The Starside

Lydia woke up, although she didn’t really need to sleep as an elf it was more of a meditation, to a text from the sheriff. “Another body found, same MO.” the sheriff's message said plainly. Lydia sighed, wishing that the mysteries of this town could have stayed as evil birds. She got up, and got dressed, heading out of her room and knocked on Aloice’s door. Aloice’s door opened to reveal he was already there fully dressed and ready to go. Then Lydia went to wake up Samatha. There was the thump thump thump of her feet on the floor and Samantha appeared with her pupils fully dilated and her tail twitching back and forth. “I saw a mouse in the alleyway.” Samantha explained, darting out of the room and down the stairs.

“Is she a cat or a lizard?” Aloice asked.

“Well at least she’s got breakfast solved.” Lydia shrugged, stepping downstairs. Adeline was behind the bar, looking tired and bored with hardly anyone in the dining area. She looked up at Lydia and Aloice stepping down.

“Why did your lizard friend just run out of here with her eyes looking like a cat?” Adeline asked with a yawn.

“She saw a mouse outside of her window, she went to go get it.” Lydia answered.

“Interesting, how was your night?”

“Fine, I slept for only four hours and feel really rested?”

“Par for the course for elves, let me set you up with breakfast.” she said nonchalantly, “my husband mark is usually the one who has breakfast going but he’s out right now. So it’ll be a little bit.” Samantha was back relatively quickly, also eating breakfast with the rest of the group. And once that was over the group set out. Adelne had given her the addresses of the rest of the kids in Caden's group, and they also had to make their way to the veterinarian who might know what kind of animal or what is committing the murders. They did the latter first. The building was quaint, and looked more like a suburban home than a business. Samantha was the first to knock. And after a few moments an older woman opened the door.

“Yes?” she asked, pushing her glasses up onto her nose.

“We’re here to help with the bird problem.” Samantha answered proudly.

“And we’re also on an assignment from the sheriff to help solve something.” Lydia explained.

“Hm, alright. There’s only one crazed bird still living but maybe you three can get something out of it that I can’t. Come in.” The woman opened the door and held it for the party to come in. The inside of the house was just as quaint as the outside. With a separate living and working space. The living space was decorated like an old minimalist British woman had free reign. While the working space looked sterile as well as being filled with bookshelves that had many medical and zoology books. The woman led the trio into the back room, which appeared to be her examination room. There was a metal table, cabinets presumably full of supplies, and a covered birdcage. Whatever bird was inside heard them enter and started going wild. Flapping and squawking. The veterinarian pulled back the cover and revealed the crazed magpie.

“This magpie used to have seven siblings, all owned by an old woman. They were lovely birds, I’ve been taking care of them since long before they went crazy. Poor milly didn’t survive the birds when they went crazy.” the veterinarian sighed, “when the bird speaks all it says is Egg and Thief.”

“A flock of seagulls were saying the same thing yesterday.” Samantha said, walking up to the magpie, “who’s egg are you looking for?” she asked the bird. The bird just looked at Samantha and shouted “EGG THIEF!” in her screechy voice.

“She’s not to keen on tellin me anything.” the veterinarian shook her head, “you’re welcome to try interrogating her.”

“I’ll give you a sunflower seed.” Samantha smirked, pulling one out of her pocket. The magpie went still and watched the sunflower. But still it didn’t say anything.

“I could also give you… this?” Samatha said, pulling out a shiny marble. The magpie once again went crazy, obviously wanting the shiny marble and the sunflower seed very badly. “I’ll give them to you, only if you tell us who’s egg was stolen?”

The magpie seemed to understand Samantha. Looking warily at Samantha. Then the bird said “husband.” obviously expecting the treat and treasure.

“Who's husband?” Samantha pressed, not moving to give the magpie the promised compensation. The Magpie did not like this and went wild again, shouting “EGG THIEF!”

“If you tell me I’ll add this to the pile!” Samatha pulled a shiny quartz rock from her pocket and the magpie went quiet and still. “I’ll even give you a second, sunflower seed.” the magpie was quietly watching for a while.

The magpie looked around the room, like it was looking for any listeners. Then the bird said the word “Maud.” and promptly exploded into a fine bloody mist. Aloice was immediately screaming in terror, Lydia stepped in front of him to block the view, and samatha was just standing there with a fine mist of blood over her body.

