Rio- Upheaval Part 3

Maverick entered his slumber and had a dream that puzzled him. He saw a harpy eagle that looked like him, only it looked older. It had a smile on its face and kept saying “I love you, son. I’m so proud of you.” That made young Maverick speculate that his father had somehow been talking to him in his sleep. But before he could ask the harpy who he really was, the harpy would collapse and have a blade protruding from its stomach, saying “Goodbye, my son…” before departing. Maverick could only try to guess what the dream meant, before he felt that someone or something shook him and he woke to the sound of Harris’ voice.
“Kid, wake up!” said Harris as he shook Maverick awake.
“What? What is it?” he groaned as he let out a yawn.
“You need to help, it’s urgent, kid!” he said as he stood inside the hollow and looked at it. “Huh. I like what you did in here…”
“What is it that’s so urgent?” asked Maverick as he stood up and stretched his wings.
“Another harpy eagle is dead, kid.” said Harris gravely.  Maverick became fully awake when he heard that.
“Dead? How?” asked Maverick with concern; the death of another harpy eagle among the other harpies was always as grim thing to hear of, because harpy eagles usually worked together and avoided violence. Harris shrugged and shook his head.
“We don’t know… We need you to see, because you’re smarter than the average harpy and Fred’s not around right now.” explained Harris.
“Alright, then. Let’s go!” said Maverick as he took off and flew from the hollow, letting Harris lead the way.
Upon arrival at the scene of the other harpy eagle’s death, something seemed different. The amount of feathers that covered the hollow had been great in addition to the blood. When Maverick saw the deceased, he wanted to be sick. The deceased obviously did not die a quick death. Outside, several other harpy eagles stood guard, like policeman.
“What do you think?” asked one of them. “We’ve been told that you’re smart and know a thing or two about combat.”
Maverick nodded and looked closer at the body. The throat had been completely torn open on the victim.
“Man did this.” said one of the guards sadly. Maverick shook his head.
“I’m not so sure…” he replied. Looking closer at the wound, he came up with an idea of what happened. “It looks to me that there had to have been a violent struggle inside the hollow and when the attacker obviously gained the upper hand, he made sure that for some reason, they wanted their victim to die a slow, painful and agonizing death. They victim choked to death on his own blood…”
The other harpy eagles including Harris were stunned, Maverick sounded like an expert.
“I still say man did it. Caen here had always had a thing for one certain man.” said the same guard from before.
“I really don’t think so, men use knives for cutting, this ‘Caen’ character here looks like his throat had been torn and shredded, not cut like a knife would…” said Maverick as he looked at the deceased once more and found something interesting. “Wait, what’s this?” he asked himself as he pulled a small slip of crumpled paper from under the body and un-crumpled it. What the paper said could easily be read and made the apparent murder all the more confusing. The slip of paper had in blood colored letters in very neat writing ‘Malao’ written on it; like some sort of signature. Harris took the slip of paper and looked at it himself.
“What do you think, kid? It is written in blood.” Harris asked Maverick.
“I think… I think that we’re dealing with a calculated killer…” he replied as he looked at the letters as the sunlight from outside made them shine.

Later…

“I don’t understand it…” said Maverick back at his hollow.
“What don’t you understand, kid?” asked Harris.
“The whole thing about the murder… Who could have done it?” replied Maverick.
“Why would they do it?” added Harris.
“I don’t know, but I’ve got me a feeling that this isn’t over yet.” said Maverick as he held the slip of paper in his talons and glared at the writing.
But while Maverick and Harris wondered who the culprit could be, a mysterious pair of eyes watched their movements from outside and smiled. The being then flew off once again and vanished, as did the apparent culprit…