Some saviour for the coven flock (Women into seagulls TF tale)

(Sequel to:

(Women into seagulls)

Interlude II

In the dark back room of Lady Yaga's Boutique of Trinkets and Enchantments, ar around midday, in between a stack of boxes full of magical gizmos, Susan was sitting with her legs crossed on the back of her fat black sow which had the strands of blonde hair on her head.  The white young woman was playing with her own blonde hair whilst watching Freda get ready.

“Are you sure you wanna go alone?” she asked.

Freda was just finishing putting on her long coat, the petite ebony skinned woman with the long dark curly hair just nodded at her companion.

“Absolutely,” she said without adding anything further.

Susan sighed, well used to her friend's deadpan attitude.

“But you don’t have to!”

“I don’t, but I want to. What’s the problem? You got your familiar without…”

“Yeah, I guess...” Susan rubbed napping sow’s head “Peggy just sort of trotted herself into porcine-hood... but it wasn’t like I planned it.”

“You never plan anything.”

“True.”

“If you can do it, I’m sure I can too.”

Susan frowned, shrugged and giggled.

“I guess. Are you totally sure you want this familiar?"

Freda glanced at her notes, the drawing of a petal in the shape of the moon.

“Certain."

“You’d better be, if any of our aunties interrogate me I will totally tell them and then we might be in real trouble.”

“Just-!” Freda was interrupted as the blonde got up and gave her a hug, she patted her friends head. “No need for drama or worries, Sussy, I have lots of tricks up my sleeves.”

“I know, we’re both witches, but be careful, okay?”

They looked at each other and Freda nodded firmly. After ending the hug the petite woman picked, seemingly at random, one of the doors from the room and opened it. Salty wind, the sound of the sea and the warm light of the sun flooded into the room.

Freda winked at her friend whilst maintaining her serene expression.

“I’ll be back before noon.”

Susan raised her thumb and Freda passed through the doorway, closing it behind her, leaving the room once again in darkness.

“Good luck...” mumbled Susan, crossing her fingers.

The sow snorted in her peaceful dream.

...

At the old dock on the shore an elongated inhuman shout was heard above the waves, disrupting the calm of the beach on that sunny day.

“IIIIIIIIIIH! I TOLD YOU! IIIII TOLD YOU ALL! NO HOPE! WE ARE JUST STUPID BIRDS! JUST BEEEEERDS!”

A disturbing sonata of pleas, begs, squeaks and the cracking sound of shifting flesh and shrinking bone. The screaming didn’t stop, the voices just got higher pitched as the changes progressed.

“Thish can’t be! Noooooour fair! NOUK! I don’t eveeeeeen leeeeeeek wiiiiiiiiiicheeees!”

Six naked sweated women were rolling around in pain across the old wooden planks that made up the dock, deforming and mutating into a flock of birds.

Seagulls.

White feathers covering their skins, spines bending, arms squeezed into wings and a few eggs being laid from cloacas in the making. The half-bird creature at the front of the flock stepped forward, flapping her forming wings and clacking at the salty air with her beak.

“Whyyyyyyyyyck?! WHYYYYYYYYY?! WHYYYYYYYYCK!”

The creature squawked desperately, squawking to the stranger who was staring at the bizarre scene of metamorphosis.

The stranger shrugged.

“I was just curious to be honest, the legend of the coven of the flock, it would have been a shame to ruin it. Also I do agree with the curse, I don’t want to deprive the local flying rat population of such a great stock of females.”

Then she laughed hard and devilishly.

The changes ended, there were now just female seagulls in front of the mysterious woman, she clapped, the flock rose up and flew away easily, giving her a last, final, sad glance. They flew gracefully over the waves thanks to years of experience, they flew back to their sorry avian existences, this time without any hope left of ever escaping them... and then they saw a girl that seemed to have appeared out of nowhere approaching the stranger from behind...

Only the gulls noticed Freda, the stranger didn’t, she was too busy staring at the unfortunate birds. She was a short pale girl that had her hair shaved short and dyed blond. On the short side in stature, with modest hips and breasts and a maleficent grin across her lips.

“Black Moon Petal coven, pfff, my arse!” she chuckled, satisfied, putting her hands in her jacket pockets. “What a bunch of twats... or cloacas, I guess!”

She laughed at her own joke until Freda interrupted her.