“Sorry about your bird.” Samantha said, looking worriedly towards the veterinarian.

“Wasnt your fault, seems like some other force is behind this, Mad Maud.” the veterinarian said.

“You’ve gotta be kidding me.” Lydia groaned, “we’ve gotta go back to seafoam rest right now, maybe that sailor can tell us more about the legend.”

“Maybe we should find the egg first?” Aloice suggests, “if we can get the egg we can get it away from innocents who might get hurt.”

“Ok, we don’t want any more birds controlled by a sea witch to hurt anyone.” Lydia pondered, “let’s head to these addresses first, and tell Adeline to Keep Caden at home and to not go outside.” Lydia pulled out the Starside phone, speaking to the veterinarian, “I’m going to send you the pictures, these are the murders that the sheriff is investigating. We think that some kind of animal killed him but we don’t know of any animal that fits the wounds.”

“Ok, if you need me for anything else just give me a text.” the veterinarian sighed, “and Lizard, let’s get you cleaned up. I’ve got a sand bath that’ll get you right as rain.”

“Thanks.” Samantha said, following the Veterinarian. Once Samatha was clean of blood everyone set out to the addresses of Caden’s friends. Things were moving fast now, the mystery’s of the murders and crazy birds unraveling simultaneously. The trio dashed towards their next house. Caden's friend knew of the egg but last he knew Caden had it. And when Lydia texted Adeline they found out that Caden had handed it off to Elliott. A certifiable juvenile who was missing from the orphanage currently which was par for the course. The trio tried to find all of his normal haunts as described by Caden. They tried a park, he was not there, they tried a bakery, he was not there. And on the way to a third haunt Lydia got a text back from the veterinarian.

“This creature can only be one thing, a peryton. An aberration from another realm that eats hearts. Not only that but Perytons have shadows that appear as human. It could be hiding in this town as one.” the text said.

“Oh shit.” Lydia groaned looking at the picture the Vet had sent her. Its head is a deerskull with massive antlers, sharp wolflike teeth, and a hawk body. Not only that it was apparently massive, the size of an elephant. She texted Adeline immediately, texting Adeline to ask what the egg looked like.

“Large, blue with white speckles.” Adeline answered.

“What does the peryton egg look like?” Lydia asked the vet.

“It’s a little bit bigger than a basketball. Typically they're light blue and have white spots. Here’s a picture of one.” the vet replied.

Lydia sent a picture of the egg to Adeline and asked, “did it look like this?”

“Yea, Caden said it looks just like that.” Adeline answered.

“OH DOUBLE FUCK!” Lydia shouted, “Those kids stole a monster's egg, we need to find that kid NOW.” Lydia began running to the next spot, explaining to the others what was happening. Thankfully at the next spot they found there was a kid. It looks like he’d made a little hiding spot under an abandoned dock not far from where the trio had found Caden the other day.

“Hey! Get out of here!” the small kid said when the trio entered his hideout. He had dark brown curly hair and brown eyes, and was maybe half orc. He was almost as tall as Aloice.

“Are you Kyle?” Lydia asked, going to one knee, “it’s important that you tell us where the egg is.”

“Who told you about the egg! Was it Caden? That little snitch.” Kyle growled, getting ready to fight.

“Kid we don’t want to fight, we just need to know where that egg is, it’s dangerous. It’s really really dangerous.” Lydia explained.

“No! I made a promise! And I won’t break it like Caden did.” Kyle was waiting for someone to make the first move.

“Kid I don’t know how to make you believe me but that egg is dangerous, and we need to take it somewhere safe.”

“I’ll never tell you!”

“Five people are dead.” Samantha growled, trying to intimidate the kid. But instead of the wanted effect the child looked horrified and burst into tears, running away.

“Samantha!” Lydia shouted.

“What did I do?” Samantha raised her arms innocently.

“He’s SEVEN!” Lydia growled and turned to chase after the kid. The other two followed after her quickly as Samantha scowled. The child ran into one of the stores facing the beach. A bakery by the looks of it.

“Samantha! You stay out here.” Lydia growled. Samantha huffed and stopped just outside the store. Lydia stepped in with Aloice still behind her. The child was clinging to the dress of a small woman while still crying. The woman looked confused.

