There were a lot of puppies here. Mom and dad were thrilled to meet their newest grandchildren (Vanta's nieces and nephews, which should have sounded weird except her other nieces and nephews were a year her senior.) and Vanta enjoyed the moments of peace she could find when she slid away from their attentive eyes. In fact she was enjoying the lack of supervision so much that when her mother took her for a walk through the gardens, she was able to scamper off and escape beneath the woman's watchful gaze. She made it as far as the adjoining God's Garden, the place that supposedly a statue had cropped up. Vanta had seen the other statue in the north and was very curious how different this one might be from the last, determined to find it and look upon it.

Without an adult to guide her, finding the central statue was harder than she thought. Her guide-snake did not know which way to go, and seeing as the sun was already beginning to rise, soon she'd lose the ability to look for herself. Onward the pup travelled, admiring the trees and their autumn leaves until, suddenly, her paws had left the ground. The earth flew further and further way the higher she rose, the air growing colder. Oh, look, there was the statue - waaaaay over there.

The puppy began to write, tiny snarls and growls peeling from her tiny toothed maw as she began to fight for her freedom. The bird held her tight but she still had tooth and claw! She ravaged the talons as best as she could, nibbling at toes and scratching at the scale-like keratin, but to no avail.

"Vanta"

Zephyr adored his little siblings, perhaps in fact too much. He wanted to spend every waking hour with them, whether they were the waking hours of the puppies or not. His mother and father gently reminded him that the little ones needed their sleep and could not play all hours of the night and day, and Zephyr resigned himself to solitude with a little sigh. There was the issue of the feast and statues, he supposed, and he had not yet gathered an offering to bring to the grand feast that was to come.

He circled high above the territories, keen eagle eyes scouring the lands in search of something suitable to bring. Meat? Hide? The wolves would probably have that covered by the dozen. Fossils from Fossil Ridge? Berries from the grove? Zephyr considered and considered, until the cry of a harpy eagle called out not far away. It's soaring form appeared next, in its talons the distinctive form of a puppy. Which child had found itself in the claws of the raptor Zephyr could not determine, but it was a child nonetheless. Someone under the Hallows protection, someone who was born into his found family of wolves.

Drawing his wings in close to his body he dove, picking up speed in pursuit far beyond what the eagle was capable of. He reached it in seconds, pulling his newly weaponized talons up and unclenching them, steel-on-steel ringing out as the metal claws slid past each other and folded open. His lessons in sword fighting had taught him control and precision, benefiting him today as he caught the eagle in midair by its limb and with a clench of his talon, severed it from the body. The other talon reached below the severed limb, catching the pup and holding it secure and gentle in his massive grasp.

"Zephyr"

Vanta began to squirm and fight for her life as soon as she'd determined that she'd been stolen. Her small form writhed within the talons and her neck arched and strained to try and bite upon the offending limb, but once her height drew too high she was forced to stop. Even if she could make the eagle drop her now, she'd simply fall to her death. She was very quickly making peace with her death, even as the viper slid out from her neck fur, up the eagle's long leg and began to work it's way to the bird's own neck.

Suddenly a crash in the sky sounded and her attention was directed high above her head, where a much larger avian was doing battle with the beast who had stolen her. This bird she was familiar with, having met him in the Col when her older sister Briar and her family had visited. "Zeph!" She squeaked - and then literally squeaked, as the eagle's talon began to tighten and squeeze her. The constriction did not last long before suddenly she was released, falling, and then in the claws of another. "Watch out! On your left!" She called out as the bird tipped it's head down to see if she was okay. The eagle had recovered and was coming back to reclaim it's catch, even short a vital appendage.

"Vanta"

With Vanta safe in his talons, Zephyr could begin to relax. Whatever the result of this day, no creature harpy eagle or otherwise would be equipped to wrestle the pup from the talons of the Argentavis. The very fact that the bird would keep on challenging him was far from Zephyr's mind, his vulture-like neck curving downward while he idled mid-air, looking over the precious pup he held. "Are you okay?" Her voice calling out in alarm interrupted his brief checkup, and when he lifted his head to the left the eagle was already upon him.