“Was cruelty the point?”

The girl’s tranquil cold voice startled the stranger, raising up her guard she spun and looked behind herself.

“Who the heck are you?!” she shouted when she saw Freda, who was just sitting on the dock gate handle with a blank expression.

“Freda Colpot, apprentice witch to Lady Yaga’s coven,” she cocked her head. “And you must be a lonely roaming witch.”

Freda’s serene coldness made the roaming witch narrow her eyelids.

“Where did you come from?”

“I passed through a door.“

The roaming witch sighed in annoyance,

“Mph, you must be the buffoon of your coven.”

“Nah,” Freda shook her head. “That’s Susan.” she stood up. “You didn’t answer my question: Was cruelty the point?”

“You damned moron... What do you even mean?”

Freda pointed at the flock of seagulls circling in the air above them.

“You shifted them back into humanity, just to turn them into avians once again.”

“Why do you even care?”

“Is it because such displays of power make you horny?”

A soft blush colored the witch’s cheeks.

“Dark Goddess, you are annoying.”

Freda chuckled, pointed at the birds up in the sky.

“I was looking for them: The Black Moon Petal coven”

“Why? Friends of yours?” the witch crossed her arms smugly. “Or did you come here to join their coven’s flock?”

“No,” she shook her head. “but that’s a really great fitting name, very fun. I don’t know them, yet, but Yaga told me their tale. Lady Shanon Moon Petal and her cabal of good for nothing. Yaga said she was an insufferable prick, her and her companions. Witches doing evil as witches do until they met a fitting end.” Freda looked up into the sky. “She may have been powerful, but she’s a better bird than woman or witch, that’s what Yaga told me.”

One of the gulls squawked out her hurt pride.

“Mmph, why are all you coven witches such hypocrites? You came here to do the same shit I just did, but you think you are better than me.”

“I didn’t come here for that, I came here looking for a familiar.”

The roaming witch raised an eyebrow and then focused her eyes back on the flock.

“Oh, oh, I see...” she shrugged. “Well, good for you, you’ve got six flying rats from which to pick. I don’t care.”

They looked back at each other.

“What’s your name?” asked Freda.

“I’m not gonna tell you sh-!”

“What’s your name?” Freda asked again more coldly, interrupting the witch.

The witch pupils dilated for a second.

“Janice...” she babbled, then shook her head and raised her guard once again. “You freaking bitch? What do you think you are doing?”

Freda’s nails were starting to glow orange.

“After seeing them I think that I’m gonna take the whole flock as my familiars.”

Janice nails had a red glow.

“Are you insane? Six familiars? Do you really believe your own hype?”

“Seven,” corrected Freda. “You are as open as a book for me to read, Janice Riley, just as vain, cruel and obnoxious as Shanon Moon Petal. I’ve seen what you have done.”

Janice’s heart missed a beat, but she denied it with a chuckle.

“So what? You think you know me, fucking weirdo?!”

“Don’t worry about that, I’m not judging you too much, witches do witchery and lonely ones tend to have even fewer morals than most. I’m sure we will eventually come to know each other and get along, my gull. It isn’t as if you have many other options.”

“Don’t you dare talk to me like that...!”

“Why shouldn’t I? You are just like them,” Freda raised a finger and pointed at the sky. “I could lie and tell you that this is a righteous punishment and a richly deserved lesson, that you are joining the coven flock because that’s where you belong. There’s some truth in that lie, but the real reason is that you happen to be here and seven is a better magic number than six.”

“If you think you’re just gonna make me squawk and flap and...!” Janice’s mind was assaulted by the memory of an egg sliding out of a vagina, which made her pussy clench. “That I am like them at all! That I..!. Join them?” Janice bit her lips, spat on the wood and raised her arms smiling like a maniac. “I’m going to trash your stupid goddamn face!”

“You’d better try that, this is a duel after all.”

The wind whistled, the air sparkled and the conflict began.

Janice’s hand was faster than Freda’s reflexes. She slapped the void upwards and a few of the old boards that made up the dock exploded and flew. Shrapnel splinters and rusty nails flew with malicious intent.

Freda stopped most of the projectiles, but several still managed to hit her arm. The sticky warmth of blood ran down her arm.

“Such violence,” she mumbled, feeling more annoyed than frightened.