“Kyle what’s wrong?” the woman asked, looking up and seeing Lydia and Aloice “what did you do to him?” the woman stepped in front of Kyle who was bigger than her and puffed her chest out defensively.

“One of my, frankly stupid, companions scared him. She didn’t intend to scare him but it is urgent he tells us something he knows.” Lyda got down to one knee, trying to be as gentle as possible.

“And what is it that he knows?" the woman asked, not backing down.

“The location of an egg. Him and his friends found it and it’s dangerous. And we need to find it and put it somewhere safe.”

“Dangerous? Dangerous how.” the woman asked, waving Kyle to go into the backroom. He quickly scurried away.

“It’s better if you don’t know.” Lydia grimaced.

“Oh I can handle it, trust me.” the little woman said, crossing her arms and furrowing her brow.

“The egg belongs to a dangerous beast from another realm, we think it’s the reason why the birds have been attacking, and we know it’s why the murders have been happening.” Lydia said, “do not tell anyone of this, and keep that kid inside ok? He seems to trust you, can you ask him where the egg is? If we find it we’ll be able to stop this madness.”

“Oh… I see. I’ll talk to him.” the woman sighed, her confidence deflating a little bit. She stepped away and there were a handful of minutes where all you could hear was her murmuring to Kyle. After a while she returned, leaving Kyle in the back room “he said late yesterday he gave it to his friend Jerome. Jerome should still have it.”

“Thank you…” Lydia began to say before she realized she didn’t know the womans name.

“Eustice.” she answered.

“Eustice, when we get this egg we’ll be able to find out how to stop all of this.”

“I’m afraid I don’t know Jerome's address, But I’ll see if maybe Kyle knows.”

“Don’t worry, Caden's mother already gave us the addresses of Caden’s friends.” Lydia assured.

“Caden? That's Adeline’s kid isn’t it. Shame what happened to the boy's father.” Eustice shook her head sadly.

“What happened? We saw Mark just yesterday.” Lydia tensed.

“His body was found this mornin, with so little business lately I've had naught to do but gossip unfortunately. But the Father’s boy was murdered.”

“Eustice whatever you do, do not leave your shop, and do not let Levi leave. This… beast could be targeting the children and their family.” Lydia gulped, “we need you to stay safe.”

“Oh dear… I’ll stay here, thank you child. You should go, the further away from the families the egg is, the safer everyone will be.” Eustice turned around towards the glass container filled with pastries. She opened it up and pulled a few out, deposited them in a paper bag, and handed them to Lydia. “It’s not much, but it’s energy.”
“Thank you Eustice.” Lydia said, turning around and leaving the shop. The trio then made their way as quickly as they could to Jerome's house. They knocked on the door and a little boy, presumably Jerome, opened the door. His eyes widened and he just stood there frozen.

“Are you Jerome?” Lydia asked. The little boy nodded. “We need you to tell us where the blue egg is.” the boy’s eyes went wide.

“I don’t… have a blue egg.” the boy said unconvincingly.

“Five people are dead, we need the egg.” Samantha said in a low dramatic voice. Lydia went into a rage, whipped around and punched Samantha as hard as she could in the snout. Samantha went sprawling across the front lawn of the house in a daze.

“I’m sorry about my friend, she’s stupid.” Lydia growled, calming down, “Jerome, could you get your parents for me?” jerome just closed the door. And a few moments later a tall elegant woman opened the door.

“What the hell are you doing threatening my child!?” she yelled at Lydia.

“I’m sorry about that, that stupid lizard over there is the one to blame. I punched her really well though.” Lydia looked over at Samantha who was rubbing her snout and frowning.

“I still want to know what this is about.” the mother growled.

“Your son, and his friends, found an egg. It’s a dangerous magical artifact and we need to take it for your safety.” Lydia explained.

“Jerome… is this true.” the woman asked, turning to look at her son who was standing behind her. His eyes just went wide.

“...no…” he said unconvincingly.

“Give me one moment.” the woman said, closing the door. There was the sound of the woman yelling and then the child crying and when the door was opened the woman looked even more pissed than she had before.

“It’s upstairs in his room.” the mother growled, stepping aside to let the trio in. Samantha dragged behind, stopping in front of the mother and averting her eyes.

“I’m sorry.” Samantha said, sniffing as tears threatened to fall from her eyes.

