The chimes of chirping disturbed my rest. Lifting my eyelids, a bright ray of sunlight blinded me momentarily before I almost lost my balance. The vines caught around my waist before I fell off the tree branch. I instinctively grappled onto the tree's bark with my talons, pressing myself against its surface for dear life. Snapping myself awake, I quickly glanced downwards to see that the beast has already left.

I could only sigh as I relaxed my muscles. The present danger was gone, but it was still alive out there. I muttered a small prayer, one that hoped the silver wolf only hunted at night. It wasn't a prayer to any specific god in particular, rather if there was one I would gladly start to demand answers for my predicament.

I turned my attention to the trees. Sunlight shown through the narrow gaps among the leaves, birds were chirping and smaller critters scampered beneath the bushes. At least that was a good sign that there wasn't any greater danger around like that beast I've encountered yesterday.

Glancing at my right foot, I could see no noticeable swelling of any sort. I tried to feel my talons. No pain, not even a sting. I attempted to move my ankle and it seemed to have no problem like it wasn't broken in the first place. Sitting upright, I folded my leg so I could get a better look at my right foot. First removing the dried up flower stalks, then the two broken twigs from the night before. I shifted my foot around in a circular motion, feeling all my talons and nothing felt out of place.

"What the heck?"

This was beyond weird, but then again I had a harpy for a mother and met a wolf the size of a bear that tried to eat me. Well, I wasn't going to complain.

Does that mean that creatures in this world can mend wounds simply by sleeping? That's pretty scary to think about. I sincerely hope that's not the case.

A loud rumbling erupted and has caught my ears. I patted down my stomach as I held the pain in with gritted teeth.

I'm starving...

My attention turned to the creatures still scurrying around beneath the bushes. It doesn't seem that they have noticed my presence yet.

Meat.

As long as its something to numb the pain away, I'll eat anything. My diet entirely consisted of raw carcasses and dead animals since I came into this world. Not once have anything mother force-fed me have gotten me sick, so it was safe to say that eating whatever was in that bush won't kill me. Hopefully.

Staring into the bushes, I don't see how my talons could pierce through the thickens. I'd have to get them to come out somehow. Taking the leftover twigs from my makeshift wooden cast, with an underhanded throw I tossed them to the opposite side of the ferns from where I was. The impact of the wood has stirred a reaction and what appeared was scurrying sounds fleeing towards the base of the tree where I was perched.

I instinctively swooped down from the tree, extending my legs and talons to were my prey was about to flee into.

Gotcha!

Whatever I caught was tight and secure within my left foot. I lifted it with ease, only standing with my right foot. It was some kind of wild mouse. Its tiny claws attempted to squeeze out of my talons, but its effort proved fruitless under my iron grasp. With a large thud, I smashed the creature's skull into the ground. It didn't quite kill it so I had to bang its head against a rock. That time it worked.

I picked away at its body and made sure to eat around the bones. Even if I was able yo eat raw meat, I didn't want to have some kind of indigestion or injury with some sharp objects down my throat. Picking the last bits of red meat around the eye sockets, I gulped down the rest of my morsel. It was barely much, but I was very satisfied with my catch.

"First try too! Hah. I bet every meal is going to be this easy."

I soon later spent the rest of the morning eating my own words as I haven't caught a single morsel.

----------------------------------------

"Ergh..." I wandered around the forest aimlessly, wobbling around slightly for exerting too much energy failing to catch any small meals. The thought of turning back crossed my mind more than once, but I knew I couldn't go back home. My mother didn't want me anymore as I was kicked from the nest. Even if I wasn't, I don't have the energy to attempt flying, much less climbing the way back there.

"I hate this... how the hell did mother find and kill all these animals? She never told me how. Damn it, what a lousy parent she is. Don't you want your child to succeed? Urgh..." I kicked the dirt in frustration. After exerting myself the entire morning with no reward, and with an empty stomach, I was understandably grouchy with the situation. "Damn it all..."

