What do you mean by that?

As if my reaction had reminded Condrovur of something, they picked up a pair of glowing tools and poked me once, “that’s what I’ve been meaning to ask as well.”

After carefully poking at several parts of my frame, without causing any actual harm, they continued, “perhaps it’s because spirit-bound items are beings who don’t actually have a brain, or a nerve system and as such they cannot combine several substances to reach the behavioral pattern that we call ‘emotions’, nor feel pain.”

Emotions and… pain? Wait, but—

“That’s right, here is one who can seemingly feel both in real-time and display them despite not having any of the features that could build up such habits,” they picked me up from the table.

“As with any other relic, it’s a given that I wouldn’t have any knowledge about what kind of machine you are, but lo and behold, just from holding onto you I feel inclined to take a different posture and even to hold you near my face.”

Wait, wait, wait! This is going too fast. I didn’t know how long it had been since I last communicated with someone, but this conversation alone had managed to cover for any missed amount of time, and it was now treading into the overwhelmed territory of my mind.

They silently put me down on the table, and I think I saw their outline wiping their hands, “had enough time to recollect yourself?”

Maybe? I took a few minutes, or so I believe, to gather up all the confusing parts of information and separated them into parts so I could question each one properly, since Condrovur seemed more than willing to help me understand my situation.

Can we take it slow and share what we both know or see so this whole thing can be explained? I had to make sure though.

“That would be—”

Their voice was suddenly cut off as a tremor started all over the place, I could feel the shards of fallen rocks hitting me and dust covering my lens.

While I couldn’t see their body I did notice how fast they got up and rushed by the candle, towards the dark path, and that was the only chance I had to see what a side of their body looked like.

Were those feathers?

The tremor kept going on for a while, I couldn’t really tell for how long but at some point it also caused the candle light to go off. And then, just like it started, it suddenly stopped.

Man, give me a break.

With dozens of shards around, darkness blocking the view, and a few glowing tools illuminating the stone table, I decided to give a little thought to the last thing Condrovur told me.

Just holding me gave him an urge to hold me close to his face?

If it was a description of something or someone else, I’d straight up think that they were talking about a sort of hypnotizing being, or some kind of brainwashing device that sends weak hints towards the target until they act on it.

However, we were talking about me. A camera. Though, I can’t really be sure if I’m ‘just’ a camera at this point. There’s a chance that I might be something else that took the form of a camera and the floating screen is actually lying to me.

It makes me wonder why I never suspect that woman’s voice.

Another hypothesis could be made that I might actually be a camera and the screen didn’t lie, and all of those effects are part of some unknown side effect from my features.

That’s also plausible as all I know about them are their names, and the effects that I can control by myself.

One good example would be the flash feature, which couldn’t be turned off since it was bought, reason unknown, though I speculate that maybe all features can only be affected by others, while functions can only be controlled by me.

I will ask Condrovur what they think about this when I get the chance.

Time kept moving forward, while my thoughts went back and forth on several ideas that always ended up with me adding them to a mental list of things I should ask to the only person who can communicate with me.

All of a sudden the candle was lit up, a pair of hands hitting a pair of rocks against each other stopped moving once they were sure that the flame wouldn’t die out. Placing the rocks down, the person approached the table I was on and tapped on me with the glowing tools.

Condrovur?

They immediately stopped the tapping after getting a reaction out of me and then picked me up. From how their silhouette shook, I assumed that they had nodded.

You can’t speak?

Once again, with a shake of their hidden head, which also motioned the hands holding me a little, I believed that they meant to say ‘no’.

Since you came back and poked me, there must be something you want me to know, right?

They agreed.

Sure, take me wherever, I’d be just rotting away if I stayed at that table forever anyway.

I wasn’t sure of what their response was, but once they started taking steps towards the exit I was assured that they had understood me.

When we passed by the candlelight I caught a better look of their body during the brief moment of brightness, and it was indeed a cover of brown plumes that surrounded their whole physique. Though it wasn’t enough to know how comparable it was to the harpy’s plumage.

At the entrance of the burrow I could see that it was already evening, the sunset almost gone from sight, so I changed my view to ascertain what the one holding me looked like.

Aquila?

As I inspected their appearance from bottom to the top, that single word sprouted in my mind. The memory of a creature from a game that I used to play, who was a very friendly shopkeeper, came back in an instant and caused my thoughts on their appearance to pause.

Before I could analyze anything they put me in a sort of pouch, all I knew was that we were taking flight.

I know this might be an odd question, but do you know what an aquila is?

They didn’t respond.

After a while they took me out of the pouch.

Seeing their face under the moonlight I threw away my doubts. Their head was that of a bull with large horns protruding from their temples, their mouth was yellow and resembled a short beak in shape.

Everything was covered in a brownish plumage from head to toes, even what I called hands were actually holding wings between the arms and the torso.

Unlike the harpy, though, they looked pretty much like a human in both physique and stance.

I was about to ask them about it again, but their head signaled me to look at something. How did they know I was looking at them?

Looking forward, through my lens, I see a flock of birds flying. It took me a second glance to realize what they really were, a bunch of harpies and ‘aquilas’ fighting each other. And at the center of it all was my harpy.

Why are they flocking around the one that brought me here?

Hearing what I said, Condrovur held their forehead with one hand and from his actions I’m sure they had sighed.

I’m guessing it’s a bad thing for that harpy to come here?

They looked at me with an expression that seemed to show confusion. Maybe the terms I use aren’t a thing here, but that shouldn’t matter right now.

So, are you gonna help them or just stand in the distance? I can help with anything. At least, with anything that I can do.

After a few moments of thinking, they nodded at me, held me high until I was right in front of their eyes, and then ran towards the group. When they entered the reach of my long distance focus I noticed how smooth it was to operate my lens now.

Hey, I have a good feeling about this, press that button!

Condrovur didn’t even hesitate in pressing my shutter and taking a photo with my flash on, which instantly caught all of their attention.

[Current balance: 193RP]

I decided to skip the list of ratings so I could focus on the situation at hand. With most of them looking at us, it was Condrovur’s turn to act, they seemed to start by questioning the other’s actions, from what their gestures conveyed.

While I was watching I thought it would be a good idea to take a closer look at each one of them, but the woman’s voice decided to interrupt.

[Would you like to add this photograph to the Portfolio?]

It was self-explanatory, yes, and yet I couldn’t understand why or how would that be useful for anything?

Sure, yes. It shouldn’t hurt to agree.

[Give the photograph a title.]

Group Beating.