The full moon, goddess of the night dazzled through the cylindrical crater of the lair and home of Tabitha and her sisters. For more than 300 years ever since they left the mundane human form, not a single of them had been excited about something as for the moment that was going to be born in a few hours.
"Tabitha!" Four of the Matriarch Harpy's avian sisters winged down through the crater to her, next to the twisting fireplace at the center.
They didn't disappoint her. They carried with them another three of those so delicious human children, with their moist and red faces covered by tears. The blood in their scrapes made Tabitha and her sisters' stomachs growl.
"We've got more of them!" One of them stupidly said.
"So good I can almost taste it!" Another one pressed the head of one of a child with her clawed, feathery hand. It cried in pain.
"Excellent. So excellent. This time we won't suffer to that... thing." Tabitha's red eyes darkened. A smirk formed on her beak-mouth mix.
The pure mention of the one that punished them with fates worse than death made every harpy reunited their quiver and shriek.
But Tabitha knew that nobody forced them to obey that monstrous thing. All of them renounced their humanity in free will. They knew the terms when they made their eternal pact. Transcending the pathetic human form was not free. And now they had to pay.
"Take them to the cages. Let's wait until we have the most we can gather." She ordered. She stared at the fire.
The three harpies flew up to the wall holes of the deep and natural crater, with the tiny humans trembling and crying for mercy. One harpy remained, looking at Tabitha without saying anything.
"What's it? What are you looking at?" She asked.
"Tabitha... Minerva, Griselda, and Petronella almost captured a kid," The Harpy's face looked as if she had just faced a Fly Mauler in person.
"Almost? And so what? Why does it matter?" Tabitha felt annoyed. She hated when they annoyed her with their insignificant matters.
"The kid fought back... Another one assisted her. They were using magic!"
"Magic? What are you talking about?" Tabitha finally turned her face away from the fire to face the minor harpy.
It had been more than 200 years since Tabitha heard about mundane humans accessing magic. She just hoped that her subordinate was not hallucinating once again. They had picked the nasty habit of licking frogs and eating red mushrooms of white spots.
"Yes! Magic!" The scared harpy continued. "One of them had insect wings and the other created a magic barrier that saved them from the fire!"
"And how did that stop those three idiots from capturing them?" Tabitha growled.
"They said that a giant bumblebee shining in a blue aura assisted them!"
A blue aura? That could only mean one thing. Tabitha hadn't seen a user of those demonical dolls in the last 250 years. Even she, that had dedicated more than three centuries of her life to the study of magic and dark arts felt anxious about them. They weren't any toys to be messed with.
"That means we are dealing with... We'll have to get disposed of them as soon as we can. Or else we'll be doomed. How were they? Those two kids. Describe them."
"Two girls. One was blonde. The other one had jet black hair and only one eye. They carry a white dog with a black patch of fur too."
"I see... Tell everyone to kill them on spot. And—"
"Tabitha, Tabitha!" Another harpy suddenly arrived from the tunnel at the down section. Her breath was as agitated as if she had flown around the whole area.
"What now, Raffaela!?"
"Two kids are using a giant eagle that shines in blue, and it is flying around the town! They even attacked us with electricity!"
"Giant Eagle!? Are you serious!?" Tabitha frowned. Whoever dared to joke with her was going to sleep in the waste compartment.
"Yes! I wouldn't get any close to that monster even for all the toad soup in the world!"
"I wanted us to wait," Tabitha said. "But we'll need power now more than ever. You two," She signaled them. "Go and delight yourselves. Bring another two of our sisters along with you. Go and kill those cursed kids no matter what!"
"But Tabitha! It's nearly suicidal to get close to that thing!"
"I said no matter what!" Tabitha grabbed Raffaela's neck and squeezed it. The minor harpy moaned and wailed in desperate attempts to breathe, putting her hands on Tabitha's arms. "Do you want to go to the place that monster put us last time?"
