Chapter 34: The Harpy Mothers

To Rose, there was nothing more important than caring for her five children. It was her duty to care for them until they could fly and fend for themselves. The good news was that there were two females among Rose’s hatchlings and three in Kali’s. Rose felt a warm sense of pride at the thought of her daughters furthering the regrowth of the harpy population. Surprisingly, it was only another week before their partners came to take the hatchlings for their first flight. Of course, neither Rose nor Kali could follow since they couldn’t fly themselves. In the meantime, the mothers went to visit Cole and Salt.

“Your boobs are so big,” Cole said to Kali, admiring her milk-filled breasts. He even eyed Rose’s chest, which was three or four cup sizes larger than normal. Cole was dismayed that he couldn’t manage to get any milk out of Kali.

“Only our children can get it,” Rose explained.

“Your children?” Salt questioned. “You can possibly be going along with this, Lady Rose,” he voiced with concern.

“They’ll kill both of you if we don’t,” Rose responded. “I have an idea, too, but I can’t use it just yet. Even if we left right now, our hatchlings would follow us or die trying.”

“I hope you know what you’re doing,” Salt said but digressed.

“Don’t worry,” Rose smiled.

Rose sat down for a while, waiting for Kali to explain everything that had happened to Cole. He was interested in Kali’s pregnancy and how it felt to lay eggs. He also examined her body closely, seemingly happy that there was no visible damage to his girlfriend. Even after being bedded by a harpy and producing five eggs, she was still the same Kali. After a while, Rose felt the urge to return to their nest. Kali must have felt the same because she soon told Cole that they needed to head back. Cole kissed Kali one more time, and then the girls left to return to the nest.

There were no harpies gathered toward the center of the grounds like usual. Rose assumed that most of them were away hunting. She wondered how their hatchlings were doing. Were they flying well enough to compete with the others? The thought of carrying on with her assigned duties came to mind as well. There were still a lot of places she needed to visit before eventually returning home to the capital. Rose and Kali stopped at the rocky wall below where their nest rested high up. Even though they couldn’t fly, a magical current carried them up and down from the nest.

“There you are,” a voice said, causing the girls to turn and see two harpies behind them.

“Hi,” Rose responded, recognizing the two harpies as the last to be born prior to her own.