However, amid my frustrations, I could feel that my ears have picked up something. Voices. Sounds of talking. My pointy ears perked up to listen closely. As I crept closer to the voices, I could recognize proper words being emitted.

"******* damn it! By **** it hurts so ******* much. ********! I'll ******* kill those **** for not warning me that they already *** up ***** around here."

It wasn't my native language, but it was the same language that mother has taught me. Albeit there were some words I didn't recognize. It was feminine, so probably a female. Obviously in great pain, if she was screaming that much. Could they be in trouble?

I peeked through between the bushes to see a woman. She had no feathery features of any kind. She was fully clothed unlike mother and me. Leather and cloth, along with some pieces of silver in the mix of her clothing. Her face wasn't all that pretty, but her hair reached under her shoulders. It was as red as the autumn leaves during midday. The only word that could describe it was scarlet. She also had round ears poking out of the sides of her head, so as far as I could tell, she was human.

My nose also has picked up the scent of blood by the time I've heard her. Her leg was stuck in some kind of metal jaw on the ground, chained to multiple nails embedded into various rocks and barks of trees. It was a bear trap. I examined her for a bit longer and she seems to have been struggling with the gears and springs that caused the trap to pierce her leg. Every movement she made seemed to make the jaw tighter, seeping out more blood along with another yell of anguish.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

What made it even more strange was that even though I have been through the same injury myself, I felt no sympathy for that woman. I felt nothing at all. Not empathy or any of the sort. Just complete and utter apathy. I didn't even flinch when the woman attempted to dig her nails into her bloodied red wound to pry open the jaw.

As I leaned a bit too close, I accidentally pressed my foot over a twig cracking it. The woman in scarlet jumped, letting go of the jaw as it snapped back two inches into her leg. She released another scream of pain before quickly fumbling over a long shiny object to her side before eventually pointing it in my direction.

"W-Who's there! Show yourselves!"

Crap.

My cover was already blown so I stepped forward slowly. However, as I came into view I realized I have made a fatal mistake. I didn't recognize it at first, but it was a musket and she was pointing it right at me. Panicked, I opened my mouth to speak.

"Wait! I don't mean to hurt you." I said aloud with the best of my ability. Most of the vocabulary my mother taught me was mostly about hunting and food, along with avoiding certain dangers, so my negotiation skills were at most questionable at the very least. Her leg was bleeding.

"I come in..." Crap, how do I say 'peace'?

"I'm no danger to you."

The scarlet woman stared at me with big eyes, jaw open. It would be considered comical if it weren't for the gun being pointed at me. A couple of seconds have passed before she spoke again with a more stern and steeled attitude. "You're a harpy and a young one at that. What? Thought you could come here to finish the *** while I'm weak and injured? Well, I have **** for you ***." Her leg was still bleeding.

I raised both my wings slowly up to the air slowly and calmly. "No, that's not my." Damn, I can't say 'intention'. "I'm not going to hurt you. You just seemed like you were in trouble. I just wanted to." Shit, I can't say 'help" either.

The woman gripped her musket slowly and clenched her teeth as her leg continued bleeding. "Yeah? Wanted to what?" She still seemed in disbelief that I'm still talking to her. I should count myself lucky that she hasn't shot me yet. I can't just run either as I'm still held at point-blank. Her leg continued to bleed.

"I can have you escape." I remained steady at eye level, making no sudden moves that would cause her to pull the trigger.

"What?" She looked at me quizzically. Her eyes showed confusion which I thankfully could recognize.

"Yes. I can get you out of that." I pressed on further.

"You... want to **** me?" She remained on guard. The woman was still pointing the musket at me but was wavering somewhat.

That word. Was that it? Let's hope this works. "Yes, I want to **** you," I said with as much as a serious expression I could muster, using the word she just used to ask me with.

Please let it work.

A couple more seconds have passed, but the bleeding hasn't stopped. The smell of blood smelled almost nauseous, especially with my hunger ebbing away at my consciousness. In truth, it smelled delectable, like homemade curry on a cold winter day. I tried to steel my mind by telling myself that it smelled horrid instead.