“As soon as you have the egg just leave my house ok?” the woman sighed.

“You and your kiddo should stay inside, it’s a little scary out there right now.” Samantha sniffed as the other two went upstairs to retrieve the egg.

“How old even are you?”

“I’m 16.” Samatha replied quietly.

“Jeez, alright kid. Just stay safe out there, maybe let the tall one do the talking?”

“Ok.” Samatha nodded slowly and stepped out of the house, plopping down to sit on the lawn. Frank had been flying as the eyes in the sky in case there was another bird attack but when he felt the pang of guilt and confusion run through his owners heart he descended down and landed in front of her, clambering into her arms and licking her face. “Thanks little guy.” Samantha sniffed.

“Samantha, let’s go.” Lydia said, stepping out of the house with a bundle of blankets. Presumably inside was the egg. Samantha wiped her face and followed after the other two, feeling a cognitive dissonance between who she was in the mundane world and who she became here in the magic one. But she pushed the thought out of her mind as she chased after her companions with frank flying just beside her.

When they made it to the sheriff's office he was waiting outside for them, and ushered them inside. There without a word the sheriff took the egg from Lydia and walked it all the way back into the building. Past barred cells and to a vault where he opened it, placed the egg inside, and closed it.

“Why don’t we just destroy it?” Aloice asked.

“We don’t know everything yet. If we destroy it now it could continue attacking and murdering and we’d have no leverage. We need more information before we can make a move.” Mitchel the sheriff answered, “we need to find more leads on this Maud you told me about Lydia.”

“I can go find the sailor who talked to me about maud, I just need to find out where he is.” Lydia answered, “I’ll head out and see about finding him.”

“Great, Samantha and Aloice, you two stay here with me and we’ll protect the egg.” Mitchel instructed. With all of their assignments Lydia ran off, towards Seafoam rest where she’d first met that sailor. She ran inside to see the tavern empty, and nobody behind the counter. There was a single woman in the bar, someone who worked there. Who could blame Adeline for not working? Her husband just died that morning. Despite her better judgment she went next door to where Adeline actually lived. And knocked on the door.

“What do you want?” A tearstained Adeline asked, opening the door.

“I won’t take up much of your time, where would the sailors go if not the seafoam rest?” Lydia pleaded.

“Green tree, it’s further in town.” Adeline said, “you’re going to find him right? The one who did this to Mark?”

“Of course, my team, and the Sheriff are working tirelessly.” Lydia assured, “you should get some rest, Adeline.” Lydia said, turning away from the open doorway and looking up the green tree on her phone. It took a while, especially because night was falling, to find her way to the green tree. But through her determination she found the Tavern and stepped inside. Scanning the area. Mostly sailors, one man in a suit that looked as if he didn’t belong here, and the Specific Sailor she was looking for.

“I need you to tell me everything you know about Mad Maud.” Lydia demanded, interrupting the man mid conversation.

“Tall lady, what?” He looked bewildered.

“I need you to tell me everything you know about the Mad Maud legend.” Lydia persisted.

“Well I am the foremost expert on this seeing as I’ve seen the sea witch with my own two eyes.” he cackled.

“Just cut to the chase old man.” Lydia growled.

“Shit, fine.” the old man said with a huff, “out on the sea live an evil witch, mad Maud. Half bird and half woman she is, and twice as insane. She sails the seas on her whale in search of sailors to drown, or at least she used to. That was until she found her husband, a terrible evil winged beast. The only thing that she ever loved. But their love was not meant to be, Maud a witch and her husband a beast with but a shadow of love. After that Maud disappeared, trying to find a way to change her lover from beast to man, so that she may have him all for herself. The legends say that the beast's egg is the key to turning the beast to man. I saw her once, out on the open sea a few bubbles over. But I turned tail and left, not wanting to incur the wrath of her flock.”

“The egg… the egg is the key.” Lydia mumbled, “thank you, you’ve helped a lot.” Lydia dashed out of the Tavern and back towards the sheriff's office. But little did she know the man in the suit that was in the tavern was listening the entire time. The figure turned slowly to where Lydia had just been standing.

“She has my egg.” the man mumbled, his eyes flashing red. But he did not pursue her. Lydia ran all the way back to the sheriff's office, to tell them what she learned. The sheriff took the information in and immediately made a call. In about half an hour a man wearing a trench coat came into the sheriff's office.

