Chapter Text
Touya’s not particularly happy when he’s told he’s being reassigned. He’s worked hard over the last two years to establish the kind of bond that comes with literal blood, sweat and tears with the pair of kelpies he had been previously assigned to work with. But apparently his ‘way with beasts’ earned him an unwanted promotion and has landed him as the sole caretaker for the newest addition to the Shie Hassaikai’s traveling creature carnivals growing collection.
A harpy.
He can’t help but feel that adding another predatory creature is just going to rile the other beasts up, upsetting the very carefully balanced scales that threaten to tip one way or the other each time they add another monster to their ranks. Hell, the manticore they have- while one of the oldest creatures can still tear a man's arm clean off if provoked. But on the other hand, people will pay a great deal of coin to see a wild beast supposedly ‘tamed’.
The harpy won’t be displayed to the public for a while still though, it’s standard protocol to give the creatures time to adjust, most of them bought from black market hunters. Sometimes they get lucky and the beasts have already spent years in captivity, and are used to the chains and cages, being constantly poked and prodded at.
It’s how his kelpies had come to be in the carnival, had spent almost all their lives in captivity. When Touya had been put in charge of their care they were thin, worn down miserable looking things, untrusting of every human to walk by their cages and spooked so easily that he didn’t have to wonder too hard on how they were most likely treated by their previous owner. It had taken several months before they started showing the smallest signs of trust with him. He had used his own coin from his pay for extra treats and goodies and found they had a weakness for sugar cubes just like horses. Had been made fun of when he had given them the names Brodny and Narelle, to help tell them apart but also give them something no one else had cared to give. His mother always told him names could hold power within creatures.
As he approaches the holding cage for the harpy, he can already tell this will be nothing like his experience with the kelpies. No, he hasn’t even laid eyes on the harpy yet, and already he can hear the ungodly screeching coming from the beast. As he rounds the corner he’s met with an almost literal whirlwind of thrashing red and brown feathers as the creature attempts to throw itself at the walls of its enclosure. Only to come short each time as a chain and shackle around one of its ankles snaps taut, preventing it from moving more than a few feet in each direction.
Harpies are usually female, but this one looks distinctly male, much harder to come by, much rarer. He’s done his research, male harpies tend to have shorter lifespans than their female counterparts, and only because the females grow so much larger than the males, are much more powerful, extremely territorial outside of whatever mating season they have and even then most females will kill their mates after they’re done with them.
He’s surprised this one wasn’t killed, considering how small he looked, it’s hard to tell by all the thrashing around but the harpy can’t be much taller than five feet or so he assumes, but he’s also incredibly skinny as well, definitely underfed and he can’t stop the nagging little voice in the back of his head that tells him to find the poor thing a decent meal and fast. He moves deliberately slowly, not wanting to cause more distress to the creature than he already was in. Even moving as slow as he can, he must still draw some kind attention to himself. One moment the harpy is flailing around wildly in the cage, the next it goes deathly still as two large golden eyes zero in on the young man, the harpy’s pupils dilating into thin slits. Both freeze as they stare down one another.
Now that the creature isn’t moving, Touya can get a better look and this does look like a male harpy, and definitely a young adult. There’s a mix of little brown and red feathers scattered across the harpy’s temples, receding into his hairline and disappearing in a mess of wild blonde hair. The harpy suddenly spreads his wings wide, feathers puffing up to make himself appear much larger than he was. While the harpy’s body may be small and thin, the wingspan on the creature was impressive. The holding cage won’t allow for his wings to stretch open in full but they have to be roughly each a little over the harpy’s own height. Touya can see the poor creatures' wings had obviously seen better days. The primary feathers look in rough shape, some frayed and torn, others clipped and looked broken, a few missing completely. If the beast wasn’t chained and caged, Touya doubts with wings as rough looking as they are, the harpy is more than likely grounded.
The sound of creaking of wood reminds the human that if his hunch is correct and the harpy is grounded, that doesn’t make them any less dangerous as he eyes those large talons identical to those of a wild bird of prey curl and scratch into the bottom of the cage. Only, on a harpy, they’re large enough to gut a grown man if one should be unlucky enough to find themselves on the receiving end of them.
“You don’t look nearly as frightening as I imagined,” Touya says quietly, crouching down to make himself seem smaller, hoping to put the beast at ease.
Almost as if the creature had taken offense to the statement the harpy lunges forward a hiss like screech escaping from its open mouth as it bares its fangs. The harpy doesn’t make it too far thanks to the shackle but Touya notes to keep watch of his fingers in the future, those fangs look sharp enough that it might not take much if he slipped up while feeding the beast.
