It was time for Bella, mom, and my trip to Greece to meet an Arachne and Gorgon colonies. Classes had just ended yesterday and wouldn't be back in session for another 3 weeks. While both races are female only they have different mate requirements.
The Arachne colony only has a small number of mating females who kidnap a single male each. They then produced a great many non fertile colony members and then near the end of their 200 year lifespan, usually last 50 years they produce between 1-4 fertile members(queens). The non fertile members are called drones, they generally only live for around 50 years. The colony's different queens usually have a large amount of infighting so that only the strong queens survive. The drones only stand as tall as smaller then average human. While the queens can grow as large as a horse.
A Gorgon colony is different in that it is tribal in nature. The queens and her daughters are in control of the whole colony. All members of the colony are fertile but only those with the queen's permission are allowed to mate. The colony normally kidnaps a group of males that they deem acceptable. Unless it is a member of the royal family all other members are raised communally and the weak are regularly culled from the population. What sets the royal members apart is that they are able to use some form of wizard like magic. The lesser royals are commonly raised as a strict warrior caste. As a species the oldest known member lived to be 300 but that is usually only for the strongest queens. Because Gorgons are born in clutches of eggs the society is very cutthroat. If 500 individuals are born in a year only 10 will make it to the age of 10. The 1/50 odds are only for royals the odds of surviving as a regular member is much better but they are essentially treated as disposable cannon fodder when they reach adulthood.
While both are xxxxx class magical beasts they are mostly ignored as their internal conflicts keep them inward focusing and not dangerous unless they are mate hunting. I was not worried as we were bringing male offerings and taking all other reasonable precautions. A bonus if we are able to strike an accord is that both produce many magical materials that are very valuable.
Crete was the first stop where the smallest Arachne colony was located. We didn't dare go for a bigger colony as they would be to busy infighting to meet us.
There was a path leading to a dense forest with large white patches strung between some trees at the very top.
As we stepped off the path with our house luggage we made our way fearlessly into the forest.
Mom was leading with Bella next and I was bringing up the rear. We hadn't even made it very far into the forest when mom stopped and said 'stop. Since they haven't decided to see what just entered their forest yet I'm going to make them.'
Mom reached down and grabbed a nondescript stick off the forest floor and engorged it she then levitated it up high and dropped it in front of us. It fell through what I thought was the forest floor into a massive tunnel into the ground.
Suddenly we were surrounded by skittering noises as I saw many drones descend from the canopy above and a larger contingent emerging from the newly revealed hole.
'Take us to your queen, we wish to have an audience' mom announced pulling us close.
'Do you wish to make an enemy of us witch leave now and we will forgive you imprudence' a leading drone responded.
'Or you could take me to your queen. I know there is only one mature left and she doesn't have long left. This colony will die as you are not strong enough to acquire new mates for your new queens' mom responded.
'Fine and the meeting will take place here' a new voice said emerging from the tunnel.
This newcomer was obviously a queen with her massive size. She was ethereally white with long silvered hair and glowing red eyes. Like all the other Arachne she was dressed in her own weaved silks. The rest of her body which started off her ass was a beautiful ebony with red accents. She had massive tits where all of the drones had more modest busts. They had human like legs up front where the legs of her human half would be. The best way to describe it is a human sitting where the head of a spider would be. The drones are not ugly per-say but they are more spiderlike in appearance. The queen on the others hand made me hard.
'Your proposal witch?' The queen said.
'In exchange for wizard mates for all of your future queens I require one of them' mom said.
'You dare' the queen screamed and the rest of the drones readied for a fight.
'I know that you have produced 3 so far and as you are a lone queen you will produce another but because of this you have long since stopped producing drones. It's simple really I save your colony at the cost of one of them. Think of it this way I'm not planning on killing the one I take in fact she can even start a colony in Briton' mom said.
'I don't care. I don't need your help' she said.
'Surely I'm not the only one. Once you are gone the local wizard will likely take this opportunity to remove this colony so to me you don't really have a choice' mom said mater of factly.
'I'll do it mom, I am unlikely to survive against my sisters I want to do it I'll go with the witch' another voice boomed as she exited the tunnel.
This newcomer looked identical to her mother only much smaller. She was around my height. With massive tits like her mother. She moved with a princesses grace.
'You are not queen and my answer is still no' the queen practically screamed.
