The harpy was clinging onto the side of the tree he was leaning on, watching him as he gasped for breath like his life depended on it. The bastard harpy had won, but he had given it some pretty serious competition. It still hadn’t stopped it from acting smug as all hell, though. A sore winner and a sore loser in the same place, that never ended well. “I… gah… I almost caught… caught up, You piece of… You know I used to run way faster in… in… oh god, let me catch my breath.”

The harpy gave a short bark that sounded like a laugh, before flapping her wings and flying right above him, grabbing his head with one of her feet’s talons

He beat her away, throwing a fruit at her which she happily ate up. There were more important things to worry about at the moment. His two buddies beside him really needed tending. It was quite a grotesque sight, if he had to be honest. Mint had gotten a good chunk taken out of their throat, and Pepper… ugh. He had to leave the organs behind when he dragged them to the pile, unsure if goblin guts were poisonous.

He had to resummon the goblins as quickly as possible, but to do that he actually needed magic, first. He had noticed this before, but it seemed his body only had a limited amount of mana. He had squeezed the last bit of it out when he had summoned the harpy, and he didn’t need to be reminded about how well that turned out. His stomach still felt sore from the pain, only soothed as he bit into the flesh of one of the delicious fruits he’d grown addicted to. His supplies were dwindling, unfortunately.

The two stupid goblins had eaten two of his share while they were traveling, and the bird had taken one and broken one over his head just a moment ago… that along with the two he’d eaten and now… he only had one fruit left. He sighed, smacking his forehead repeatedly into a tree as he waited for his stomach to stop hurting from the overuse of magic. He wouldn’t try summoning something again without at least that condition. Deciding he’d have to at least wait, he decided to sit down and pull the book out.

Just as he thought, Mint and Pepper weren’t unavailable anymore. He sighed in relief at that, If he had lost the two only to end up allies with the one that killed them… he didn’t want that to happen. He wouldn’t let something like this happen again, he’d only found them again through pure luck. Hell, he had survived purely through good luck.

Though, now that he had the harpy he was much more prepared for this type of thing. Speaking of which… “Harpy, get over here.” He didn’t even speak loud and the bird immediately appeared in the bark on the tree behind him, sinking its claws a good inch into the wood. It gave him a wide smile that showed off its sharp teeth. It seemed so genuine and kind, yet he still found his stomach knotting when he looked at it.

He really had to get through this weird fear of the bird. There was really one way he could do that right now, though. “I… I was thinking about giving you a name, calling you harpy sounds kind of… kinda sexist, I’m gonna be honest.” He chuckled to himself, knowing the harpy probably had no idea what that meant. He was right, since all it seemed to hear was the word ‘name’. It looked at him, wide-eyed, before jumping onto him with an intense glare. “Name!? Name!? Name!”

She shook him with her delicate winglike arms, and he had to hold her away in fear of hurting them. “Yes! Name! Get off me!” He couldn’t help but feel awkward, having something so human jumping on him like that. The goblins were fine since they were god-ugly but this bird thing… “Bird… Hey! My Aunt had a name she wanted to use that meant something like ‘Pretty bird’ or something. It was supposed to be when she had a sister or something… aw, man. She must be so fucked up about this”

He looked down at the ground as he realized just how devastated his only family member would be at his death. He’d been the only child in that house, and he had worked hard to get the grades required for a good college. …Really hard.

He was honestly pretty slow when it came to studying or learning. Even through that, he had made sure his whole life had been set for him, only for him to throw it all away at 16…

He was actually thankful that everything was going like this. ‘Do this, do that, fight a goblin for our entertainment.’ It was all a huge change of pace but it gave away distraction from the regret in his heart. The feeling that he had lost everything and that he had no way to excuse his own fault in that.

He’d just been far too busy doing the god’s favor to actually care about any of that at the moment-

Without warning the bird latched onto him again, screaming right into his ear. “Name!! NAME!!”

“Agh! Get the hell… Fuck off!”

He tried pushing her off but this time she wouldn’t budge, locking him in with her leg’s this time, digging her talons into his stomach and shoulder. All he got when he pushed was a talon deeper into his body, which was uncomfortable, to say the least. He groaned in annoyance as he realized that he either had to give in or live with this stupid situation. “Fine! Fine! Your name is… uh,” Fuck, what was he going to name her again?

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Some sappy thing about his aunt… he wasn’t going to name her after his real mom, right? That’d be weird as hell, even if he’d never seen the woman. He shoulda named her something his aunt woulda- “Oh, yeah! Avelyn! It's for ‘beautiful bird’, I think. Aunty Jen really wanted to name my sis-”

The damn harpy kicked off him and leaped into the air, flapping her wings and dancing with all the glee in the world as she went further into the forest. “Name! Avelyn! Name! NAME!” After he managed to escape her clutches, he took the time to back away from the monster as soon as he could. Despite his precautions, though, he couldn’t help but find the scene a bit charming, just like when he’d seen Mint and Pepper see each other again when he summoned them for the first time.

