Glimmer shifted her weight to her back feet and reached out far with her front legs to stretch. The waves glistened and the sands sparkled as the morning sun climbed higher in the sky. The people had already begun to crowd the waters with their boats, and the skies were already alive with birds and bugs. Her master had told her he wouldn't be leaving the city today, which meant she had the whole day to do as she pleased, and the first thing to cross her mind was food.
A short trot turned into a gallop, and then she leapt off the edge the embankment and unfurled her wings, flapping strongly to catch flight over the beach, startling unsuspecting people below who gasped and shouted as she passed just overhead. Her wings cut through an incoming breeze, lifting her higher as she soared out over the waters. Her shadow shrunk below her as she climbed higher and higher, basking in the warm sun and fresh morning air.
She flew out far over the lake, leaving the sandy shore and the city on the giant rock shrinking behind her as she raced to outrun the small boats that scared away all the biggest fish. The winds were generous this morning and carried her far with minimal flapping. As distance grew between herself and the furthest boats, she focused on the waters below in search of prey.
It wasn't long before she spotted the distant dancing silhouettes of a school of small fish just below the surface. Though the smaller fish wouldn't be her prey, they would be her hunting grounds. With a tilt of her wings she banked to the right and began to circle over the school of fish, careful to keep her shadow far away from them. As expected, a larger silhouette soon materialized, and the smaller fish began to scatter. She dived, pointing herself downwards and tucking her wings to plummet towards the lake below with furious speed.
She unfurled her wings just above the water, sharply curving into low a flyover that dipped her legs into the water. No sooner had the larger fish clamped its jaws around its prey, than Glimmer sank her talons into its back. With more strong flaps of her wings, she hoisted the beast of a fish from the water and climbed back into the sky. Her catch tried to squirm free of her grasp, but the four sets of talons clenched tighter, sinking deep into its flesh and dooming any hope of escape. She carried the fish to the nearest shore, one of her regular spots, and dropped it far from the water so it couldn't flop back to in. After devouring her meal, Glimmer paced around on the shore until she found just the right spot for an after-breakfast nap. She spun in place a few times, then collapsed and curled into a cozy ball.
It was midday when something woke her -- the sounds of whispering people. She peeked open an eye and saw only the lapping waves on the shore. There was a quiet clank, like metal armor, and she rose her head to look around. The whispering stopped, and all was still as she scanned the foliage along the edge of the beach. Her panning gaze stopped when the distinctive glint of armor caught her eyes between the leaves of bushes. Climbing to her feet, she cocked her head to the side at the poorly hidden human.
There was a shout. Two arrows launched from somewhere overhead, splitting away from each other and trailing a rope between them. Both arrows landed and wedged into the gravel on either side of Glimmer, stretching the rope across the top of her neck and pulling her head down slightly. She kicked off and flapped her wings, launching off the ground and effortlessly pulling up the arrows from the ground.
The man in armor charged out of the bushes leapt to grab hold of her ankle, his weight instantly pulling her down even as she furiously flapped her wings. She looked down on him with fierce eyes and watched his cocky expression turn to fear as she outstretched her talons, tucked her wings, and collapsed her weight on top of him. Her talons pierced through his armor, spilling brilliant red blood onto the gravel as she crunched him into it. She screeched at the other, yet unseen attackers, a warning that they would be next.
Three more arrows flew out of the forest, each landing on the edge of the beach in front of Glimmer before exploding in blinding flashes of light. As she blinked and shook her head, a flashing silhouette darted out of the forest and passed her on the left. An instant later, she felt searing pain from a half dozen wounds along her flank. She screeched again, kicking off from the ground once more to take flight. More arrows with ropes, this time they shot past either side of her feet and wrapped around them until the arrows met and tangled either end of the rope together, binding her legs. She flapped furiously, but her wings were moving slowly and couldn't sustain her weight. Her eyes began to close against her will, and her angry screeches came out labored and weak. Unable to keep herself aloft, she landed on her bound feet, quickly tucking a wing to protect it as she toppled to the side. The last thing she saw was a man in colorful clothing standing over her with a wicked grin.
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Ropes pulled tight against Glimmer's body, the ground beneath her rocked and jolted. There was talking, clanking of armor, and the distinctive ambiance of the forest. Her eyes crept open as she fought against the urge to fall back asleep, and she saw the forest moving around her. Soon it registered that she was tied to a flat wooden cart that was being wheeled through the woods by the armored man, who stood behind a wooden bar and pulled the cart not unlike she had seen animals do. The armor on his shoulder had been removed, and bandages now covered her handiwork.
