Learn to Fly (Tg) Draft

The desk was covered with countless drawings, each one depicting various demihumans. Centaurs, lamias, arachnes, asuras, harpies…. A man sat there, looking over at his sketches, pleased by his handy work for all of them, except one. It stuck out to him and seeing it filled him with sadness. It was a picture of a harpy and while he was proud of the design, he couldn’t quite make her happy. He had tried to draw her smiling or at least enjoying herself countless times, but everytime, he couldn’t bring himself to do it.

He sighed as he shifted the papers around as he looked for a blank sheet to try again. As he searched through the mess on his desk, he noticed a drawing that he didn’t recall making. It had a dark skinned woman who had orange hair and was wearing a black veil. She seemed oddly familiar to him, but he swore he never drew her. Or at least, never drew this picture of her.

The man picked up the paper to take a closer look at it. It was definitely drawn in his own style and even was signed by him in the lower right corner, but something about it just seemed off. Mainly because even after staring at the picture for multiple minutes, he just couldn’t recall every drawing of that black robed woman before and he had never forgotten about any of his drawings before. But he did get the feeling that he had drawn her in a business suit before, for some reason…

Suddenly, the picture of the woman winked at him as her expression changed to that of a mischievous smile, which shocked the man so much that he threw the paper into the air by accident. Yet the paper just stopped in midair, as if it just suddenly decided that gravity wasn’t a big deal anymore.

The image started moving, like the girl was on the other side of a mirror instead of a piece of paper until she reached for him, her arm stretching out from the paper and gently taking the man by his own hand. And before the man could react, a huge flash of light filled the entire room, followed by a wave of darkness that swallowed everything around them.

“So, I heard you wanted some inspiration to draw harpies better?” A woman's voice asked, making the man open his eyes again slowly. For some reason, he wasn’t in his room anymore standing instead in a wide open field with the occasional trees on all sides. And right in front of him stood the woman he saw on the drawing.

“What…? Where are we?” The man asked.

“On a wide open practice field. Maybe if you saw some real harpies for once that might help you with your drawing skills.”

“Real Harpies…? Are you…? I mean. Thank you, maybe that could help.”

“Don’t mention it. Let’s just say there are two guys who really appreciate what you do so I am doing you a favor on their behalf.”

The woman turned around and raised her arms into the air. A gentle breeze began to blow in their direction and a cacophony of flaps soon followed. The man gasped as he saw a large flock of harpies flying at them. Some landed next to the woman while many remained in the air, circling around them.
“Did you call for us Lady Nagisa?” The one harpy asked. Nagisa nodded and turned to face the man. The man was in complete awe at what he witnessed.

“My lovely harpies are more than eager to help you out,” Nagisa said. “I’m afraid I have- other matters to attend to~ Good luck out there, Owl.” The man froze for a sec.
“Wait, how do you know my name?” He asked, bewildered. Nagisa didn’t respond and simply nodded with a smile before dark shifting to elsewhere. “Wow….”

Owl gasped as he felt both of his shoulders being grasped by some talons. He looked up and noticed that the two harpies that were with Nagisa were roosting on his shoulders.
“Don’t worry, we can carry humans much heavier than you!” The one harpy said.
“Wha-what are you doing?”
“Lady Nagisa said it would be appropriate if we gave you the full harpy experience! Are you ready for your first flight?”

“Oh-whaaaa~” And just like that the harpies took off, carrying the surprised man with them without any issues whatsoever. It really makes one appreciate the raw strength these bird girls possess.

“Any other wishes from us while we are up here?” A harpy with purple feathers flew in front of him and asked, sounding like she was the leader of the flock of easily over 20 harpies that danced through the air all around him.“Our goddess wanted us to be your personal flight instructors for the day if I recall right.”

“Well… Uhm… I am not quite sure. I don’t know if being carried by two harpies really helps me…” The man managed to bring out, not sure how to talk to those energetic bird ladies. Though the purple winged one looked like she understood him, which made him breathe a sigh of relief.

“I got cha. I got cha. You can’t really learn how to fly if ya don’t fly by yourself. Alright Ladies, pass em over to me.” She said, confusing the man even more than he already was. Then he was thrown into the air by the two harpies carrying him and caught by the leader almost instantly. So fast that he didn’t even have time to panic about what had just transpired.