It was a moment that made him realize she was a bit more than a monster now, like Mint and Pepper… “I really shouldn’t make it a habit to be so down all the time… Right, Mint?” He nudged the lifeless head of his goblin companion with his foot, watching it limply roll to the other side.

…Yeah, he really shouldn’t make this a normal thing. His stomach seemed to be fine now, just a tad bit of pain here and there when he walked. It was as good a time as any to summon these two knuckleheads again. “...summon fiend, Mint”

The goblin disappeared from the ground and Elliot flinched as his stomach recoiled, but only slightly. It was honestly much less terrible than what he had expected. Now that he thought about it, there must have been a difference in magic quality between an E and D rank monster. If only he knew what it was, though… That didn’t matter, though. Not right now. He tackled Mint when the light finally went into their eyes, grabbing the goblin in a loving hug. “Mint! Oh god, Mint you don’t know how close I was to dying… Like, way too close. I also almost lost you and Pepper, as well. We have Avelyn to thank for finding you two and uh… oh, yeah.”

While he was choking Mint with his loving hug, he remembered he still had to summon Pepper. He ignored the goblin’s weak attempt at trying to escape him as he outstretched an arm, summoning the second. “Summon fiend, Pepper!'' In the ensuing pain from his depleted magic being strained, the weasley goblin managed to slip away from his grasp, running away in fear. “Bah! You’re a goblin, Mint! You should at least learn how to roughhouse!” The meek little goblin hid behind a tree, keeping a cautious eye on his movement.

He decided to not let it hurt his feelings and wave it off. He’d almost died just now, and he could really use the attention of his goblin buddies… “Whoah!” He was tackled from behind, and from the red legs wrapped around his arm trying to put him in a hold, he could tell who it was. “Pepper! I summoned you, you brat! This is how you repay me!” He laughed as he turned the tables, pinning the goblin underneath him with a bit of effort.

As Pepper squealed in anger as they tried to get the upper hand, Elliot just grinned, happy not to be alone again. The last two weeks he’d been able to handle it, but just one day with company and he’d turned back to the cripplingly lonely guy he was before. Pepper jumped to the side and made for a chokehold, but all Elliot had to do was stand and it couldn’t do a thing. Man, it was good Pepper was like half his size. He wouldn’t be able to win otherwise.

Two on one was a different story, though. Elliot’s head was suddenly yanked back as Avelyn, the damn harpy he’d just obtained, grabbed onto his hair and tried to pull. “Ah! Avelyn, get the hell off me! If you cut a single hair off I'm gonna defeather you you stupid-” Before he could finish, Pepper had let go of him, jumping onto his stomach and then on his face, using him as a ramp to take off.

The harpy didn’t even get a chance to react as Pepper landed on top of her, hitting the floor with a sharp screech.

“Gah! Gah!” Elliot was on the floor, unaware of what happened due to the trauma done to his brain, when he finally came to, he realized he was being dragged. He looked to his feet to realize Mint was the one moving him, grunting in effort as they heaved him a foot or so every couple of seconds. “Mint? What the hell… Hey! Wait! Pepper, she’s a friend now!” He stood up and ran towards the two rolling on the floor, Pepper on Avelyn’s back with a look of complete terror in both their eyes.

You could hardly call what Pepper was doing fighting, barely more than slaps as he held her down, letting Mint carry him off. They were trying to sacrifice themselves for him, Elliot realized. He finally managed to pick the red goblin off the harpy, unsure how to feel about that. Instead of thinking, he just held the goblin.

“It’s ok… It’s ok, Pepper… come on.” He just awkwardly held it at arms reach, unsure what to do as it flailed in his arms. He almost considered letting Pepper just kill the harpy to count it even when they finally stopped kicking and screaming. He set them down, happy to see the goblin finally seeing reason. “It’s ok, Pepper. She’s a friend now. Here, have the last fruit with Mint. I need to go take care of Avelyn.” The goblin nodded, wiping its eyes from tears Elliot only just realized were there, and went to Mint, leaving him with Avelyn…

The poor bird was shivering on the ground, her wing arms covering her head and back in a vain attempt to protect herself. The poor thing… it kinda deserved it but it still didn’t feel nice to see it like that. Unsure of what to do, he sat next to it, placing a hand on its back. “...Hey, are you ok?” The harpy didn’t answer, didn’t even react much besides flinching when he touched her. That hurt him a lot more than he would have thought, though.

It relaxed when it realized he wasn’t the goblin, but stayed mute. He decided talking wouldn’t do much good right then, and just stayed there, letting the poor thing go through it in the quiet. He ran his hands through the feathers on its back, and felt it relax just a bit more.

These small things worked, his aunt had always comforted him like this.

He smiled, and wondered just how long they’d stay like this, lost in the forest.

…This was turning out to be a shitty trip.