Tales of Death´s Daughter

There it was. Three harpies, flying erratically in front of the dam. They were shot at by three archers who stood on a single wooden plate that was opened outwards. Naturally, nobody was insane enough to actually carry me towards them in a straight line. Charging at them from the front, the sides or from the sky was thus out of question. From below though, we did have a chance, although the two harpies who carried me up had to let go of me at the right time. I trusted their intuition in that regard as I wasn’t exactly known for flying around and throwing objects at others in mid-air.

At the exact moment, they let go of me and I tumbled through the air upwards, in which a harpy fell downwards, hit by an arrow. She wasn’t dead and the two who carried me would soon catch her and as such, she grinned in my direction, probably happy that she finally could help in dealing a blow to the beavers. Our gazes met only for a second though as I was still going upwards, barely grabbing onto the wooden board with one hand. I slammed against the board from underneath, sadly alerting the beavers on top of it.

One hand still grabbing onto the edge, I finally stopped swinging back and forth after a few seconds and looked into the eyes of a surprised beaver as I stared upwards.

“This stupid white bitch survived!” He stood up fast, drew his bow on his back and knocked an arrow on it. Slightly bored by their reaction, I pulled myself up with one arm and grabbed the beaver`s legs. He screamed as I pulled as hard as I could and he lost his balance and fell off the platform.

“And that’s my friends, is why you use a railing.” I said as I pulled myself up and was greeted by the other two archers who were already aiming at me. “Oh, by the way … you forgot something.”

Two harpies flew from underneath the platform upwards and appeared right next to the other beavers. It didn’t take long for either of them to grab one beaver and fly away with them.

“And now …” I stared upwards, tracking the movements of a small, dull sword that slithered down the dam, freed by a friendly harpy. I grinned as I caught it before it hit the platform.  Armed with a sword resembling a metal pole, I opened the door leading inside and wondered about my stupidity.

“Why does this have to be so goddamn narrow?” Even for my height, the hallway was tiny. Tempted to just turn around and search for another way, I squeezed in and directly needed to stab a beaver who was just running on all fours through his eyes. The width of these hallways was alright as they were made for two of these beavers, but the height gave me troubles. I had to tilt my head in a rather uncomfortable angle to walk through these hallways and while that wasn’t a problem, it got on my nerves as I bashed beaver after beaver to death without any noticeable resistance. They were all surprised to see me inside the dam and as their bows were secured on their back while they ran around, they couldn’t draw them easily.

“So that’s what happens to a civilisation that doesn’t have to deal with a constant threat. Boring.” I said as I slaughtered my hundredth beaver. At least some kind of alarm rang by then, but that sadly didn’t help them at all. After they started to lay traps for me with a few archers blocking down a corridor, I simply went backwards, grabbed a dead beaver and walked towards the archers at a leisurely pace, using my newfound shield to block the arrows. After I approached them sufficiently, I just threw the shield full of arrows away and continued my slaughter.

It took me some time to search a staircase. The steps were incredibly tiny, so the staircase was rather large. It was quite dark in there as the usual lamps were missing here and strangely enough, no beavers awaited me here. Shrugging my shoulders, I descended the stairs, always wary about an unexpected attack as this was probably the most dangerous place to be in for me. Either they didn’t realize their tactical advantage in this place as they could shoot at me from all sides, or I already dealt with all of their warriors. Whatever it was, I was more than happy with the development and already started whistling before I reached the bottom of the stairwell.

The only way forward was blocked off by a large wooden door that wouldn’t budge, no matter what I tried to do. Pulling on the handle sadly didn’t result in success, but rather a ripped off handle. Flabbergasted, I poked the hole I created through this curiously and then with more vigour. Wooden splinters flew everywhere as I bashed the lock over and over again, but the door still didn’t want to open. Annoyed, I laid down on the ground and looked underneath the door. A strange, hardened fluid was plastered underneath it and blocked off every attempt to open the door regularly.