Chapter 13-The Ugly Harpy
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Rosemary was a normal little town somewhere in the Europian countryside near Mercadia. There was nothing special about it, just a pit stop between two cities and was of a reasonable size that one didn't regret being born there. For those who were born in Rosemary, there was just enough things to do that the younger generation didn't immediately leave town the minute they graduated college, unless they had to.
Even the monsters here were mild mannered and kind, not too aggressive in their amorous pursuits, preferring to go the Oriental route and charm their male targets instead of hunting them down like predators. Humans still outnumbered monsters in Rosemary, and you'd be hard pressed to find the more outgoing species like hellhounds and werewolves here. Still, sometimes if you were lucky enough, there was always that special individual who brought some life to the little town.
James was the lucky kid to have met that individual.
He was just brought to the local park by his mother, and smiled as he saw a bunch of children, humans and monsters, running around causing chaos wherever they went. Looking around, he noticed that his cat friend Miki wasn't there yet.
"Mom, where's Miki?" He asked.
"Her mother said that they might be running a bit late, but they'll be here soon." His mother said. One could never be sure with Cheshire cats, they were unpredictable in a way that made you feel twelve years older after dealing with them.
James frowned and looked around. He had only been here in Rosemary for a few months and hadn't really made friends with any of the other children aside from Chloe, who lived right next door to him. He didn't know any of the other kids that well outside of school to really have the courage to talk to them. Then he spotted someone else who looked as lonely as he felt.
It was a harpy, and a large one at that. She looked to be around 7 years old, two years older than he was, with short auburn hair that was tied into twin brains that framed her face, which sported some freckles. She had a large nose, thin lips, and deep blue eyes, but James' attention was caught by her large, dull white wings. She wore jean shorts that left her avian talons bare, though her claws looked less sharp than he thought they'd be.
"Mom, who's that?" James asked, pointing to the lonely harpy.
"That's...well, she's one of the orphans that go to your school. You know, the children I teach at the orphanage?" She said.
James looked at the lonely girl, who sat on a swing grumbling angrily. "So she doesn't have any parents?"
"No, dear."
That made James sad. He loved his mom and dad, and he couldn't imagine living without them. As his mom took a seat at one of the benches, James mustered up all the courage in his little body and walked toward the harpy.
"Hi."
The harpy looked up at the boy who suddenly started talking to her. He was a scrawny little human with nothing special about him save for his big eyes. The harpy scowled at him.
"What do you want?" She asked.
"Wanna play with me?" The boy asked eagerly.
She looked at him for a solid three minutes, wondering if she heard wrong. "Play? With you?"
"Yup." He smiled.
The harpy thought he was trying to trick her, but seeing those big brown eyes of his something told her this kid really wanted to play with her. Sighing, she decided to at least humor him before the other kids came and gave him a hard time.
"Okay, we can play."
"Sweet!" The boy grabbed her dull white wing and pulled her off the swing towards the sandbox. "I'm James!"
"...I'm Lily."
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James would later learn that the Harpy's name was Lily, no last name. She was an orphan whose egg was found in front of the orphanage on the edge of town, place in a little box encased in a warm blanket. She hatched a day later and the manager of the orphanage raised her along with the other girls there.
Lily was just one of the many little monster girls who lived at the orphanage designed to raise and care for monster children. Though she lived there all her life and wasn't the only harpy there, Lily was a bit of an outcast among the children for reasons out of her control, which James would soon learn.
Lily was known as the "ugly harpy" to the other monster girls. She had freckles all over her face that made it look like someone threw pepper onto her face, her body was slightly larger than the average harpy's slender form, there was a slight gap in her front teeth that the children would endlessly tease her about, and her wings were the dullest white a harpy could have and were also a bit large for a harpy too. The one good trait about her was her bright red hair. Everything about her seemed to go against what a harpy should be, and so the harpy children would tease her relentlessly for not being as slender or well-proportioned as them.
It didn't help Lily's already bad temper at all, and she would always end up covered in scratches from the other harpies' talons after fighting them off. She was self-conscious about her hair and wings, but she acted like she didn't care to appearances' sake. Still, a monster being called ugly is a serious insult that few adult women would dare say to each other, but children were known for hitting home with their insults one too many times. Lily never cried or sulked, however, she would just lash out like a bird of prey, fighting any monster that started something with her. Not even manticores were safe from her wrath, and they were strong little girls even in their preteens.
Despite the bad reputation Lily made for herself, James still considered her his friend. Since that day at the playground, he was always hanging by her side, urging her to play, read, or just do something with him. Lily would grunt and scowl in his face, but she never did anything to drive him off. She just tolerated him at best, not so eager to chase away the one kid that didn't treat her like an outcast.
Eventually, James' Cheshire friend Chloe soon entered their circle of friends, but their relationship was...complicated.
It soon came to the point where Lily couldn't imagine spending the day without James close by. He was her rock, her anchor, her friend. Neither of them knew just how much they would depend on each other in the years to come.
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"Ow! Be gentle!"
"You're not one to talk about being gentle." James scolded Lily as he tended to her wounds. He dabbed a cotton ball in some rubbing alcohol and pressed it to the cut on her cheek, making her hiss.
The two were in middle school now, and things started to change for them. James was becoming more aware of girls and the horrors of puberty, and Lily was going through the same thing, along with the increased teasing from her harpy companions at the orphanage. Her wings were still the same drab white that she had for her early childhood, but her body began to fill out, sporting curves and strong muscles along her arms and legs that harpies shouldn't have.
As you can expect, it'd lead to some altercations with the other members of her species, and Lily had the scars to show it. Lily had gained a new one on her right cheek after fighting off a bunch of sirens that made a pass at James.