Zephyr beat his wings heavily, pushing himself backwards to dodge the one-legged bird's slash of talon and beak. So he would need to fight it harder to make it leave - that he could do, especially if it meant this eagle would never again seek out a wolf pup to make it's meal. Zephyr had only one talon to fight with and so he focused on dodging the attacks, watching for an opening and using his free talon to block angry blows. On one blow in particular he'd found the opportunity he'd sought, his oversized talons coming down and overtop the eagle's own and his metal-clawed toes interlocking with his opponents tightly. With control of the bird's last remaining leg, the battle was mostly over. To make matters worse, a viper suddenly reared it's head from the eagle's own neck. It was only the calling of the child in his talons that stopped him from plucking it with his beak and tossing it down to the earth. It seemed the companion belonged to her, and Zephyr allowed it to slither down perilously from the eagle's body and onto his own limb, feeling it squeeze tight to remain in place while he was in flight.

"Zephyr"

Safe in the oversized talon, Vanta was able to relax miles further - though still she hung so far above the ground that her heart felt like it would pound out from her chest. She curved her small paws around the massive toes, distrustful of his grip even though he'd just saved her from the claws of something ten times smaller. Zephyr recovered at her warning, doing battle with the predator even with one limb very very occupied. "The snake is mine! Please don't hurt her!" She called out into the wind as she saw her companion's head pop out from behind the eagle's throat. It was fighting too, reducing the creature's oxygen to give Zephyr an easier kill. Vanta squeezed her eyes shut, the light flooding into them as the birds changed direction and the sun rose higher in the sky.

Even with her eyes closed, Vanta was intent on helping. Once Zephyr's other talon latched upon the eagle she could feel the disturbed air of it's struggles, alluding to it's proximity. She pushed her neck out toward it, snapping and biting to try and get her teeth into the featherless leg to rip and tear. Her assault did not last long before the feeling of falling returned, the wind pushing strong against her fur and flattening her ears, though secure and safe she was still in the talon. Zeph must be flying, and flying fast, she thought.

"Vanta"

Memories of his last encounter with a species such as this one washed over him, anger replacing the passionate defensive fear in his chest as he remembered the eagle who'd tried to take his own life - and his father beheading it in his place. Zephyr could kill this predator, but it would not be the same as punishing the one who had tried to harm him and who had killed his mother owl so long ago. He could have no vengeance today, though Vanta, she could.

Folding his wings tight against his body, the Argentavis dove. Reaching the ground at such a high speed that when he threw forward his talon and swung and released the bird he held toward the ground, the eagle had no opportunity to recover at all. It's wings spread to try and catch the air but it might have well been a statue as it crashed into the dirt in a puff of feathers and down.

Zephyr followed it quickly, placing the puppy back down upon the ground and taking a winged leap back onto the eagle, his talon swiftly coming over the avian's neck to pin it there. It was stunned so heavily it hardly moved, but was unmistakably still living. "The kill is yours, Princess." Zephyr told the pup softly. "Should you want it, that is." These things were important to wolves, or so Zeph had been told.

It seemed he had found his offering for the feast - he would craft something with these feathers, and while no wolf would think of it as symbolic in any way, Zephyr would always remember it as a show of his own strength. No harpy eagle would ever harm him or his again, he was no longer small enough to allow it. The avian boy would return Vanta to the safety of the castle and work tirelessly through the daylight on his decoration. Two pillows, their outside covering a plush and soft pelt sourced from the Hallows' stores, the inside stuffed with feathers from his kill as well as from his own massive form. He did not take many for himself (as without his down he'd grow cold, and Zeph hated the cold) but he wanted them there regardless, to mingle with the eagle's and tell the story to the Gods that much clearer.

"Zephyr"