'Your approval matters not mother I was always humbler then my sisters I can see your worry and what the witch says is true. I refuse to die by my one of my sisters hands for a doomed colony. I will be leaving with them no matter what so I suggest you take the deal so at least my sisters have some benefit' she said as she continued to walk towards us.
'Thank you' she said as she kneeled in front of mom. Mom not caring dropped our house luggage opened it, summoned 3 captured nobodies left them on the floor.
'We will be going now' mom said turning to leave. None of the Arachne made any move to stop us as we walked out of the forest.
Once out of the forest we stopped.
'Do you have a name' mom asked our Arachne follower.
'My name is Sylphy I am 12 years old. So what is my role?' she asked with grace.
'Well we only need your blood so you can do whatever you want as long as we can harvest some of your blood from time to time' mom said.
'That's it that's all you need me for' she exclaimed her practiced grace falling away. Obviously she had some sort of fantasy that this would be some sort of grand adventure.
Deciding to dig the hole deeper she continued 'you don't even want my beautiful silk that I have weaved into wonderful garments. But no I'm just some glorified blood bank for whatever sketchy experiments you are going to run.'
Mom not wanting to deal with this for much longer said 'fine you want purposes.'
Sylphy nodded eagerly.
'This is my son' mom said gesturing to me. 'You and your brood will be part of his many defenders. I will change your culture so that the queen is only the second in command and that your mate who will be my son is first. I will use more then just your blood now that you have annoyed me. Happy now' mom continued in a huff.
'Yes very. The thought of being in charge scared me why do you think I jumped at this' Sylphy said happily.
'Jump in, we have another stop' mom said gesturing to the trunk.
After Sylphy was in the trunk Bella was the first to speak 'I need her to make all of my outfits. Her clothes were just exquisite.'
'Indeed' mom said.
'Did you need to be so harsh with her' I asked mom.
'Yes I did. I needed to show her that we are different and that kind of bratty behaviour isn't tolerable from her' mom said calmly.
'I just remembered are we going to have any problems with having a Gorgon and an Arachne?' I asked.
'It's not going to be easy but they are neutral unlike acromantula and basilisks' mom said.
So we moved on too a remote mountainous area in Thessaly. We followed a lonely mountain path as it made its way up to the peek of the mountain. The path seemed to run directly into a cliff face but we knew better. Having gotten an invitation this time.
The current Gorgon queen was intrigued by what the famous Harry Potter wanted to meet with her about. Even though they are so far away from the British isles the queen knew much of the goings on in the various magical communities. Some think that Gorgons are natural seers but I think differently. I think that the sentient magical creatures are more interconnected then wizards. They after wizards have repressed them decided that information about the wizard world could keep them alive so they created their own way of knowing if they were in danger.
Walking through the the false cliff we are met by a pair of lesser Gorgon guards and a royal Gorgon. The guards were wearing a Greek style cuirass and leather of some kind skirt. Their helmets did a lot to obscure their faces leaving a simple T opening at the front.
The royal was wearing a lamellar or scale piece of armour that gave her plenty of cleavage and ended above her belly button leaving ample midriff on display. The royal was also wearing a leather skirt but it was different in that you could tell whatever it was made from also had scales similar in size and shape to her own. She wore no helmet but instead a golden circlet adorned her head with a green jewel that looked like it was a snakes eye.
As she looked at me I could feel all the muscles in my body trying to all contract at the same time I pushed through it and was finally able to get my back under control.
'Welcome Potters. I am Medea the queen has instructed me to escort you to the palace for you meeting. If you will follow me' the royal said turning around an gesturing us to follow.
With them now in front of me I could now make an educated guess we're snake began and human ended. I think the snake begins at where their thighs and ass meet.
Reaching the other end of the short entry tunnel we are greeted by a whole settlement in the bowl of the mountain. The walls were not very tall only reaching just below the tops of the average house.
Their tails that I could tell came in a wide array of colors. I saw vibrant reds, greens, and blues along with more drab browns, greys, and tans. These tails typically reached between 3 and 4 times the height of an average human.
From what I could observe most members have brown hair although each individual styled it differently.
In the middle of the bowl there is a small lake. On the far side of the entrance their is a large palace building. With a fighting arena in front.
Reaching the throne room for our audience we saw the queen on a raised dais her body coiled under her. The room was filled with more guards and other higher born royals.
We paid our respects by lowering our heads and taking a knee.
'Welcome to my colony' the queen said.
'I know what you are here to offer and I refuse to give you anyone but if you can prove yourselves I may permit a daughter or two' she continued.