“I’ll take it from here~” She said and did a barrel roll, making the man land on her back. Instinctively he grabbed her wings to have anything to hold on to, which made the purple winged harpy giggle. “I see you are already eager to learn. That's great. I’ll let ya borrow my wings for a bit. Just move them up and down and get a feel for what flying is like. I’ll help ya if ya lose control.”

Owl stretched out his arms instinctively and playfully imitated the sound of an airplane. “Hehe, well, birds don’t make an engine sound you know.”
“I know….”
“And birds need to flap those wings! Come on, start flapping.” Owl did as instructed and began to fling his arms all over the place. “No silly! You need to do it with grace and fluidity. Time your flaps and don’t put all your energy into it!” Owl followed his instructor’s advice. He began to time his flaps and sure enough, he felt a lot more graceful. The more he did it, the more in control he felt.

“Excellent! Those tail feathers will help you control your trajectory!”
“Thanks- wait, tail feather?”
“How do your legs feel? Legs are also very important for flying, it’s almost like when a human swims!”
“My legs….” Owl began to kick a little with his legs. It was very slight to the point that unless one was purposefully looking out for it, they wouldn’t notice. He could now feel his feet touching the wind, but wasn’t he wearing socks before? Why did they now feel bare.

“Excellent job! You are doing so great!” By this point, the harpy had let go of Owl. Of course, Owl didn’t realize this, he didn’t even realize he was flying on his own now!
“This is getting a bit tiring though… can we take a break?” Owl asked.
“Of course, follow me!” The harpy swooped down to a nearby tree and Owl followed instinctively. His flying had become even more graceful, though his landing on the tree was a bit shaky.

“Now then, How is ya first flight treating ya?” The purple feathered harpy asked, landing on the ground and gesturing to the rest of the flock to settle down as well. And just as commanded, all of the harpies landed within the next few seconds.

“It’s tiring, but fun. And soaring through the sky is so inspiring. It gives me the motivation to draw even more awesomely than before.” The new harpy said with a gleam in her eyes, not noticing that her chest subtly jiggled with every movement.

“I am harpy to help. Just give the word and we are up in the skies again!” The leader said, making the new harpy giggle as she covered her mouth with her wings, her feathers softly tickling her face. Owl then gasped for a second. She looked at her wings in awe as if it was the first time she had ever saw them.

“What the….” Owl looked all over her body. Wings, talons, longer hair, her chest… she was a harpy!? “How did-” The new harpy looked up at the flock leader who was smiling at her.
“Is something wrong my dear?” The leader asked. Owl looked down at her chest and then back to her flock leader before smiling.
“No, of course not! This is the harpiest day of my life!” The new harpy stood up, preparing for take off.

“Then let's go! Up in the air where harpies are the harpiest!” Owl, the new harpy said, jumping off the tree into the air and flying, having more fun than she had in a good while. She was going to enjoy the day to its fullest, just making it the most wonderful day in a flock of harpies.

—

After a long day of flying, Owl departed from her flock to return to her home. Of course she had no idea how to find a home. She wondered if Nagisa would return to bring her back or if she had to accept her new life in this strange world. Though as if Nagisa had heard her, Owl noticed a large house nearby. It beckoned to her, and she couldn’t help but to fly to it.

The harpy landed near the entrance and tip-toed inside. Inside of the bird house, she saw her room in all its glory. Her drawings were in the same place she left them. Owl walked to her desk, but she stopped as she felt stuck to her talons. She raised her left talon up and pulled out the picture from it.

It was the picture of the harpy she drew- a picture of herself. But unlike before, she was smiling. Owl couldn’t help but smile back and teared up a little, having finally made the harpy- no, herself happy. “Well, time to make more harpy drawings~” She cheered as she walked up to her desk. She sat down, preparing to draw her next masterpiece.

“Wait a minute…” Owl said, looking down on the piece of paper in front of her and then back to the pencil next to it. “How am I supposed to draw with wings…?”

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This Story is dedicated to OWL_HOME, a good friend of mine who is an amazing artist and has drawn some amazing things for me lately. 

So I turned them into an Owl Harpy. Thats how friendship works, right?

Also Nimue64 helped with writing the story as well. Yay.

Pic was made by me~