Interlude A Strange Nest (Patreon)

The rock crumbled under her foot almost making her lose balance if not for a quick reaction. Sighing, the young woman glanced down, if she had fallen it was a long way down. How she had ended up here, she still wasn’t entirely sure about. One minute she’d been running from Theocracy enforcers, the next she was here. The young woman remembered running into a cave hoping to hide from them and she had emerged here in the mountains. She thought it must have been some kind of spatial magic or something. Only she didn’t recall running into a gate or anything like that. Not that she had time to figure out how she had gotten here from there.

Moving away from the edge, she shivered a bit as the cold mountain air bit into her skin, making her wish she had worn something more. Not that she had that luxury, she was just happy she wasn’t naked, having managed to acquire something after escaping those damn slavers. Even if it was just a robe, that barely covered her modesty.

Glancing back, she felt relieved to still see no sign of her pursuers and trudged on. Passing some trees, she took a bend in the path, as her eyes drifted to the sky. The young woman was lost but that wasn’t high on her list of things to be worried about, she was going to need shelter. It looked like it was going to rain soon and she knew being wet and cold out in the open wasn’t good. Her gaze swept towards the walls of the pass, but there wasn’t anything here. She pressed on, looking for anything promising for shelter.

Following the path, she found herself going up. Passing several caves too small for her, or already home to something else, until she noticed some broken stones lying by the edge of the path. She blinked, even as the wind started to pick up, chilling her further. Picking up the pace, the young woman followed the trail, until suddenly the passage opened up, revealing a nice flat space with a weathered plaza, and a stone path leading to an old worn gate into the mountain. She smiled, she was saved!

Droplets fell onto the ground around her, the rain starting to arrive. Seeing that, she hurried toward the gate, passing a low wall. Part of her wanted to explore but with the rain already starting she wanted to get inside quickly. The young woman figured it was an old entrance into the Underdark, which would be shelter enough for now.

Stepping inside the tunnel, the very air seemed to change. There was something strange about it, but she suddenly felt safer. Weirdly it felt much warmer in here, like she was near a warm fire or something. Glancing outside, she watched as the rain picked up. What had been a slow drizzle just a moment ago, was now turning into a terrible deluge. Soaking the ground to the point it was impossible to see more than a meter, yet here in the shelter of the tunnel, she was safe. Rainwater slammed into a glimmering barrier around the gate, and she giggled. As all the tension suddenly left her, the tunnel wards were still active ensuring the place stayed warm and dry. Her gaze turned elsewhere and she headed deeper inside. Following the path and soon coming to a fork. With only a moment’s hesitation, she took the narrower left path. Following the path, she noted things were getting warmer, and the air grew humid with each step, until eventually, she came out into a new chamber. 

The young woman paused at the lip of the chamber, as she looked into the chamber. While she didn’t know what she was expecting, the view she was now presented with wasn’t it. On the far wall of the chamber was a raised platform big enough to fit a manor house.  It was rimmed with stone tiles, but the center was a wide depression that seemed to be lined with something soft. It was hard to tell at this distance. Beneath the raised platform was water filling the lower levels of the chamber, while up here she could see a number of other raised walkways, leading to various passages, all of them raised, but she also saw paths to the water below, where she could also see passages down there as well.

After a moment she decided to take a look around the place. This area was pretty, but fairly empty, so after looking around a bit, she decided to take a nearby path to the left. The corridor was wide, with smooth polished stones beneath her feet. Warm, moist air flowed from vents in the walls, while soft warm light filled the space from evenly placed stones.

The passage quickly let out into a new space, where she found a nice wide open chamber, off to one side, she saw a raised passage that led outside, while a number of holes were found in the walls. On the floor, she noticed a number of nests, each filled with a clutch of eggs, but her gaze was on the birds. There were dozens of them in the room.

Her gaze focused on one of the closer ones, it was huge, easily half her size. It had a build not unlike a chicken, but it had a wild look to it, with talons that looked like they could rend. It regarded her with razor sharp red eyes for a moment or two before clucking. Her gaze fell on its brilliant beak, long sharp and gleaming in the light. It looked dangerous. Yet it didn’t attack her, she let out a breath she didn’t realize she was holding.

Just then a cry drew her attention to the egg nests, where she noted among the eggs were little baby girls. Not chicks, but clearly humans, elves and the like. Mostly humans with a few elves here and there. It was harder to tell if any were dwarves. She frowned, as she watched one bird close on a baby that was crying. It gave the little girl a quick peck, and she went silent, the bird moved on. For a moment she was worried the bird killed the baby, but then she noticed the little girl still moving, still breathing clearly alive and she didn’t see any blood either.

