothes and a kind of hat. The harpy stood in position for sometime, flapping her wings to mantain her altitude and rotated upon herself to keep track of the white thing turning around her.
She was astonished by its speed. Even in favorable condition she might not be able so keep up and right now they were so high that her breath was ragged and her members were tiring more than usual from the lack of oxygen.
Meanwhile the strange white creature kept turning and the smaller one kept gazing at her with a curious look. Then she let what looked like a small smile and waved at her.
The young bird like monster was still confused but she took the friendly gesture well and tried to do the equivalent, which proved to be quite difficult. Looking satisfied, the small girl inside the flying beast broke eye contact with her and at the same time the white thing broke its turn, flying away from her.
The bird monster understood that the strange creature was going away. The idea of following it crossed her mind but she disgarded it. She could not keep up with its speed and was actually feeling quite tired. Maybe living a tranquil and peaceful life made her out of shape ? Anyway she had to go back to the village and report what she has seen to the queen.
So without further delay, the harpy dived to the forest. In the back of her mind she wondered if her encounter with the strange white creature meant something for herself and the world.
Several hundred kilometers away, coast of the Southern Continent.
A young maiden with long brown hair, brown eyes and a pretty round face was facing the horizon. She wore a black munetane over a red and white miko outfit. Her long sleeves were tied below her armpits and in her hand rested a japanese bow.
The young woman was standing on the calm seas like any humans would on land. A gentle smile was present on her face as she lost herself in her througths.
"Akagi-san ? Is something wrong ?" Asked a respecful voice at her side.
Akagi shifted her gaze from the horizon to her smaller companion to her side. The fleet-carrier let her smile grew at the sight of her mild concerned escort.
She really apprecied Fubuki concern and she way she looked up on her. It reminded her of her stoic partner and while Kaga was away doing her own duties, she was glad to have the destroyer who idolized her by her side.
"Nothing to worry about. One of my scouts just had an airborn encounter with one of the denizens of this strange world" said Akagi with a reassuring voice.
However the destroyer didn't drop her worry completely.
"Was it hostile ? Did somethig happen to your plane ?" Fubuki asked again knowing well she cared for her planes and pilots.
Akagi shook her head, amused by the side-effect of one of her escort traits. The main quality of Fubuki was her dutifulness and while she found it really admirable, it sometimes made the destroyer overdoing things. Such as worrying too much for the comrades she was meant to guard.
"No it was not. It seems it was simply curious about my plane. And while I'm impressed that she was able to climb at the same altitude that my Zero, I doubt she would have been able to chase it".
At these words Fubuki fully relaxed, breathing a relieved sight, and went back to look around for potential threat. Akagi went back to contacting her various scouts and received nothing worth noting as reports. They would probably map this land mass in short notice and go back to the base to resupply.
That throught made Akagi think back of her recent encounter with the bird like creature.
"It would be nice to have chicken at dinner when we go back" she absentmindly said as a growl escaped from her belly./p