"N-no! All but that!" Raphaella cried in nasal whimpers.
"Then do as I say and kill those damn children and their eagle!" Tabitha pushed her to the ground. The harpy fell on her wings and grabbed her neck and jaw, gasping for air as hard as she could.
The other harpy didn't say anything. She just stood there, with her beak-mouth dropped, looking at both.
"What are you two waiting for? Go now!" Tabitha yelled. "Eat those pathetic humans that you just brought. You are going to need extra power!"
The duo flew away in fear to the cave they enclosed the captured children, leaving feathers down on every winging.
Eating those children would surely give them enough power to grow to their next form. But four augmented harpies wouldn't likely be enough against a plush spirit. Maybe it would be a good idea to tell them to take Junior with them...
Every Harpy feared the amalgam beast, and not a single one of them would get close to his cage. But now they needed his destructive power for taking those two girls down. Tabitha would probably need at least six of the strongest harpies to bring the monster out of his cage.
They had to do it. Their future depended on that human meat. They had already failed various times in the past and if they did once more, well, death by burning seemed like a more desirable destiny. The moon kept dazzling.
"I feel like we're wasting time around," Vanilla sighed, annoyed, and her eyes fixed on the concrete they walked on.
"Why so, Vanilla?" Cookie asked. "If you didn't want to hang out in that plaza you could have just said so."
"It's not that. We're just wandering around without any idea about what we're even doing. We might not even find anything in that school."
"Girls, I'm smelling something. Stop." Rowie said.
The trio stopped next to an abandoned building of decaying walls and broken windows, patched with wooden planks in the solitary street of St. Beatrix, some blocks near the forests, the swamps, and the burnt house where Vanilla's adventure began.
Something rattled inside. "It's the same sound..." Cookie whispered. She crossed looks with Vanilla and Rowie. Screeches and guttural murmurings could be heard coming out from the worn-down asbestos. A distinctive avian way of cawing...
"And it is also the same smell..." Rowie whispered too.
"Well, having no plans is the best plan, that's what I say. I say that we go inside and take a look," Cookie said, approaching the door.
"Wait," Vanilla said. "I think we should not get inside without knowing what to do next."
"C'mon," Cookie didn't care. "Bumbly will come with us. Look!" The bumblebee descended from the sky and approached the girls in the lonesome road.
Would it be wise to just ignore that place and keep going? Probably not. If harpies were indeed inside, then they ran the risk of getting attacked from the back.
"Alright," Vanilla said. "I don't think we can't play passive right now at this point. I'll go first."
Cookie twisted the rusty doorknob, and the old and broken door didn't oppose resistance as it squeaked open. Vanilla pressed the citrine on Avrevm Bacvlvm and crossed before anyone. The small orange star illuminated the way.
The hallway inside was a destroyed mess. There was a demolished hole on the entrance that impeded the way any further. After it, splashed ground, planks, and other debris made it impossible to jump to the other side.
However, that hole revealed an entrance to the basement. It had a rusty ladder leaning down. Broken water pipes and stagnant water rested at the bottom; another small passage made of raw concrete.
"I'll go first. Take Rowie. Keep an eye on me." Vanilla handled him and Avrevm Bacvlvm to Cookie. She put her hands and feet on the rusty ladder and began to descend into the darkness.
With each step-down, she felt as if something was about to grab her from the waist and pull her to the bottom. She could also swear the ladder was about to broke at any moment, and she would end up cutting herself and getting infected with tetanus. That, or breaking her legs or spine from the fall.
She reached the bottom. Her boots stepped on the concrete. "I'm down. Now you two," She announced.
"Don't look at my panties, alright?" Cookie launched Avrevm Bacvlvm to her and put Rowie on her back. She began her descend too.
Vanilla rolled her eyes and pressed the citrine once again. The concrete walls were painted with graffiti and mauled by moisture. It stank like fermented urine and putrid water.