Nearby, she noticed one of the eggs start to wobble. Slowly at first, then faster, while several nearby eggs did the same. The shell started to crack and break away before a very not bird figure emerged, gasping for air and covered in sticky fluids. The young woman gasped, shocked to see human babies emerging from eggs. That wasn’t right, babies weren’t hatched. People weren’t like birds. What foul magics were at work here? She needed to escape, yet the thought fled her mind like mist before a spring breeze. This was normal. Well maybe not normal, normal, but it was perfectly normal here. Then she wondered, how does this work? It didn’t happen elsewhere, were these birds special somehow?

What species were they? She hadn’t seen big birds like these before. As her mind raced with questions, she slowly drew near one of the clutches. Getting close, she looked over the little girls sitting in the clutch, their skin was covered with sticky stuff that was starting to dry and flake off. That was also the case for the little one who got pecked a moment ago. Being so close, she glanced at the birds, one of them was watching her, but it wasn’t moving. Maybe she was okay, she reached out to touch the infant. Finding she looked and felt healthy. There was a little mark where she’d been pecked but that was it.

She looked at the other clutches noting how some of the babies seemed like they had been here a bit, while others were more recent. There weren’t any dead ones, so she had to wonder how they were being fed? Obviously someone had to be caring for them. Well there was another thought, but while the birds looked fierce they didn’t seem to be hurting the kids.

Suddenly she felt feathers brush against her, she looked over her shoulder to find one of them was right next to her. She blinked, suddenly feeling vulnerable with a big dangerous-looking bird so close to her. It clucked, there was a flutter of feathers and next thing she knew she was on the ground, her robe now hanging from the bird’s beak. It clucked again, apparently sounding pleased and walked off. She sighed, as she looked herself over, the bird hadn’t hurt her, apparently, it just wanted her robe. At least it was warm in here, she didn’t really feel the need to wear anything and she wasn’t going to try and fight the bird for her robe. It had friends and she didn’t. Picking herself off the ground, she wondered what it was with her luck with clothing, as this wasn’t the first time she ended up naked.

After one last glance around the chamber and watching the bird with her robe disappear down one of the smaller passages, she moved towards an exit. Taking only a moment to peer into a nearby smaller passage, where she saw it lead into a modest chamber about the size of a closet, which was neatly packed with straw and lined with cloth. A bird was in there tending to a number of eggs and she even saw a trio of chicks. The big bird saw her, and then clucked intimidatingly. When she backed off, it gave a happy cluck but she got the message.

Leaving the area, she walked down the passage, finding several areas where the chambers opened to outside the mountains. She passed several birds as they walked around the roost, and found several other nesting rooms. Each of them was full of nesting birds, and baby girls. She didn’t really see any boys, which raised questions, but answers weren’t readily available. After the fifth nesting chamber, she found she watched a younger bird emerge from one of the hidden roosts on the side of the chamber, followed by three more. A larger bird, clucked and they started following it. That was new, so she decided to follow along. The big bird in the group didn’t seem to mind so she felt okay following it.

They ended up going down a level via a passage she had missed last time she had come through this tunnel and they came into a large chamber. The floor was smooth warm stones covered with a layer of straw and feathers, broken only by strange stone tables. From above, she could see what looked like a sprawling organic mass from which long tendrils hung. Several birds were resting on the tables, feathers pulled aside their organs visible.

Three tendrils suddenly shifted and scooped up the younger birds she had followed, while the older bird leading them headed on back. She simply stood there at the entrance, not sure what to think about the chamber, even as the poor chicks were secured on a table, their bellies exposed. Something about that just didn’t look comfortable to her, yet the birds didn’t seem to complain much, as a tendril pushed into their exposed bellies. 

After a moment a second set of tendrils approached and brushed along the feathers which just seemed to fall off, exposing the skin, which seemed taut, almost like it could burst. The girl watched in fascination as the skin was split open by a tendril a moment later, revealing the young bird’s organs. From above, a swollen rounded organ emerged from the mass, carried by a tentacle, where it was soon inserted into the young bird.

Suddenly a female voice spoke up from behind her, “Fascinating isn’t it?”

Idly she nodded, then blinked before looking over her shoulder, where she found a young girl with wings instead of arms, fierce crimson eyes, and taloned feet. Yet she was strangely cute too. She smiled, and it looked cute on her. The bird girl was entirely naked too, giving the young woman a good view of her perky breasts. She had some fluffy feathers covering bits of her body, but her belly breasts and pussy were all bare of feathers. The feathers were a lovely mix of browns, white and red. The girl’s face was framed by some nice auburn hair that ran down to her shoulders and was decorated with feathers. “Um, hello? What are you?”

She giggled, “I’m a Schwæri Harpy,” she paused, “and those are Schwæri Raptors.”

“Um... alright?” she replied, they did seem related, the talons were similar and there was something about the eyes. “What is going on here? And why are you both Schwæri?

The girl laughed more deeply, “We are related obviously. I’m the evolved form, they are the basic kin. I think you humans consider our kind monsters.”

“Ah so you become that upon reaching level twenty?” she replied, recalling how most monsters work.”