“Not so cold now, huh?! You frigid bitch!” Janice was concentrating all of her power between her two hands, the red glow intensifying. “You say I’m like them? A damned flying rat?! Well, FUCK YOU! If I’m a bird then you’re bird food, let’s see how much you like the flock when you’re a worm!”

Despite her wound Freda was impressed with the roaming witch’s skills, after a distraction she was trying to finish the duel with one decisive blast of shifting energy. Not the most refined or smart move, but one which was quite surprising from a witch without proper training.

A very thin smile formed on Freda’s lips, now, more than before, she was certain Janice was the perfect final addition to her familiars.

With a roar of anger Janice launched her blast.

Freda raised her uninjured arm, a bubble of orange energy formed in front of her, blocking the attack.

“You can’t hold me off me forever!” shouted Janice as she increased the intensity of the stream of power. “I can keep this going for hours, but with that wound you aren’t going to hold that charm for long! Better enjoy your last moments as a human, stupid insect!”

Janice laughed maniacally, Freda didn’t pay much attention to her, easily maintaining her barrier. She did consider correcting her future familiar, telling her that worms are technically molluscs, but there would be time for that later and her interest was now focused on the six seagulls flying around them.

As the duel escalated the birds had flown lower, doing circles around the two witches. While the others remained at a safe distance one of the gulls, the smallest looking of the bunch, dove near Freda and landed with some dignified grace on the railings.

“Look!” shouted Janice. “That flying rat knows how this ends! She’s gonna eat you as soon as I ruin your flesh!”

The bird looked at Freda.

Without her defenses getting any weaker Freda looked at the bird, staring deeply into the dark dull eyes. She stared until she was staring at Lady Shanon Moon Petal.

“You insolent brat!” yelled a very offended Shanon.

She and Freda were now in the massive library of an ancient mansion. Rows and rows of cursed tomes and tainted grimoires, a dormant fireplace, the wind a wailing howl in the distance.

Shanon was just a bit shorter than Freda, but she compensated for that by wearing a very elaborate dress. Her dark hair was tied in a high bun, and she wore lots of makeup and jewellery with ostentatious witchcrafting runes and symbols.

“Is this what that wretch Yaga teaches to her apprentices? To disrespect their elders and their status?” the witch put a hand on her not too impressive cleavage. “I may be in a sticky place right now, kid, but I’m still a high witch of the high witch council! How dare you talk about me right in front of me as if I wasn’t there, as if your demented plan had worked and I was merely your squawking pet!”

Freda nodded.

“I agree, I should show more respect to my familiars, my apologies.”

“I am not your familiar!” yelled Shanon more loudly, growing a bit red. “Not me nor any of my sisters!” she pointed at Freda. “But the worst insult of all is to dare to even insinuate that there might be anything in common between the likes of me and that miserable punk that is about to turn you into a worm!”

“But I’m correct, she’s just like you and is a perfect fit for the flock.”

“She’s nothing like me!”

“Well, maybe not exactly right now, but her inside already matches and she’s going to be a seagull soon as well.”

Lady Shanon opened her mouth stunned, she wouldn’t have believed such levels of disrespect if she hadn’t had the disgrace to have met Yaga. At another, more favorable point of her existence she would be right up there with Janice, being the one turning the insolent girl into a worm.

That realization made her bite the inside of her lips in shame.

That and knowing she loved the taste of worms.

“Do you really believe your own hubris?”

Freda shrugged.

“As much as any other witch.”

The wind howled louder beyond the sturdy walls.

“Even if I agree, which I don’t, having so many familiars at once could cause serious magical backlashes and other problematic issues.”

“With your knowledge I’m sure we can handle it. You need to help me manage your flock and also teach Janice how to be a proper gull. We both agree that’s a fitting end for her now that it’s certain that nothing will be saving you and your sisters from your birdly fate.”

“Maybe.”

“But for that to happen you have to stop looking for excuses to avoid the inevitable, my gull.”

Shanon took a step back.

“I’m not... You are the one...”

“Shanon, this is not a fancy  mansion,“ interrupted Freda. “This is a nest.”

The bookshelves began to crumble, the books began to turn to ash and the walls to crack.

“N-No...”

“You are naked.”

Shaking her head the disgraced witch looked down, saw the straw of a nest, her naked toes and the tips of her nipples. The mansion disappeared around them.