“Hush now, none of that. You and I are going to be seeing a lot of one another so best to make nice early on, yeah? See? I even brought a peace offering.” Touya reaches into one of the small pouches he keeps on his belt, they used to be filled with dried salted fish, sugar cubes, and oats, now though he pulls out a small limp rat by the tail. He dangles the dead thing in front of him, making sure the harpy can see the snack, makes sure gold eyes are trained on it watching it swing back and forth before he chucks it up through the bars of the cage.
Almost too fast for him to see, it’s snapped out of the air and when he blinks, the harpy has the snack already in his mouth head thrown back and Touya grimaces a bit as the harpy doesn’t seem to chew the rat, just bobs its head backwards forcing it to slide down his throat. When the majority of the rat disappears the harpy looks back to him, the tail hanging from its mouth and Touya watches, almost appalled as the harpy makes a slurping motion and the tail quickly disappears between pursed lips.
“I’ve seen a lot of different creatures' eating habits while working here, but that... that was probably one of the grossest things I’ve seen in a while.” Touya says aloud as he watches the harpy lick its lips and look almost expectantly at him. He doesn’t bother hiding his smile at the behaviour, it’s what he was hoping for after all. “Liked that, did ya? Want another one?”
He’s quick to pull a second rat out and repeats the process of making sure the harpy watches him before tossing the dead treat the same as before into the cage. Watching the beast swallow the rat whole is no less disturbing than the first time and he pointedly looks away and almost regrets it as the sounds of the harpy slurping down the tail is almost somehow worse than watching it happen.
“Sorry birdie, I only brought the two with me. To be fair I wasn’t sure if you would actually eat anything from me, but I guess you were pretty hungry to accept food from me right away, huh? Makes sense considering how thin you are. They not feed you from wherever it is you came from or what?” It’s a dumb question, one he knows he’s not going to ever get an answer to, monsters and creatures are rarely given the proper care they actually need in order to thrive. A lot of wealthy folks, people like his own father, used to keep exotic creatures as a sign of wealth. The more dangerous and deadly, the higher the cost. The higher the cost, the more you got to brag about owning such a beast.
What Touya doesn’t expect is the low throaty growl to come from the harpy, wing-like arms held close to his small frame as if ready to either strike out or guard against something. “I’ll take that as an astounding no then, shall I? Don’t worry though, I’ll be back later with a proper meal for you, how about that.” Touya says as he rises keeping his movements slow and nonthreatening. He keeps his body relaxed, trying not to tense his shoulders and accidentally or unintentionally frighten the creature. He looks over his shoulder as he leaves, looking the harpy dead in the eyes. “You’re lucky you got me as your handler, not to brag or anything but you’re in pretty good hands all things considered.”
Touya spends the next few hours scrounging through his small collection of books on mythical creatures. He tries to have at least a bit of information on each of the creatures, keeps it as a baseline, and then makes his own. There were even books on creatures that were long extinct; he found fascination in learning more and more. He has at least three notebooks filled with sketches and his own findings from when he was assigned to the kelpies, but now he’s going to be starting fresh it seems. Typically, a lot of the findings in the books he had were done from studies after the poor beasts had been killed, so there were always misconceptions and false information. He didn’t find a whole lot regarding their traits while alive besides the copious descriptions of how they killed their prey. He knew they were violent creatures, fighting to stay alive as their species was dying out. Brushing up on similar creatures, he formed a game plan on how to best take care of this harpy to the best of his ability and hopefully not get killed in the process.
Taking note of how the sun is lowering, he shoves a fresh notebook into his back pocket and heads off to the feeding tent, most of the other caretakers are usually done by now, and he enjoys working undisturbed. Most of the other workers in the traveling carnival tend to rub him the wrong way, so he just avoids them as best he can now. Pushing aside the entrance curtain, he’s surprised to see Jin struggling with a container of fish and a scale.
“Oh Touya, thank gods you’re here, buddy. Sorry to bug you but how much do you usually feed the kelpies again?”
“Brodny needs at least ten pounds of fish and Narelle will usually only eat about eight or nine, she’s more of a grazer. But make sure you watch Brodny, he'll just inhale anything you put in his tank so make sure to add it slowly.” He explains as he starts to pull out his notebook and scribbles down the different meats. Wanting to take note of if the harpy will turn its nose up at one type of animal versus another.
“Um… which one is Brodny again?” Jin asks nervously, Touya doesn’t blame him though, he’s the only one who actually seems to give the creatures he works with names.
“He’s the bigger one, but if you have a hard time telling while they're in the water, he’s the one with the lighter coat, Nar’s coat is a much darker green. You remembered to feed ‘em this morning too right?” Grabbing a few rats and putting them in his snack pouch since they seemed to be a hit earlier.
“Ah thanks, I’m still getting used to them, they don’t come out to greet me like they do you, it’s almost as if they’re mad you’re not around as much. And yeah, the notes ya left me are really helpful, really detailed but helpful all the same! I made sure they got the mix of hay and algee you recommended.”