Her captors seemed to be arguing, and the armored man was getting the worst of it. The colorful man walked in front of the group, while two women flanked him. One carried a bow, and the other had daggers at her waist. They were traveling along a path that was worn but not quite a road, and the bumps she felt were from rocks and roots as the cart wheeled over them.
She feigned unconsciousness for quite some time, waiting for the drowsiness to fully fade before acting. While she waited, she plotted. Her captors had made the mistake of tying her down with her head facing forwards, which all but eliminated the armored man as a threat. She could dispatch him with a single, well placed peck before he saw it coming. They had each made the additional mistake of walking in front of the cart, giving her their back, and the group’s final mistake was positioning her with her talons towards the ropes that wrapped over her body and around the edge of the cart.
Carefully and quietly, she stretched out her legs until each foot had at least one talon hooked onto a rope. There were six ropes in total -- at least they had been thorough in that regard -- but she would handle the extra two quickly enough. With her talons in place, she slowly arched her head until her beak was pointed at the armored man in front of her. The argument started up again, prompted by complaints from the armored man. The colorful man whirled around and pointed a finger at him, and in response he dropped the handle of the cart and moved to duck under it at about the same time as the colorful man's eyes went wide when they locked with Glimmer’s.
She curled her talons, slicing through the ropes which snapped away from broken tension. Her beak shot out, hooking behind the top of the armored man's chest plate and yanking him back against the cart. As she furiously kicked her feet to catch and slice the remaining ropes, she drove her beak downwards into the man's exposed shoulder, splashing her face with blood. Now free from the ropes, she climbed to her feet and leapt forward at the colorful man. He exploded into multi-colored sparkles just as her pounce would have landed, leaving her rearing back and inspecting the ground in confusion.
The smaller woman flashed towards Glimmer, but she kicked off the ground and flapped her wings once to gain distance. She could feel that she was still too weak to fly, but felt ready for the fight to come. The next dash from the smaller woman came quickly, and Glimmer dodged towards the woman with the bow as she nocked several arrows. A powerful swipe of her claws ripped the bow from the woman's hands, but not before she loosed the arrows. One missed, another clipped her wing, and one embedded in her chest near her front shoulder. Glimmer grabbed the woman's leather armor with her beak, hoisted her off the ground and flung her against a tree, spinning in the same motion to swing outstretched talons at the woman with the daggers as she dashed towards her yet again. The woman abandoned her strikes, ducked and slid underneath Glimmer's talons.
The woman's slide deposited her on Glimmer's exposed flank, and she launched forward with an outstretched dagger. Glimmer continued her spin, swinging her rear legs between herself and the pouncing woman and kicking backwards like a horse. Her kick landed solidly on the woman's chest, using her own momentum against her to crush her ribs on impact and send her flying back. Glimmer clenched her talons as the impact landed, slicing through leather armor and grazing skin as the woman was flung away. She then spotted the archer running towards her bow, and leapt forward with a flap of her wings to land on top of it and crush it beneath her feet. She stood tall, looking down on the woman with the fierce eyes of a furious eagle. The woman stopped in her tracks and quivered in place before taking a few stumbling steps backwards. Glimmer stretched her head out close and screeched as loudly as she could, fluttering the woman's hair with a gust of breath. She screamed, turned and ran.
Glimmered snapped her head around to inspect the area, ensuring none of her attackers were climbing back to their feet. Satisfied, she reached down and grabbed the arrow in her chest with her peak, delicately pulling it out and tossing it aside. Then, she made her way to the cart she had been tied to, promptly flipping it over without regard for the armored man who still leaned against it. He screamed, tumbled forward and tried to scurry away, but she ignored him. Instead, she strolled past him, stretching her wings as she left the scene.
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Sometime later, after enough of the lingering poison had faded for her to fly again, Glimmer landed on the beach beside the docks. Some passersby seemed bothered by her presence, though those with armor and weapons seemed unbothered if they ever took note of her at all, and the regular dock workers had grown more than accustomed to her presence each evening. She sat on the beach and preened her feathers while she waited.
A short while later, one of her master's companions -- the short one, with hair like fire -- arrived on the nearby pier. Glimmer trotted over and eyed the short one expectantly. She laughed and said something, then tossed a large chunk of meat off the pier. Glimmer leapt up to snatch it out of the air with her claws, screeching in appreciation as she took flight to carry it away.