The harpy is an ugly looking female creature that has bird wings for arms and taloned feet. They are greedy and spiteful creatures, hating anything that has a better appearance then themselves. They often collect shiny objects in their collective nests and are a danger to those that do not keep an eye on the sky. They are also quick moving and must kidnap males of other species to propagate, a fate most consider worse than dying under their claws and talons. - Common Monsters

Adrian

When I wake up I can feel someone atop me, there is also someone at my each of my sides. There are no covers over us, and I can see them in a fair amount of detail. The coloration is off though, this must be the better Infravision. I smile; all of these girls are mine. As much as I want to wake them up to have more fun, we need to talk.

K moves a bit, she is on top of me. She looks at me and grins. I smile, I really want to roll around but I restrain myself. “We need to talk.”

She doesn’t say anything but gets off of me. The twins to my sides react to her movement, I think they are awake. I sit up and speak again.

“Get up, we all need to talk.”

They get up slowly, and look over at me. They smile and grumble something.

“I think there is something you two need to tell me.”

K’s expression changed. I guess she knows about the whole elven royalty thing. They wait a moment, so I continue.

“Bedding all of you is fun, but I’m not stupid. There’s a reason why you jumped in bed with me, and I want to hear it. Also, about how you two are or were elven royalty.”

One of the twins answer, I don’t know which.

“We were, but our family and line is gone.”

I nod, I never doubted when they said their house was gone. She continues.

“our family once ruled a place in Althrá, but it fell to the demon kin before our birth. Then shortly after we were born the last of our family died. Only a few servants that were still loyal followed after the death of our parents and brothers cared for us and helped us escape from people who wanted to take advantage of us.”

She stops and her sister takes over.

“Eventually we were given refuge by Kythia’s people, the Bloodclaws. They protected us for a time but that changed once they found out that Kythia was a dire werewolf. She would be the next alpha female, and they needed to figure out who would be her mate.

So the clan got together but Kythia’s wolf refused all of the pack's men. Afterwards word spread that a direwolf and elven maidens were up for grabs. The Bloodclaw where set up to die on the front line against the demons and we ended fleeing.”

“I joined up with the sisters because we became friends while they were there. We didn’t learn about why the pack was being destroyed, but when we left we knew it was because of betrayal. Someone got the pack killed to try to get us. Afterwards, we decided that if any of us ever found a safe place we would share it.”

So, I am just a safe place? The perks are nice, but still.

“Is that all I am to you?”

All of them deny it at once. That might be why they agree to share me, but they do want me for me. I smile as the three of them hug me. This is nice, even if why they set it up is weird. They have known each other for over a decade. I’m new and they always thought they would share. I guess I am ok with it, I get to have three girlfriends at once.

After a moment, I stand up and start walking to the bathroom. “I’m not mad but you should have said something. Still we need to get ready to travel again, but there isn’t too much of a hurry. I’ll get some water ready for us.”

I enter the bathroom and will a frost fire into being, condensing water to use to bathe. My eyes hurt for a moment from the light produced, they shift out of infrared. I look at myself in the mirror, I still look like me but my hair is darker and my eyes seem odd. The shape of the pupil is not quite right and the color of the iris is different. Though the color could be from the fire’s icy blue light but I’m not sure.

In a few minutes, I have a bucket of ice water. I heat it with regular fire before creating a white light to check my reflection with. I want to know if it was a play of the light or if my face is changing. My hair has turned dark as if I dyed it black, but there is a sheen to it. There is a blueish glint in the light. My iris shares that trait they have darkened and taken on a metallic hue. I still look like me but it’s like someone airbrushed up a picture of me.

I’ve lost most of the fat on my body too, not sure if it is due to the fighting and healing or from the changes from waking my dragon side. I finished cleaning myself a while ago but I keep examining myself. Stupid draconic vanity, I pull myself from my reflection to get dressed. I pull fresh, well fresher clothes from my Void Cache.

I leave the bathroom. Now it is time to try to figure out more ways to manipulate my magic while everyone else gets ready. I see the sisters help each other to the bathroom after I left it. There’re sore, and I feel pride in that.

K sits down beside me, “you seem to have accepted everything quickly.”

I smile at her, “I wanted to know why you all just accepted this so quickly. I got an answer, besides I do like all of you. I know none of you are malicious towards me. So, am I going to ask too many questions and ruin it?”

K responds with a kiss, “you sure we aren’t planning something?”

“Want to tell me behind the other’s backs then?”

“Sure, trick you into feeding and protecting us. Then pay you with sex” she says with a smirk.

“Well, at least I already got paid, or is there something else?”

“There isn’t, we just agreed that if we found a good man who could keep us safe we would share him if we could. We have meet a lot of terrible people and were unsure if we could fine good men.”