Cookie splashed drops of water as her boots hit the ground. More drops made plopping sounds as they fell and hit the puddles on their feet.
"This place must be where hobos spend the night or something. Puagh," Cookie whispered, covering her mouth and nose.
"Yeah... wait," Vanilla whispered. "There is something there. Keep quiet."
Orange light lowly brightened at the bottom. There was an iron door at the end of the claustrophobic and sultry corridor. They crouched and advanced.
The corridor widened into a small area. It had two sections at the bottom of each side that led to symmetrical room sections. The twisting light was coming from the right. The gargling, high-pitched sounds became stronger, turning into recognizable voices.
"Do you have all the ingredients?" One of them asked.
"Yes. Look!"
Vanilla showed her head and saw three figures she thought she would not run into once again. The three harpies who captured and almost killed her. They surrounded a metallic cauldron with a wooden table by its side, and their expressions indicated the mischief of being about to do something nasty and perverse.
She hid her head and limited herself to listen. Did they really believe that gibberish she told them would work?
"A blue frog?" They continued.
"Yes!"
"A soap bar covered with body hair?
"Here."
"Rotten egg of six hours?"
"On its exact point!"
"What about the pig spit?"
"Oink," Porcine grunts growled from their side.
"Those stupid things really..." Vanilla whispered. She put her hat off to lean her head on the wall. Cookie and Rowie crouched by her sides. "Vanilla... your recipe!" The girl tried as hard as she could to contain her laughter.
"Shhhhh," Vanilla put her index finger on her lips. They continued listening. The fire kept twisting and dazzling the graffitied walls.
"Here in my pot, I will put a frog!"
"And very beautiful I shall become!"
"A bar of soap, full of hair!"
"And I'll be the prettiest wench in the lair!"
They laughed in unison as the frog croaked and plopped in the soup. The egg cracked open and liberated its rotting smell. Vanilla and Cookie covered with nausea their noses. Vanilla wondered how bad smells didn't seem to discomfort Rowie.
"Now the pig! The pig! Come here, Mr. Porker!"
"Oink Oink..." 'WHACK' The sound of a sand sack getting hit by a baseball bat rumbled. "Quiiiiiiiiii!! Quiiiiiiiiii!! Quiiiiiiiii!!"
Vanilla, Cookie, and Rowie traded looks. Cookie held her laughter, something that Rowie didn't seem to like. Vanilla could not be amazed enough by the stupidity of those beasts.
"It's done! Do it first, Griselda!"
"Alright, here I come!"
"N-now she's gonna drink it!" Cookie's chuckles began to release themselves. Vanilla put her hand on her mouth, but even she was holding her cackling back.
It dazzled green for a moment and dust flew everywhere. The monsters kept in total silence for a moment.
"Oh god, Griselda... you..."
Vanilla showed up her head once again. There was a naked woman of perfect proportions, dazzling skin, and frondous wine-colored hair standing there. "Do I look different?" Her voice now was smooth and seductive.
"Amazing! Beautiful!" The other two harpies exclaimed. "Let us try!"
Vanilla hid once again. She grinned and cynically looked at the roof. How in the world and beyond could that gibberish she invented actually work? Cookie stared at her, dying to know about what was going on right there. It dazzled in green another two times in a row.
"Oh my god!"
"I'm so gorgeous..:!"
Their high-pitched guttural screeches were gone, replaced by smooth and seductive voices.
"Oh my god..." Cookie understood what was going on. "You gotta tell me that— Kyaaah! A rat!"
She got up and kicked away empty cans that laid around, rumbling all across the basement. She accidentally stepped on one and tripped over, falling on her knees and hands in front of the entrance of the harpies' room.
"What was that!?" The trio of supermodels looked right there. The blonde girl that originally frustrated their plans was on the floor.
"...Hello there!" Cookie said.
"Attack!" They raised their delicate hands. Flames charred on their hands. They unleashed charring fire at full force.