If I was going to make an attack, it needed to be soon. The phone call I'd overheard made it obvious that there were people out there who knew I existed, and Leona hadn't exactly been subtle when she'd taken those three kidnappers out. That much couldn't be avoided, and at that point they hadn't much cared, content to leave me to rampage. Alas, since then, there had been the issue that my behaviour had been abnormal. They had thought I was completely mindless, but the way I hadn't attacked anyone inside the facility had probably cured them of that delusion, and even if not, the two people I'd just rescued certainly would do, and would have let them know I was in the city too.

I shouldn't have done that. I should have found muggers that were still looking for victims or something. Now I'd shown myself to be as much a loose end as the other half transformed children. I hadn't seen a mirror in a while, but Alicia had recognised me, so my face couldn't be too badly changed. To keep their cover story intact, they'd need to dispose of me too. I had to make a move before the information spread. And I had to somehow convince Leona to carry it out despite having a ready supply of food right here.

A benefit of being on top of the tallest building in the city was that we weren't overlooked. I'd need to keep an ear out for surveillance drones, and there were some overhangs around to hide from anything flying overhead.

I desperately wanted to visit my family. They were less than a ten-minute flight away, but however much my sanity may have slipped, I still recognised what a bad idea it would be. If my kidnappers suspected I'd maintained my intelligence, then surveillance on my family would be a no-brainer. As would be feeding them some lie about pranksters pretending I wasn't dead. Or just outright pre-emptive execution. These guys obviously had no more respect for human life than Leona did, so I wouldn't put it past them. Besides, even if I did get to meet them, I wasn't sure how to convince Leona not to eat them.

Despite my efforts, Leona wouldn't drop her meal to go mayor hunting, so it looked like I'd be stuck up here for a while more yet. Or at least, that had been my assumption. Leona suddenly perked her head, and I could feel our ears twitch. Had she caught something that I'd missed? She darted to our right, kicking out and grabbing at something. Bringing it up to our eyes, it looked very much like a fly. Then she squashed it, and I saw the small spark that flashed within. There was neither blood nor flesh smeared on our claw; it was a micro-drone. We'd been seen!

'Flee!' I shouted. 'Enemies!' Leona seemed uncertain, not returning to her meal, but not taking off either. If this was a professional assassination, how would it go? Harpy nesting habits are no secret, so if they knew I was in the city, tall buildings would be a sensible thing to check. And what would they do once I was found? I doubted they would rely on me not realising I'd been spotted; that would be leaving too much to chance. They would have contingencies set up. Having aircraft or armed drones in the air would be an obvious one, but I didn't see or hear any, and armed drones didn't come in fly sizes. Stationing snipers with line of sight to whatever buildings they were checking would be my next guess, and their bullets would have far more power than what we'd been hit with in our escape.

'Up!' I yelled, thinking as loudly as I could. I sent images of us flying straight up into the air, gaining height as rapidly as possible. Unlike me, bullets needed to respect gravity, and getting out of range was the best option I could think of. Leona still hesitated, not seeing the threat. How could I convince her? I sent images of snipers, of people waiting to shoot us once we took off. Leona seemed to consider it, which was new; I hadn't seen her stop to think before. Then she grabbed one last mouthful of mugger and blasted straight upwards.

Only a couple of seconds after take-off, I felt a sting on my chest. Leona looked down, and I saw the blood staining my fur. I felt Leona's anger; her food had hurt her. How dare it! She wanted to turn around, to dive down and to tear apart the insolent fool that dared to harm her. I sympathised, but I knew they were prepared for us, that trying to attack would be pointless and just get us killed. I encouraged her to keep gaining height, and she followed my advice, swayed by my frustration, my own emotions letting her know that I was as indignant as she was. A few more bullets came, but with our increased height they'd lost too much speed to penetrate. It didn't take long before they stopped completely.

We needed to get out of the city. I directed Leona to the misty woods. It was nearby, had food that wouldn't fight back, and we needed to deal with whatever damage that bullet had done. We reached it rapidly, Leona grabbing a deer as we flew below the tree canopy. She didn't seem worried about our wound, and it had already stopped hurting, so maybe we had regeneration to go along with our magical flight and non-Euclidean stomach.

Now that the fright was over, I was angry. Just when I'd decided to give the mayor his dues, we'd been chased out of the city, and no doubt we'd be followed. We'd escaped that trap, but we were still too close. As soon as Leona was done eating, we needed to go further. Preferably to another country, one with bad relations to this one.