More than half of my thoughts now consisted of revolting smells, such as the scent of expired milk, garbage juice, or rotten fish. I forced myself to not stare at her open wound. The mere thought of sinking my teeth into that would end me with a bullet to the head.

"Alright, but no tricks! I don't want you singing anything. Understood?"

Singing? What about singing? Sure my mother sang songs to help me go to sleep, but what does that have to do with anything?

"Alright, I understand." I complied calmly.

The red-haired woman lowered her gun, still gluing her eyes to me. My ears could barely hear her mutter something about her not believing that she's doing something like this. I stepped forth and crouched down to the bear trap. It bit into her leg quite a bit. Looking at the contraption, I could tell that there was a bit of rust accumulating along with the places where the gears would be. Her blood dripped along the sides of the rims and wires.

"So? You think you can do something about this?" The woman muttered impatiently, still a little on edge from me approaching her casually. It was this moment I started to regret offering to help when I didn't know how to do that in the first place. Still, I put myself in this situation and I had to get myself out of it. Ignoring her statement, I could see a broken-off lever on the side of the contraption.

Was that supposed to be some safety latch? Did she break it?

Of course, I had no way of knowing for sure considering that I've never seen a bear trap before in real life. All that I could determine that the latch did something. Seeing that I could risk breaking her leg if I messed with it, I asked "Hey what is this?" and pointed to the broken lever.

"Oh, that? That was broken when I found it. I tried pulling it, but my fingers couldn't reach." She explained in a full sentence, one that I could understand. It was a little disturbing since I learned the word 'fingers' due to it being mother's favorite snack to eat. I shook my head as I forced myself to stop thinking about food. My stomach gave an annoying growl. Her blood still was gathering in a dark pool in front of me.

In any case, if she tried pulling it already then I guess it's safe for me to do so too. Well here goes nothing.

"Wait, are you planning to- wait hold on!"

Too late. I already used my long talons to jimmy the latch open. It was then that the jaws of the trap lost it's grip and released the crimson woman's leg. She gasped in pain as she fell on her ass, grabbing her foot out of the trap as quickly as she can.

"There. You're safe."

"Yeah... t-thanks..."

And that's my cue to leave. If I stayed much longer, I don't think I would be able to control myself. The smell of blood is intoxicating. The hunger, unbearable. It was too much.

I quickly went to leave.

"Hey wait! Catch."

Turning around momentarily, I had caught some kind of rectangular brown paper wrapping in my feathery claws. All tied up neatly in some white string. My eyes quizzically turned to the woman, only for her to avoid my gaze.

"That's just for helping me. Got that? Now scram before I change my mind."

I didn't need to be warned a second time. Leaving the small clearing, I got away from the smell as far as possible. The wrapping I carried didn't feel like there was anything dangerous in it. The day seemed to have reached the evening by the time I've climbed up another tree to open the package in safety.

Now... what do we have here?

I carefully ran my claws along the knot where the string was tying up the brown paper. Undoing the string would allow me to reuse it and the paper. I wouldn't want to waste precious material that could come useful later. However, what was most important than the wrapping was the contents of the package.

"This is!"

I unwrapped it fully. It was an entire loaf of bread. I ran my claws around the slightly hard surface, but once my claws have split the loaf into two, the insides revealed a soft spongy texture.

I couldn't pause myself for even a moment as I bit into the crust and spongey soft insides. The taste of pinnacle human agriculture touched my taste buds. Teardrops have dripped along the sides of my cheek and onto the rest of the bread's crust, which should have given it a familiar salty taste. My ravenous hunger demanded sustenance, so I forced myself to gulp down my meal in only a few meager bites.

I could only sit in silence as tears kept leaking out without my consent. I knew for a fact that these tears weren't of tears of joy, it was instead remorse. It was a deep dark feeling that I have lost something essential as a human being.

The bread tasted like rotten fish.