They were in a large nest built in a crack on a gray crag, in front of a raging gray sea, underneath  a gray sky. Shanon was completely naked.

Around them, on top of other rocks and openings, they could see five more nests, the rest of the coven, equally as naked as their leader, were looking at them sorrowfully from the distance. Freda raised her hand and a seventh nest appeared.

“S-Stop...” mumbled Shanon, shivering.

“What? Are you gonna say it’s not fair?” Shanon shook her head, as Freda approached her she began to slowly squat down into a bird like posture. “You can’t ignore the truth anymore, my gull. Lying to yourself will only cause further harm to you and your flock. You are no longer a woman or a witch.”

“No! I’m still Shanon Moon Petal! I still have some dignity left...!”

“The council erased most traces of your existence as soon they discovered you were laying eggs. That’s how this cruel world we are part of works. There’s nothing left of Shanon other than a footnote and a mocking joke.”

Shanon was now fully squatting, shivering in her nest, Freda leaned over her.

“The realm of the harpy is now your only true home,” Freda whispered to Shanon and then recoiled. “You are the leader of the flock, you decide for your sisters, if you want some dignity back to your existence this is your choice: You all live the rest of your existence as flying rats or you become my seagulls.” she raised a finger. “If it’s the second, do not answer with words.”

Deeply humiliated inside the domain of her own heart Shanon clenched her lips, staring stiffly at the young woman who was about to become her master for the rest of her existence.

She felt her sister’s eyes on her moist naked back.

She knew.

The woman flapped her arms and opened her mouth.

“SQUAWK! SQUAWK! SQUAWK!” was the sound that came out of her mouth.

Not a human voice’s attempt to imitate the sound, but the genuine sound of her kindred. In the other nests the flock follow in line, squawking to the wind and into the storm. Freda nodded. Circling the neck of the witch and each familiar was a mark painted from the void on their skins, sealing their bond.

Freda touched her neck, satisfied.

“Perfect,” she said to the small seagull standing in front of her. “Now let’s get the occupant of the seventh nest. You know what to do, follow my lead, my gulls.”

Back at the dock barely a couple of seconds had passed. Janice was still throwing all of her power against Freda’s defenses without any result. She blinked once and then blinked again, by the side of her rival, sitting on the dock’s railings, instead of a seagull she saw a naked Shanon.

Both she and Freda had the same marks around their necks.

“That bitch... She actually did it...?” she uttered to herself, clenched her teeth and let even more of her power flow. “That changes nothing!”

“Change is a very appropriate word.” Freda pointed her palm to Janice and pushed with her power.

Janice began to struggle, the orange energy was pushing her red beam back towards her and she seemed unable to stop it. Her own magic was being pushed back towards her and she had put so much power into it that she just couldn’t stop the release.

She began to panic as it was forced all the way back to her hands.

“No! No! No! How are you...! Stop! Don’t you dare! You are the worm! You! Not me!”

Freda’s lips twisted into a faint smile.

“Cruelty isn’t the point, but it is certainly part of it.”

“Finish her!” shouted Shanon, standing up, then followed with a muttering. “M-Master... you should...” to her horror, that was the moment Freda lowered her hand, evaporating her barrier. Shanon’s mouth dropped open. “What are you...?”

Janice also couldn’t understand that move, but she didn’t waste the chance.

“YOU ARE THE WORM!”

With that powerful scream she shot the energy accumulated in her hands with it’s full potency, every last drop of it.

“What are you doing idiot!” yelled Shanon.

But it was too late, Freda received the red sparkling blast with her arms open and her eyes closed. It pierced her form, tingled her skin... and then disappeared without any effect.

“H-How...?” mumbled Janice, her arms still extended, sparks in her palms, totally tired and exhausted. “Why didn’t you change...!”

Freda opened her eyes, her pupils were rectangular, exactly like those of a goat.

“I am already changed,” she said, then looked at Shanon. “She’s dry and tired now, proceed.”

Shanon was still shocked.

“I have tied my flock’s fate to an insane unhuman witch...”

“Proceed,” repeated Freda without flinching.

“Yes... My master...”

Shanon began to walk towards the weakened Janice, the seagulls flew lower and lower in sync with her naked steps. Janice took a few feeble steps back, panting, shaking her head.