That’s all the explanation I really need. K gets up after that to prepare for travel. I spend most of the rest of the morning attempting to get my magic to have durations other than until I stop concentrating. I haven’t had much luck with it yet, I know that it is possible and I should be able to get it to work but I may be too used to just focusing until I no longer need it.

A little over an hour before noon, all six of our group gathers together to eat before continuing onwards. When the other two arrive Abagail stares at my hair, I guess the metallic glint just doesn’t seem natural.

However, it’s Bryan who says something, “ready to admit that you look different?”

“I can’t argue now, my hair and eye color changed. I think it is from all the dragon stuff.”

We pull out some food and begin our meal and begin to eat. Abagail keeps glancing at Bryan, while the trio is whispering to each other in Althaen. I guess they don’t want to be accidently overheard by others.

“What do you think they are talking about?”

“Since they aren’t talking in Elven they probably don’t want us to know.”

“You can still tell me your guess.”

“I would guess about a discussion I had with them recently.”

“You didn’t”

Bryan is misunderstanding me, but that did happen too. So, I just smirk.

“What happened to my nerd friend who didn’t care about girls?”

“Two elves and a werewolf showed up.”

“Weirdo.”

“At least I’m not a paladin who doesn’t know the name of his god.”

“Screw you”

I just smile at my friend again, and we all finish eating rather quickly. We are all in a good mood. We have gotten away from the Althaen and should be gone before they realize that their men are dead. Once we start moving we banter over stealing one of the abandoned cars, but ultimately, we don’t know how to hotwire one so the point is mute.

We are only a few hours from where I expect to find Aaron and those that he probably works under. I hope his word is enough that we needn’t fight anyone but someone older will probably be in charge. We are fighting a few goblins, who are no real threat except to Abagail.

There are three left, I skewer one with a spear. No point in wasting a bullet on something I can kill without too much danger. Then there is a gunshot, I turn my head to it. The goblin is falling towards us. Abagail didn’t make that shot, someone else is here.

K and Talia finish off the last two of the goblins and then stand at ready. Bryan and me are scanning the area with our eyes. A black man walks out from behind a car, I notice another in the window of a building. The one in the window has a rifle, not sure the caliber but it made a bigger hole that the .22 we are carrying.

The black man speaks up, “what are you doing here?”

“Passing through.”

“So, you weird dressed people can talk. Now I was supposed to kill any yer kind but there’s some pretty faces here.So, how bout you all come with me.”

I frown, I didn’t run out of the Althaen camp to just enter the same situation somewhere else. And most of these women are mine. Abagail walks forwards a little bit and starts talking. I guess she wants to play her roll as a bard.

“I think you’ve made a mistake we aren’t part of them. We’re Americans, just let us on our way.”

The man doesn’t seem convinced, so I interrupt.

“You can show us to your boss, but call off the gunmen.”

He looks surprised but grabs a walkie talkie on his belt and speaks into it.

“I'm bringing in some youths, they’re not hostiles.”

He puts the walkie talkie back on his belt and motions for us to follow. He doesn’t respond to anything that we say and it takes about an hour before we see anything other than empty streets.

A barricade of trash and cars, a small opening in the front to let people through. There are men standing atop the piles holding guns, a few point them at us but cease once they notice the black man leading us.

It is dusk when we enter through their wall, to be met by a few dozen men with guns. There are a few older men, clearly former thugs who seem to be in charge waiting for us. This always was a poorer part of town and had a crime problem. One of these men probably is or was Aaron’s boss.

At least they aren’t threatening us, there is some commotion in the overlooking crowd and Aaron and a few of the other I ate lunch with rush out. The older men look upset at the action but do nothing to stop it.

Aaron walks up to me, “I can barely recognize you.” He turns to one of the older men, “don’t worry he’s cool. The white boy that tells me how not to be stupid at school.”

The older man Aaron was speaking at softens his expression. The others don’t seem to do anything but I can tell the gunmen nearby are no longer focusing as much on us. I should probably talk to these leaders.

“So, my friends and me are trying to get across town and are passing through. We won’t harm anyone, and could we have a place to stay for the night?”

The older men all look at the man Aaron talked to, is he in charge? The man speaks.

“Aaron says that you’re not a threat so you can go as you please, but I would like to talk. You’re wearing the clothes of others who are rounding people up, you should know something about them and I want to know what.”

He is giving me a glare, but I’m not particularly intimidated. So, we won’t be stopped when passing through but he wants to talk. Alright I’ll talk with him, but I want my friends safe first.

“Sure we can talk, do you want it to be in private?”

He smiles in response, I suppose he does.

“Then let’s talk over a meal and find you a place for the night. I think the protestant church down the street has open beds.”