Doctor Who: Josephine and the Argonauts by Paul Magrs

Author:Paul Magrs [Magrs, Paul]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Juvenile Fiction, Science Fiction, Time Travel, Legends; Myths; Fables, Greek & Roman, Action & Adventure, General, Historical, Ancient Civilizations
ISBN: 9781405956932
Google: 4YGnEAAAQBAJ
Barnesnoble:
Goodreads: 78607424
Publisher: Random House
Published: 2023-08-23T23:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

There were three of them. A trio of grotesque creatures were flapping their foul wings in the empty windows and screeching at the tops of their voices.

Phineus cowered away, urging the others to seek shelter with him. ‘Just look at their talons! Their beaks! They could shred you to the bone in mere seconds!’

The Argonauts were transfixed for a few moments by the sight of the terrible harpies. Then, as soon as the creatures crashed into the room, they burst into action.

Atalanta the huntress wasted no time in letting her first arrow fly. She aimed straight at the breast of the nearest creature. It screeched with irritation and flapped its wings, but the silver arrow merely bounced off its metallic plumage. In a flash, Atalanta loosed another, going for its burning eyes. But the arrow again clattered uselessly to the floor. ‘They’re impervious!’ she cried.

The three harpies howled with mirth and flew about the throne room, right up to the vaulted ceiling, then dive-bombed the Argonauts with their claws outstretched.

‘Jo! Get back!’ cried the Doctor as cruel claws snagged on his cloak.

The harpies’ horrible laughter drowned out his words and Jo’s reply.

Heracles swung his deadly club about, but the winged creatures were far too nimble for him.

Orpheus couldn’t believe what he was seeing. ‘The harpies are the creatures most dreaded by all Thracians. How is it they have come to take over our land, to dominate our king like this?’

‘One thing at a time, old chap,’ the Doctor told him. ‘We have to concentrate on fighting them off just now.’

The most horrible thing about the monsters was that their faces were almost human. They each had a sharp, curving beak, but the eyes above them were very expressive. They were mortals partly transmogrified into savage birds of prey, with no shred of their reason or compassion left intact, making them beings composed of pure hatred and rapacious greed.

Jo drew the Doctor and the others back towards the throne, behind which the king was trembling. ‘Look, they’re not after us!’ she cried. ‘Don’t you see? They weren’t attacking us; they were scaring us away.’

‘What?’ said the Doctor, frowning. He was examining the rip in his cloak.

‘They’re just after the food,’ Jo told him.

It was true. Now that the harpies had driven Jo and her friends away from the table, the creatures folded up their terrible wings and settled upon it. The three of them then made short work of the picnic meal that the Argo crew had laid out on the golden cloth.

The harpy with scarlet plumage seized the dripping hunk of beef and had to fight off her sapphire-blue sister. The green-feathered harpy contented herself with tearing into a round of soft cheese and followed it up with a skin of wine. Between them the three monsters devoured every single crumb of food, and glugged merrily at the potent wine. Yet, by the end of their hurried feast, they looked just as hungry as before.

The scarlet harpy screeched at

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