“Oh, no we aren’t low tier, they are tier two, I’m three.”

A shudder went down her spine, she was tier two herself and she suddenly felt less safe. The bird girl smiled, “Oh, don’t get scared, we aren’t going to hurt you.”

Somehow that felt reassuring, and she relaxed a little and looked back at the birds, watching as the tendrils closed up the injuries they inflicted.

“Right you asked about that, this is the implantation chamber. Young hens come here to receive their ovary, it’s what lets them lay eggs like those you saw hatch in the nesting chambers. Otherwise we only ever lay our own young.”

She watched another bird, as a swollen ovary was inserted into its open belly. Yet she found knowing that gave her more questions. “Why do you want to hatch humans, elves and the like? Where do these ovaries come from, how do they let you lay eggs like that?”

The bird giggled, “Full of questions are we? Well the Mistress steals them from mature females, and brings them back all nicely engorged with swollen eggs. We use a bit of magic to alter them further and then place them in our young when they reach breeding age. After that they need a couple days for the new organ to properly settle and then they can start laying eggs. We usually lay a clutch three or four times a moon and the reason they let us lay eggs containing humans or elves or beastkin is because they came from such beings.”

She gasped, as the meaning of that settled in her mind, “Wait!? You are stealing young, why?”

“I was getting to that!” The bird girl suddenly pulled her along, and said, “they are fun to play with and make great snacks.”

She paled, “They are food?”

The bird girl nodded happily, “Sure are! Of course, since we owe Mistress for the eggs, we make sure she gets her cut.”

Her mind snapped back to all those girls she’d seen laying newly hatched in their clutches. The young woman might have been safe, but they weren’t. These birds were going to eat them. For a moment she was wondering how to save them, but that felt kind of silly. It was normal around here, and they had been hatched to serve as food. It wasn’t like they needed saving. As they walked she found herself calming down. It wasn’t that bad.

She was led further into the nest, into an area she hadn’t visited before. Here on either side of the path were pools of water, and when they passed into a wider chamber, she saw the water run in channels to a pool in the center. The room was wide with cribs built into the walls, the sides transparent which let her see the babies inside. Some younger, other’s older. Several chairs and tables lay about, and the opposite wall was open to a raised platform, where her gaze froze for a moment at the sight of a giant-scaled serpent, the size of a house. The creature was coiled around itself, but seemed to be asleep.

When no danger came, she relaxed and took another look around, noticing that the room had several birds and a couple of other bird girls in the room, but she also saw a young girl settled in a chair, a baby nestled in her lap, suckling from her breast. That girl clearly wasn’t a Schwæri.

The Schwæri girl who led her in spoke, “Welcome to the nursery, this is where we care for the babies.”

She looked around, and after a moment approached the pool, there wasn’t any railing, but she noticed glyphs carved around the rim. The water was warm, but somewhat slimy. Looking over the cribs, she noted they were warm, padded and fairly spacious. Seeing the one girl nursing a baby, she found it hard to believe these girls had been hatched to be food. Suddenly she heard giggling and turned to see a pair of laughing toddlers run into the room. Behind them a harpy girl came in, giggling as well, “I’m going to eat you!”

She watched them for a moment as they disappeared down another passage, but all the while she had the impression that harpy wasn’t really serious. Were they really eating these kids? Her mind flashed back to the mention of them being fun to play with, as it really looked like they were just playing with them.

That girl nursing a baby, set the baby down on a table and walked over, “Hey there, you must be new.”

“Oh, she is, I’m showing her around,” said the bird girl, who then turned to her, “this is one of the milkmaids, they do most of the work feeding the babies.”

“I see,” she replied, watching as a harpy girl picked up the abandoned baby and carried her to a crib.

“Well I can help! My boobs are about dry anyway.”

“No need, just go get yourself something to eat and rest or go play with the toddlers.”

“Sure thing! Have fun!” said the milkmaid before running off, down one of the passages. She was led down the other, as she walked she started seeing more kids. Many of them were quite young of course, but they all seemed to be happy. As birds chased them or they chased the birds. It was quite cute actually. The bird girl showed her several other nursery chambers, all of them had a platform, but only that first platform was occupied. The bird girl also showed her a few bedrooms. Each one had four bunks, each one looking softly padded with warm-looking furs, and a blanket. On the floor was a fur rug, while a worn looking chest was often found in the corner. She’d looked in a few and found a selection of toys.

Passing one last corner, the bird girl led her into a modestly sized chamber with a large bed, a fur rug, and what looked to be a bathroom off to the side. The bird girl pushed her onto the bed with a smile, “What do you think? It’s a nice room, don’t you think?”

“Um I guess,” she replied feeling unsure about how this was going. She blushed slightly when some feathers rubbed against her bare breast.

“Oh, don’t be that way, you wouldn’t be here if the Mistress hadn’t sent you.”

“Huh? What do you mean?”