Dracostryx - Triumphant.

Hours had passed, or so it seemed. The sun as flooding through the cavern now, and He grumbled against the wake up call. Burying deeper into the dense feathers and trying to tuck under a wing. He should be awake if it was this bright, with their biorhythm, but all he wanted to do was go back to sleep... what had happened?
Canid ears flicked at a steady dripping, wondering what the sound was, wanting it to go away as much as the light and leave him be. The Tyto chose that moment to ruffle his wings and Elmo growled something uncouth, but sat up finally. Rubbing his red eyes against the light, then frowning as he realized they weren't anywhere he recognized. Legion clacked his beak faintly, then stretched it wide in a draconic yawn. Looking around and seemingly as confused as his rider presently, then he loosed a hissing sound, almost pointedly low, and his partner's eyes thinned in turn. "The black Harpy." Elmo offered, nodding as he remembered. They had been hounded, pursued, almost killed by that blasted, overgrown, feather duster. The man loosed a low growl as he dragged himself to his feet, today was a new day, and they had some catching up to do with the big black birdie. "Let's get our bags and get going already, hm?" He asked, climbing back atop the white plumed stryx and snorting as Legion flared his wings, stretching himself out. "Getting too pampered to sleep in a cave are we?" He teased, then laughed at the 'glare' the stryx shot him, the dragons were too smart for their own good; or his sometimes. "Let's go get everything from that black feathered felon, right?" He asked, knowing it would perk the Tyto's interest. It worked immediately and a moment later a white form had slipped out of the gully, invisible against the snow. Elmo grinned, it was their turn now, and they were in their own element this time.

Borealis hissed faintly, not able to sleep fully. Brooding over the scraps of leather she'd gotten rather than the white furred rider or his mount. The knowledge that the trespassers were still in her territory sent an odd tingle through her and she ruffled her feathers, Hunkering down in an even blacker mood than she had been. The Harpy wanted them gone not hidden away in some cavern safe and sound and still in her lands! The harpy growled and shifted, trying yet another position to settle down for the day, but nothing was working. She glared at the offending bags, lashing out and flailing the leather against the trees, then tossing them back to the ground, fluffing her feathers faintly as it improved her mood somewhat; maybe even enough to sleep this time. She churred deep in her throat at the thought and circled her makeshift nest a few times, settling in and preening her feathers for a moment before tucking her head down in hopes of sleeping at long last.
She had nearly managed when the faintest of sounds, just a bit too close made a grey eye snap open, locking with a red and white one and contracting in utter fury. The rider was stretched down from a branch above, stretching for the bag tucked beside her. In a single moment Elmo had snatched the bags and flipped himself back up into the saddle, the black harpy's beak snapping shut mere inches behind him as the pale duo exploded upward. The harpy on their tail again with a furious, ear rending shriek that spooked a colony of crows around them. The black cloud of screams and feathers clawing at the pair as they all burst from the treetops in one chaotic mass. The pair dove away instantly, shooting toward the mountains again even as the larger bird whirled, furious and tired the harpy was more dogged then ever. She wanted these two pests out of her territory, and she wanted them out right. Now!

Another shriek tore at their eardrums as she plunged after them, all caution seemingly thrown to the wind with the fresh insult. The larger bird was beyond just wanting them gone, she wanted blood this time and she was going to have it. Wings tucked and flared erratically as white and black dodged and darted between the trees and rocks that made up the territory. The white duo staying a hair's breath ahead of the black female as she snapped and screamed at them. A claw here, a beak there.
Legion shrieked in return when the latest snap ripped several feather's from his shoulder, missing Elmo by inches as he jerked himself nearly off the stryx to avoid the attack. Eyes wide at the near miss, then thinning and regaining his seat, urging the male on and pushing them ever lower. They were almost there, they had their bags, they just had to make it a little farther. He flinched as the black wings flared a bit too wide above them, raining rocks and rubble down on them, but they twisted aside in the nick of time, nearly hitting the wall in the cramped area, but they managed to right themselves. "Just a bit more now, Legion. Just a little more." He urged, leaning forward, closer to the feathers, almost holding his breath as the canyon closed around them. In the moment every heart beat was deafening, he could feel every shift beneath him as the Tyto angled them away from beak and toward the gap. Twisting with the dragon as if they were one creature, and in the moment, in their desperation to survive the encounter, perhaps they were. He snarled, teeth baring almost defiantly as the black form loomed again, talons stretched and wings back to snatch them from the air. This time everything was on the line; there was no holding back.
In a sudden rush, a deafening clatter and shrieking of claws against stone they shot free, the larger stryx roaring her rage but unable to follow them yet again. A few more feathers and a patch or two of fur had been lost, but neither cared. A whooping howl echoing off the walls alongside the tyto's shrill cry of triumph; they were free, alive, and they could finally deliver these cursed bags and with any luck they would never, ever, see the Harpy again...