'Who needs to do it' mom said as she was taking the offerings out of the trunk and handing them over to the guards.
'I think the great chosen one should be the one to prove himself. Do not worry it shall be a non magic duel with some of my daughters around his age. The duel will be with whatever weapons the combatants want and killing of Harry is not permitted but if one of my daughters dies then they were weak and unworthy' she said.
I was a little worried because even though I did have some practice with swords as mom made me become proficient before Hogwarts I hadn't practiced since going.
Making our way to the arena I saw a line of royal Gorgons waiting. They all looked to be around my age. Most were armed with twin short swords with a few other miscellaneous weapons mixed in.
Mom summoned my sword from the trunk and handed it to me. It was pretty plain and simple long sword.
Thinking about my first opponent as I wanted to face multiple so that I could attract the best choice.
I chose a relatively small in comparison to the others wielding a spear. I didn't choose her because she looked like a runt but because I needed a bad matchup that I was familiar with.
Everyone else left and gave us some space.
'Begin' the queen said starting the fight.
Having the shorter weapon I had to close the distance so I rushed forward.
I soon realized that choosing the spear was a mistake as I was getting closer she lunged forward like a arrow shot from a bow.
I barely had any time to react. I let my body's muscle memory take over. With practised speed I sidestepped the strike and brought my sword up slicing through the spear shaft only stopping just before rending her head from her shoulders.
Having extended her whole body she slowly collapsed to the floor but I caught her to prevent her from reaching it.
'Winner Harry' the queen said.
'I haven't seen anyone move faster then my daughter I congratulate you. Most are unready and not quick enough to avoid that singular strike thus she was undefeated' she continued.
'I wish to fight another' I said getting a lot more confident.
'As you wish. Although you have already proven yourself' the queen responded.
Seeing a pair of them wielding knives I said 'them two.'
My plan was to use their size against them as they have to get in close with the knives and because their are two of them they will be in each other's way.
It worked beautifully the pair quickly realized that they couldn't really work together to attack me. So they only came at me one at a time.
I made short work of the first. I blocked her first strike and then when she brought her other hand in to strike at my exposed side I kicked her hand as hard as I could causing the knife to fly out of her hand. Using this distraction I used my greater leverage to control the other knife into the dirt.
As I stepped past this defeated opponent I was quickly met by my second opponent. Having seen what had happened before she was very cautious in her strikes.
Never venturing into a position where I could disarm easily. I had backed her into a corner giving her nowhere to go.
She reared back as if to make a lounging strike like the spear royal. But instead of trying anything she threw down her knives in disgust.
'Winner Harry. Because she didn't even make an attack kill her she is unworthy of life' the queen ordered.
Not really having an option I quickly brought my sword up in a strike to separate the Gorgons head from her shoulders. Her head a body landing on the dirt in an audible thump.
'Now that thats over I give you that body as spoils and you may also choose 2 of the royal brood' the queen said as she gestured to a new line forming.
This line was mostly new faces none of them really caught my eye until I noticed the spear wield Gorgons that I had beat first.
'Her' I said pointing at the girl.
She quickly slithered over beside me. Seeing her beside a wider selection just made it clearer that she was on the lower end of the size spectrum.
'Tell me who I should pick' I said taking council from her.
'You want her' she said motioning to a girl that wasn't wearing the same kind of armour as most of the others. She was wearing some kind of linen dress. She was also small compared to the others.
'Why?' I questioned.
'Because she is secretly the best at using magic within this decade span. It also helps that she is completely submissive to me so you won't have any infighting' she reasoned.
'Very well, I will also have you' I said pointing at the same girl.
This other girl also made their way quickly to my other side.
'Now that this is over let us return to the palace to exchange proper pleasantries' the queens aid beckoning us back towards the palace.
We retired into a sitting room in the palace building. We entered a room with a long low table with no chairs our group was seated opposite of the queen.
'It was good of you to choose my latest successful daughter Nasia. When I lose my place she is likely to have died as she wouldn't be old enough to survive the ordeal. It is a shame though that you picked her useless and weak follower' the queen said.
'Well with what little I know of your culture, if I had picked someone that Nasia didn't get along with I would end up with only one by the time we are back in England' I said.
'I guess that's true' the queen said thought fully.
I decided to have a conversation with my newest additions and Bella while mom finalized some details with the queen.
We stayed a night in the colony at the behest of the queen so that she could get to know us better. After which we made our way back to Briton.