"Hello." The shadow-human spoke to all the young ones. His voice was no longer deep and raspy. It sounded like a man.
"Relax. He's not bad." Astraea told the cautious kids. "We asked him to this."
"Why?!" Rin asked with clear anger in his voice.
"To test you. The future generations." The man replied. "You weren't too bad as I had expected."
They finally shifted back but, they were still not thinking good about the man that attacked them.
When they were about to continue with the conversation, they heard a groan from behind them. Everyone turned to look at where the voice came from and found a man lying on the ground. It was the shadow that Iris had stung earlier. They had forgotten about his existence.
"What's going on?" Astraea came to the man groaning in pain.
"Uhh... I stung him..." Iris answered with a whisper and a little hesitant. Everyone dropped their jaw hearing the youngest girl in the forest and Iris lowered her head from too much attention. She hid behind her brother again.
"When?" Astraea asked her daughter after recovering from the shock.
"About two minutes..." Iris answered the question from her brother.
"Oh, no no no! We need to treat him. NOW!" Astraea got closer to her sister and told the man who was in charge of shadow-human with urgency. She, of all people, knew how deadly Iris's venom was. It normally took two minutes for someone to die after being stung by her.
The shadow-human commander came to the side of his injured man and shocked the younger generation. Some of his parts were still shadows and, they couldn't see his entire body but, it was all out now. His legs were not something that they had expected as of his arms. His legs were literally bird's, yellow with sharp claws. His arms were also bird wings and, they were brown with some white parts. But both the leg and wings were big. They were bigger than Alek's fairy book from last night.
"Harpy..." Alek whispered as she watched the creature getting to his fellow.
"What's harpy?" Bia asked her sister.
Before Alek replied to Bia, the harpy spoke. "Carry him to doc. We need to hurry." He told the rest of the harpies, and two of them like him helped to carry the injured man on their backs and flew up to the sky with powerful wings.
Without a warning, each of the harpies that were remaining carried the Minazuki and Mutsuki and flew up to the sky like the ones that carried the injured man.
"Aaaarrrgghhhh!"
"Uuuuuuuuuggggh!"
"Yaaaaaahhhhhhhh!"
"Waaaaarrrgggghhh!"
"Kyaaaaaaaaahhhh!"
"..."
The children screamed in fear apart from Alek. Her voice didn't even come out. She thought she was going to pass out. The adults looked like they were enjoying this and were used to it. They were cradled by their big bird legs so that they wouldn't fall. Their legs were so firm and, they were sure they wouldn't drop any of them.
Soon, Alek saw a cloud of leaves and closed her eyes. How did her birthday end up like this? She braced herself again for the leaves to cut her and scratch. But none of them touched her. She opened her eyes and was blinded immediately. When she opened them slowly and cautiously, she could not believe her eyes. It was a whole new world. The dark and cold forest was no more.
Now, she was seeing another forest but shiny and warm. The leaves were reflecting sunlight that was blinding, and a little far from her, she saw a beautiful river flowing fabulously. She thought this kind of place only existed in books. It was surely mind-blowing and breathtaking. When she looked closely at the trees, she saw houses built in them, but they were camouflaged, so well that she couldn't have found them if she didn't concentrate.
Just when Alek was enjoying the new environment, the harpies carrying them took a sharp turn and went inside one of the treehouses. All of them were thrown into the house and, only the parents were able to land swiftly onto the floor.
They stood up like drank people and looked around the house they were thrown. It looked pretty normal as a typical humans house. One different thing was that there were windows everywhere. It didn't need light as it let the sunlight get from everywhere.
They immediately went to their parents and stood close to them.
The commander harpy came into the room from the entrance that they entered elegantly with flapping his wings elegantly. The wind that was created by his large wings sent their hair flying for a moment.
"Hello. Sorry for not introducing earlier. I am Walter." The harpy introduced, especially for the young ones.
"What are you, exactly?" Alek asked as soon as he walked to the forest green sofa and sat down. "A harpy?"
"What is a harpy?" Bia asked the same question again to her sister.
"A harpy is a mythological creature with part woman part bird. But you are not woman and, I can see that there are slight differences from you and harpy that I have read of." Alek answered the question while examining the harpy like creature sitting comfortably on the safe. She mumbled the last sentence more to herself than to tell her family.
"Except, I am not a harpy. I am a shifter, just like you." He was now smiling while stretching.
"What kind?" This time, Kai asked a question towards the shifter. He stood in front of Alek just in case.
"Birds." The man answered shortly, ending his stretch.
"Woah." Castor didn't know about bird-shifters that looked like harpies. He had been focused on his clan that he had yet learned of other clans.
"Then why do you look like a harpy?" Alek asked as the parents started to take a seat around the shifter.
"We, bird-shifters, like to be shifted partially and, I think that's why we look like harpies. It makes things really easy being in this state. Like transport, hunt, play, et cetra. But the main reason we are always shifted is that we like it that way." He answered as a woman entered the room from a door directly opposite the children, carrying tea in the tray.
"So you are not a harpy?" Alek confirmed.
"Not even a bit. Harpies don't exist." Walter laughed at Alek's question.
"How?" Alek was confused as she believe in the existence of every mythical creature.
"Ancient people saw our ancestors in this form." He winged at his legs and himself. "And created a myth about creatures of part human part bird."
Alek nodded as the woman placed the tea on the table, with the exact number of people in the room. She looked human as well. She wasn't part bird as the man next to her.
"This is Cora, my wife." The half-bird stood up and wrapped his arms around her as she stood up. The lady smiled at the children. She looked about their parents' age or more. Her skin was dark with afro in a bun on her head.
"Nice to meet you." She spoke in a soft, soothing voice and looked each one of the young ones in their eyes. Her eyes didn't show any sign of harm but only kindness. "I brought you tea. Would like some?"
"Are you a bird-shifter too?" Bia asked towards the woman named Cora.
"Yes, very much." She answered.
"Then why are you not like him?" Bia continued to ask, seeing the difference between the couple. She was totally a human and, he was totally a mythical figure. Well, she couldn't say much about him as she is one of the 'mythical creatures...
"We are not shifted all the time, you know. Like for example, cleaning the house. We can't grab mops with our wings, as when we shift, our hands become wings. Or when we bath, we wouldn't be able to grab the soap." Cora answered as she took a seat next to her husband.
Her words made sense and, Alek believed it. "Can you shift?" Alek asked the woman.
Without a word, Cora stood up and shifted. She needed space to spread her majestic self. When she looked at Alek after shifting, she saw Alek's eyes were ready to pop out. She laughed at the reaction and stared at everyone in front of her with her bird eyes. The iris was black but the white parts were as light brown as her wings.
She was a peacock shifter and, each individual was shining against the light. With every move she made, the feathers changed colours. Her wings were light brown and, it made people wonder until one moment. She didn't spread wings as the young ones thought. Instead, Cora brought out her tail and spread it. Her tail was bigger than her wings and more beautiful. She shook them slightly to show it off and shifted back to herself when she thought it was enough.
Cora sat down on her previous spot as she sat down as nothing happened. She sipped her tea and asked, "Anymore questions?"
"Who is the head of this bird-shifting community?" Alek asked the bird-lady. "Are they one of the twelve leading clans?"
"I am the head." She told them honestly and, this made their eyes wide open. "I should have told you my last name earlier. My name is Cora Kan'nazuki. We are among the twelve leading clans as Kan'nazuki are the rulers and leaders of bird-shifters."
Castor and everyone understood how they were strong. Even the future head of Mutsuki couldn't fight one of those people in the forest.