Touya smiles, he’s glad that out of all the other workers it was Jin that was assigned to take over the care of his kelpies, at least he knows they’re in good hands.
“Have you been to see the harpy yet then? You’re off to feed it right?” Jin asks, making a face at the smell of fish as he pushes what’s on the scale into a large feeding bucket.
“Yeah went this morning, they’ve got him locked in a holding cage I guess while they still make adjustments to the one they’ll use to display him. Just hope it’s a lot bigger than what they’ve got him in now, those wings of his are deceivingly large. You don’t know where they managed to find him, do ya? I tried asking around before he arrived, wanting to get a feel for what I was walking into, but no one really knew anything.” More like they wouldn’t tell him anything, he never did make friends easily.
“Oh, Himiko told me she overheard Vlad mention they bought it straight from a group of hunters. Managed to get the drop on it since it was down already.”
So he was right in assuming the harpy was grounded with those wings, but he just assumed it was from whoever had owned the harpy previously, but if the harpy was caught straight from the wild then that raises even more questions… And now concerns as well.
“Thanks Jin, good luck feeding the kelpies, I’ll have to stop by soon.” He says as he leaves Jin to finish weighing out the fish. About the only thing he’s thankful for with his reassignment to the harpy is he won’t have to be stuck with the smell of fish constantly clinging to his clothes at least. Small blessings he supposes.
When he rounds the corner of the cage he almost drops the feeding bucket at the sight of feathers scattered across the floor of the cage. The harpy is curled up around themselves but it mouthing and chewing at the shackle around its ankle, trying to bite through the steel. It's not in the least bit effective, instead, the poor thing has torn and started ripping his feathers from himself around where the shackle sits and has chewed up his own leg in an attempt to free himself.
“Whoa! Hey, stop!” Touya yells, drawing the harpy’s attention to himself. Large eyes snap up now aware of his presence and the harpy is opening his mouth and screeching flaring its wings like earlier. Touya doesn’t need to be an expert to know the noises leaving the creature are both frustrated and angry. “Look, look, I have something much more interesting here, just stop that, come on.” He tries to get the harpy’s attention by reaching into the feeding bucket, grabbing a chunk of meat, and waving it in front of the cage. The harpys pupils pin into small barely there beads of black against gold as it hones in on the food.
“Yeah, that’s it, see. You’d much rather have this right? Here ya go, catch.” And he throws the food through the bars. A taloned foot snatches the large chunk of meat pinning it to the ground before the harpy sniffs at it curiously, eyes flicking between the food and Touya before tearing into it ripping chunks slowly. He waits for the majority of the current slab of meat to disappear before throwing in another one, he’s not exactly sure how much a harpy should be eating but he doesn’t want to accidentally overfeed the creature as well.
Touya sinks down to sit on the grass in front of the cage once he’s tossed most of the meat to the harpy, a little closer than he got earlier. He takes his notebook out and starts recording his findings, making notes on the harpy’s feeding habits so he can keep a better track of what he likes, what he may not want to eat. It can be hard to get certain types of feed and meats while the carnivals travels so he's found having a few different options to keep in mind doesn't hurt. But that has never stopped Touya from using his own coin to help provide for the beasts under his care sometimes either. He'd been more than happy to drop the extra coin to pay for apples out of season for the kelpies, or for sugar cubes. Money never meant much to him, he found he could get by just fine with very little. He’s been doing it for over a decade ever since he left home. Besides, the creatures under his care could make use of his pay far better than he probably ever could.
“You know, I’ve been thinking about what to call you.” He says aloud as he fills the side of his notes with small sketches of the harpy. “It doesn’t seem very fair to just call you just ‘harpy’ or ‘beast’ or some other word. It’s not really original and if you understood me you’d probably think it’s dumb, but I think I’ll call you Hawks.” Touya puts his pencil down to look up at the harpy and isn’t really surprised to find him sitting against the back of the cage as far away from Touya as the chain would allow, wings pulled close around himself but watching him carefully nonetheless.
“You don’t trust me, I get it. Every interaction you’ve had with humans up until this point has probably not been great, huh?” Touya continues, ideally chatting as he turns the page in his notebook and starts sketching again. “You were born and raised in the wild, right? I’m curious how those hunters got their hands on you though, Jin told me they found you grounded, that means you can’t fly? Wouldn’t be surprised though, those wings of yours look like they’ve seen better days.”
Touya sits until his legs protest at the lack of movement until the ground starts to turn cold as the sun finally drops behind the horizon. He stretches, popping something in his back as he stands. “Well, I’m heading in, but before I go, I did bring you a little dessert.”
