up up and away

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"