“Don’t get any closer to me...!” she tried to conjure her magic, but only a few dim sparks came to the tips of her glowing nails.

The head gull moved in front of her.

“Flying rat,” Shanon told the scared roaming witch. “Little sister.”

“NO!”

Shanon flapped her arms as if they were wings, the wind ripped all of Janice’s clothes away in a flash. Suddenly completely naked, as naked as the familiar in front of her, she covered her breasts and crotch with her arms. Her dark pubes didn’t match the blonde shade on her head.

Janice kept backing away until her nude back hit Barona’s firm chest. She looked behind her shivering, Barona, the tallest and most physically imposing of the flock, looked down at her with an intense stoic frown.

“This is not happening...!” babbled Janice.

Barona just grunted at her.

“Welcome to the flock, lil sis!” said a cheerful youthful Emma after gracefully landing as a woman. “It’s not that bad, flying is a blast!”

“Yeah, you’re gonna love laying eggs!” added Carina with a transparently resentful tone after landing on her other side.

Velena was the last one to touch the dock.

“We are just birds,” she said with distant whispering. “Just stupid birds.”

Janice was surrounded in all directions by the five seagulls, as nude as she was and each one with the familiar mark around their necks. The former witches to whom she had given an ounce of hope just to have the pleasure of taking it away.

They stared at her, not with all the vengeful anger that might be expected, but clearly enjoying the equalizing shift in power that was in motion.

“Let me go...!” demanded Janice in a broken pleading voice.

Instead,the familiars grabbed each other’s hands, forming a circle around Janice and began the ritual with the smooth precision their master desired.

“One of us!” chanted Shanon.

“No!” yelled Janice.

“One of us!” continued Barona.

“Stop! Stop I’m not! I’m not!”

“One of us!” Emma.

“Stupid sea hens!”

“One of us!” Velena.

“I am not one of you!”

“One of us!” The chanting ended at Carina and then began again with Shanon.

“Let me go!” screamed Janice at the top of her lungs as an exact ethereal copy of her flesh was forced out of her back and ended up floating behind her, struggling in agony. “LET ME GO!”

In a feat that impressed both Shanon and Freda the roaming witch managed to pull one last card out of her non-existing sleeve. Invoking magic out of nowhere itself. Her eyes red lighting as she gathered every ounce of will and strength she had left in an attempt to escape her fate.

The five familiars maintain the circle and the ritual.

Gertrude, still a seagull, had landed on Freda’s shoulder and was observing the clashing powers with amazement and dismay, worrying for her sisters.

“Amazing,” muttered Freda. “Janice sure is something, now I want her in the flock more than ever. I know you feel useless in front of such fantastic events, Gertrude,” Freda kept talking without even looking at the bird in her shoulder. “But I assure you that you are as important as the rest. Now just let your instincts flow.”

The seagull would have frowned had she had eyebrows instead of feathers. She looked at her master, confused and not at all certain of what was expected of her.

But as Freda extended her arm and her eyes glowed orange it became clear.

Without any doubt she flew through the chaotic magical winds, did a complete circle above the ritual and then descended towards Janice, positioning herself directly on top of her head, her webbed feet on one of her cheek bones.

With magic sparkling in their eyes, witch and familiar looked at each other.

A pinch of pain in Janice’s heart, as she reached her limit beyond her limit... and could only see an equal in the bird’s eyes...

“N-No...”

Gertrude squawked, flapped her wings and pushed.

The egg she laid landed directly inside Janice’s mouth. The bird rose up again, Janice tasted defeat as the hard shelled egg began to slowly slide down her throat.

She grabbed her neck with desperation, crossed her knees, grunting and panting.

“ONE OF US!” the familiar reminded her.

With a quick sweep the final remains of her power vanished from her eyes, leaving only two scared crying eyes. The roaming witch opened her mouth.

“BWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAK!”

With a terrifying shifting burst Janice faces thrust out into a fully formed beak that clacked and squawked impotently. Her transformation was fast and rampant, a quick ravaging of her human form as the egg traveled down her body.

Whilst her head became that of a gull, hair was replaced by dark feathers that covered everything and the swelling and darkening of her eyes to match that beak, around her neck appeared the branding of the familiar. Her big beastly eyes glanced around at the surrounding women, her sisters of fate, with anger and terror. She keep bwaking and squawking, the change gradually forcing her to get into the avian posture, spreading her legs, squatting down and flapping her arms.

