Hunted Hunter

Archie ventured deeper and deeper into the forest, hoping to capture wild fowl for dinner tonight. It seemed like he landed on Elysium for hours and he was about to die of starvation.

As the sky transitioned from a bright blue to a pink-orange hue, he knew that time was of the essence, the change of color signaling the approach of nightfall.

In his hand. Archie possessed a pocket knife with a curving, crescent-shaped blade. The sky darkened as he pondered whether to return to camp and wait for his prey to stumble into the trap or to press on with his hunt in the wild. 

Even though Archie was athletic, he found the forest to be beyond his element. He preferred the obstacles presented by the concrete terrain. However, he had to make do with the situation at hand and survive. 

'Chickens typically slumber on the trees during this hour.' Archie thought as he reminisced about his life at the farm, where his grandfather reared chickens, ducks and geese.

Looking up into the trees, he could hear the cold wind rustling through the leaves, revealing the cockerels and hens safely settled on the branches, sleeping. 

Archie breathed a sigh of relief because he was worried that the animals in Elysium were mystical and inedible.

He saw that the wild fowl's appearance looked exactly like the chickens he had on Earth and stealthily climbed up the tree to catch one using one of his hands on the nearby branches.

Unlike domesticated chickens, wild fowl are accustomed to danger and nocturnal predators. Once it is alerted, the brood of wild fowl will awaken and scratch the predator with their fouled claw before taking off.

Archie rested his feet on one of the branches below, with one hand gripping the trunks and the other reaching as far as he could. Archie balanced his feet on a limb below and prepared to snag a bird for dinner.

As Archie managed to capture a chicken, it gave a loud cluck of astonishment that consecutively woke up the other wild fowl that were resting on the branches.

The entire flock of wild birds that had been sleeping on the branches immediately attacked Archie, causing a commotion as they flailed their wings and scratched him with their beaks to free their kin.

Perched on the limb, Archie raised the hen to cover his face. His long-sleeved jacket shielded his arms from the fowl's brutal assault of non-stop pecking, scratching and plucking.

However, the feral birds persisted in their attacks. He had a feeling that they would not rest until they succeeded in freeing the hen.

'What kind of chickens are these?' Archie thought that, as chickens, regardless of whether they were wild or domesticated, they were not that protective of their flock. He had a bad feeling about this.

The longer Archie stood on top of the branch, the less he felt safe to be there. The chickens were harsh and persistent; some of them perched on his head and shoulders, pecking his ears and forehead ceaselessly until he began to bleed. 

Archie had enough. He snapped the neck of the chicken, made sure it was dead and threw it on the ground. Then he proceeded to grab the wild fowl on the head that was perching on his head, persistently plucking the hair off his head. He seized it by the neck and smashed its head into the tree trunk to kill it.

The remaining wild birds scattered in response to their predator's strike and started attacking Archie at once. The bird on his shoulder quickly flew higher so it was out of Archie's reach.

As the chickens flapped higher away from Archie, he took the opportunity to jump to the ground. He snatched the lifeless chickens on the ground and sprinted away, hopefully towards the clearing where he laid his traps.

Twilight approached after the sunset, and soon the sky would be too dark for Archie to navigate his way around the forest. Archie continued to run as fast as he could, but he did not know that he had run deeper into the pitch-black forest.

A huge shadow cast above him as Archie looked up and beheld a massive black bird circling above the trees.

'Oh God, a dark creature lurking above the trees is definitely not a good sign.' Archie thought, as some mystical creature finally arrived to attack at this hour.

Archie continued to sprint as he reached a clearing in the middle of the forest, but his face paled as he saw the dark bird-like creature descending on the ground.

The moon was now fully bright in the corner of the sky. As the moonlight shone on the surface of the creature, creating its silhouette from a distance, 'It is huge and looks like it has hair.'

The dark creature flapped its wings as its talons touched the ground. The wind blew as the hair of the dark creature revealed a 'girl-faced?'. Archie stopped as curiosity took the better of him.

Archie was taken aback by the revelation of the dark creature before him. With a human neck and an unattractive female face, it has black hair and broad wings instead of hands with talons as sharp as razors. Claws emerged from its feet as its breasts and bellies protruding enlarged. Hysterically, it cawed and screeched. It was a harpy.

"How dare you kill my kin from my nest?" The hideous monster uttered a shriek that emitted repulsive breaths as it spoke, its head cocked at one side, staring at Archie.

"I am sorry; I didn't know it was your nest. I will keep it in mind to avoid your nest in the future," Archie immediately said, retreating behind, ready to dash away from the harpy.

"Do you really think that a mere apology would suffice? Only the harpies steal and rob, not the other way around. You need to make restitution." The harpy demanded.

Its breath reeked throughout the entire forest, and Archie had to hold his injured arm up to cover his nose. Or he might really faint from the foul odor that was flooding the forest. His other hand is still holding the chicken's neck.

"You are not leaving with my dead kin in your hands, boy!" The harpy gave a loud cry, and a flock of fowl of different breeds assembled together, ready to avenge their siblings.

'I need to repel them fast.' Archie thought, as he fairly well knew that he couldn't outrun them. The only thing he could think of was to light the forest on fire and face them head-on.

He rummaged through his pocket and took out his lighter and a bag of weeds. Now all he needed was Sid. "Sid, if you can hear me, please come to my aid. I will light a fire now, but I need you to create a strong wind as I create a small fire."

Archie stopped running and placed the dried weed on the grassy ground. He lit them with fire and it quickly spread. A strong wind blew and the harpy and its young were immediately engulfed in flames as a fierce wind whipped about them.

A look of terror crossed the harpy's face. "You idiot! You will kill us all!" As the harpy tried to flap its wings in an attempt to escape the newly formed wildfire, the fowl were struggling to fly because they were essentially chickens.

Archie stood across the fire, grinning to himself, 'I am going to have roast harpy for dinner tonight.'