“Mitchel, what was so important that you had to call me in the middle of the night.” the man growled.

“A peryton egg.” the sheriff answered, “we need your help Constantine, we know this Peryton wants to use this egg to change into another form but we need to know how he intends to do it.”

“Shit… alright, show me the egg.” he insisted. Everyone followed back to the vault where the egg was stored. And there it still was, wrapped in blankets. “Blankets, smart, keep the scent off you.” he mumbled, unraveling it and revealing the blue egg. Constantine closed his eyes and began reciting a spell, making shapes with his hand. There was no visual glow or magical runes appearing in the air but there was a pulse of energy that washed over the room. And after a second Constantine lowered his hands and threw the blanket back over the egg.

“This, is a tough situation.” Constantine furrowed his brow, “the Peryton must be gathering strength by eating all these hearts. He intends to transition to his new form soon, which is fully matured inside this egg. If we destroy this egg he will know and will have a chance to make another one after going into hiding. And if we destroy the peryton his soul will transfer into this egg.”

“Then we trap the Peryton, destroy the egg, and then kill the bastard.” Mitchel said.

“No, we need to do more than that. We need to destroy the egg in front of him. The moment he sees it after having consumed the needed five hearts he’ll begin the transference into his more powerful form. And if we destroy the egg during that transference that half of his soul will be separated and destroyed. If we allow the Peryton to die with its soul in one piece it will just return to its dimension and reform, returning to try again.”

“I don’t think we three can take on a Peryton.” Aloice piped up, “if it’s as powerful as you say we’re not experienced enough.”

“I know a guy, even if I hate his stupid guts.” Mitchel groaned, “he’s strong enough to maybe defeat the Peryton. Then we can use the rest of you three to destroy the egg.”

“How do we set a Peryton trap?” Samantha asked.

“We need to find where he’ll strike next, at this point he knows we have the egg and will probably already have eaten his fifth heart. He’ll draw us out, attacking somewhere along the boardwalk probably so we rush to the citizens' rescue. Then he eliminates us and finds his egg.” Constantine was biting his thumb.

“If his wife Maud has been watching us through the birds we can assume he knows everywhere we’ve been, and everyone we’ve met. The beachfront bakery. That’s where.” Lydia concluded, “he’ll stick with his MO, attacking the families and people who’ve messed with his egg. That means Eustice and Kyle are in danger at the Bakery.”

“I’ll have the guy I know go over there, hide in the bakery until the Peryton shows itself. We haven’t gotten wind of a fifth murder so we can assume for now it’s a heart short. I’ll go over there to the bakery now with Constentine, we need to make sure the fifth heart isn’t either of those people you mentioned or else this plan goes to shit.”

“I can’t fight but I can set up wards and protections on the bakery.” constantine said, “let’s go.” Constantine grabbed his hat and put it on, storming the other way with Mitchel not far behind.

“What do you want us to do?” Samatha asked.

“Stay here and rest, we’re going to need the three of you on top of your game for the battle, there’s beds in the back.” and with that Mitchel was gone. The trio was tense as they went to bed, fearing the wrath of this terrible creature. Lydia was regretting getting into more than she bargained for, Aloice was just terrified of this beast ripping into his chest and eating in his heart, and Samantha was terrified as well as beating herself up over the stupid shit she said to those kids. But despite that, everyone who was able to sleep, slept. They were woken up by Sheriff Mitchel before dawn broke.

“THE BIG BITCH IS HERE LETS GO!” Mitchel shouted. The three kids sprang into action and ran after Mitchel while barely awake. Dawn had just broken and they could hear battle from all the way over here. When they made it they saw the beast and presumably the man who was sent to protect the bakery holding two swords. But none of the pictures did the Peryton Justice. Its hollow eye sockets glowed with a red rage its jet black fur and massive wingspan blotting out the sun as it reared up to attack the man. The man with two swords was holding off the Peryton surprisingly well, blocking its talons and its bite attacks. But he was still taking some damage.

“Wheres the egg?” Mitchel shouted.

“FUCK!” Lydia shouted, turning around and sprinting back from where they’d come. Mitchel let out a string of curses in an unrecognizable language before he pointed towards the Peryton and shouted, “Hit it with everything you got!”