He reaches into the feeding pouch on his belt and it’s like the harpy already knows what that particular pouch contains since his head pops up ever so slightly from behind his wings. Eye’s glint in the low light as they watch Touya pull the pair of rats out, he sways them back and forth as he did earlier before tossing one in. Unlike before though the harpy doesn’t move as the rat lands with a dull thud against the wooden floor of the cage. Hawks stays firmly in place, wings wrapped around himself creating an almost feather like cocoon, but watches with interest. Touya doesn’t mind, reminding himself the harpy was most likely driven by the food earlier, but now after being fed is in no rush to snatch the treat like before. That doesn’t stop him from waiting before tossing the second rat in aiming for the first one.
“I only brought two again, just cause I’m looking after you now doesn’t mean I’m going to spoil you.” Touya chuckles as he watches a taloned foot slide out from under one of the wings and pick at one of the rats slowly inching it closer to the harpy before it disappears into the mass of red and brown feathers. “Good night Hawks. I’ll see you in the morning.”
Touya rises before the sun like usual, he swings himself out of the hammock he has set up in his tiny caravan, careful to avoid slipping on a pile of books he has precariously stacked to the side. He never used to be a morning person, but then again, he never thought he would be responsible for another living thing, the creatures under his care in the carnival depended on him. And in a way, he depended on them as well. Sure, this was a far cry from the life he left behind when he ran away from home as a young teen, but caring for something else gave him a routine, and having a routine helped to keep him grounded.
He doesn’t bother combing his hair, just runs his fingers through white locks until it looks decent enough, who’s going to judge him for having a slightly bad case of bedhead? The harpy? He splashes some water on his face to wake himself up fully before throwing on a fresh change of clothes and heads off to the feeding tent to grab both himself and Hawks some breakfast.
He’ll admit when he first joined the Shie Hassaikai’s Carnival he was surprised to find that a good chunk of the coin used for buying their food went towards the creatures’ dietary needs before its workers. He doesn’t complain though, as long as the creatures under his care are getting the correct food. He knows what it’s like to go hungry so as long as he can get a meal, bland as it may be, he’s fine with it.
Touya works quickly to gather everything he’ll need for Hawks' meal, setting aside chunks of rabbit and mutton. On his way out of the tent, he nabs a simple meal of bread and cheese for himself, and then on a whim grabs an apple for later as well. When he approaches the cage he catches sight of Hawks and smiles. The harpy isn’t curled up against the back of the cage, like he was the night before, but instead pacing slowly, curiously watching the world outside his cage.
“Morning Hawks, I brought you breakfast, hope you like rabbit,” Touya says as he holds up the bucket. Feeding Hawks goes about the same as before, he catches the food Touya throws in for him, sniffing at each piece carefully, looking up, and giving him a look that Touya can’t quite decipher before devouring it. Once Hawks has had his fill Touya sits down to eat his own meal, notebook open in his lap as he nibbles away.
Once he’s done with both his meal and documenting down anything he deems important to review later, he looks up to find Hawks staring at him. Golden eyes blink curious at him, looking him up and down as if the harpy was the one studying him.
“What?”
Hawks just blinks again at him, head tilting to the side, wild blonde hair flipping over with the quick movement. His eyes seem to land on the book in Touya’s lap, they shoot back up to meet his eyes before looking back down to the book.
“This?” Touya asks, holding up the book, an eyebrow raised.
Hawks makes a low clicking noise in the back of his throat as he trails after the book with his eyes. It’s the first time Touya’s heard him make the sound that wasn’t a screech or a growl and he sits up a little excitedly. Each mythical creature has its own way of communicating, just like any animal does; you can tell a cat's mood by its ears and tail, with kelpies you learn to read their moods by how they carry their heads and the position of the ears. Harpies are more vocal creatures according to his limited research but he hadn’t really expected much communication at this point so he’s eager to learn what he can.
“That a ‘yes’ noise or a ‘I’m curious’ noise you're making there, birdie?” He chuckles as he flips through the pages to the page he had sketched out small drawings of the harpy the previous night and turns it around to show Hawks. “It’s a notebook, I fill it with, well notes, and this is you, see.”
Hawks feathers ruffle up a bit as his eyes seem to scan over the pages. It’s funny, Touya thinks, it’s almost as if he’s actually taking in the images. Apparently pleased by what he sees, a small cooing noise followed by the same clicking from before as Hawks bobs his head. The action reminds Touya of excited parrots and he has to hold back a laugh at the comparison.
“I take it I have your approval to keep drawing you then, yes?” He’s not expecting a reply but smirks at the quiet clicking noises Hawks makes as he settles wrapping himself in his wings once more.
Touya spends as much time as he can with Hawks, sketching him, constantly scribbling all his findings. He even spends time with the harpy in the evenings, where once he finishes his work he would usually lock himself away in his caravan, curled up in his hammock reading by candle light. Instead, those evenings turn into reading aloud to the harpy late into the evening only retiring for the night once he notices the Hawks has his head crooked under a large red wing, asleep.