The motion of the egg dictated the pace of her transformation, but not just of her flesh. At the same time as her chest expanded and her breasts were covered by feathers that turned black after leaving the neck area, the phantasmagorical Janice behind the transforming one began to become contorted. Arms and legs forced together, as a fetal position was imposed on the magical projection that began to shrink with an expression of complete discomfort.

Real Janice’s fingers deformed into flapping wings that soon acquired their own collage of feathers. The size of both projection and the real decreased, but as obvious as it was that the real was becoming a gull, it also became obvious what was happening to the projection.

It shrunk and reshaped, shifted and merged into an oval shaped stone.

An egg just like the egg that was about to reach the gull-woman’s forming cloaca.

Janice, small and surrounded, flapped and squawked one last time, tapped the wooden dock  with her webbed  feet and laid her first egg. She didn’t love it as much as Carina had claimed, but also didn’t hate it that much either.

The egg crashed and splashed, as it became yolk, white and shell the change ended and the projected egg also broke and vanished with a red glimmer, leaving behind nothing but a young shivering female seagull on the dock.

“Bwaaaak...! Bwaaaak!” clucked Janice looking at the smiling women that were enjoying her disgrace as much as she had enjoyed there’s.

Gertrude, still a full gull, landed at her side. Janice was afraid of her, but to her surprise her sister just got closer to her and rubbed her head against hers and for the first time in a long time the young seagull felt warm.

Then an enthusiastic clapping.

“Great job from everybody! A wonderful and marvelous spectacle! Loved it, but not as much as I love finally having you all as my familiars, my coven flock.”

When Freda finished clapping there were seven seagulls on the dock, the five that had just been changed shaking their feathers and still surrounding Janice and Gertrude. The gulls look up at their master, a tense feeling in the air now that the action had so suddenly died off, only being disturbed by the sound of the sea.

Freda, using witchery and the scraps of the clothes worn by the woman who had once been Janice, bandaged up her injured arm. She was really happy and after finishing she pointed at her flock of familiars and made a simple gesture.

The flock changed once more, with soft snaps and cracks the women behind the feathers seem to emerge from the torsos of the seagulls as their bodies expanded. It was quite the pleasant change, even more so in comparison to all the other transformations that occurred that day.

It was actually quite a lot more pleasurable.

Breasts, human heads, hair and even vaginas reappear on their bodies, they grew large, but not as big as a human. Webbed bird feet and legs, tails and wings instead of arms remained attached to their torsos, but the rest went back to humanity, with the exception of a few other lingering traits from their true nature, such as a several white feathers in Emma’s hair, black feathers around Shanon and Janice’s eyes and Barona’s beak like lips.

Harpies.

Freda crossed her arms behind the back and nodded.

Shanon, leader and matriarch of the birds, understood it, she bent her knee and lowered her head, the markings on her neck glowing orange. The other five follow her example, but not Janice.

She looked up at Freda, at the witch that had defeated her, humiliated her and even worse than that. Her brain still throbbing with the anger of having been reduced to what she had agreed were flying rats.

It was so hard to accept how fast it had all twisted against here, despite how used she was to the nature of magic, it was such a harsh pill to swallow.

“What, Janice, my gull?” Freda said to her without any sign of anger or resentment, not even at her attempt at defiance. “Are you gonna cry and sob that it’s not fair you had to end up like this?”

Janice remained silent, her eyes itched and her lips trembled.

“If you choose to live as a witch you must be pretty dense to ignore the risks, even the most powerful witch of all is only one unlucky event away from joining up the livestock world, or perhaps worse,” Freda began to walk towards Janice, the other seagull harpies remained with their heads low, but Shanon and Greta glanced at their young sister out of the corner of their eyes. “I will never lie to you, you dumb bird, a witch without a coven is just a sad and cold life usually irremediably pointed towards a disaster. You could have ended up much, much worse,” Freda leaned closer towards Janice’s face. “You could have ended like one of the worms that will from now on be part of your diet, but instead you got a sisterhood and a master. Lucky for you I’m no cruel master, but you know what I want and right now,” she straightened her back. “Right now there’s no need for words, my gull.”

Orange shone in Janice pupils, her familiar bonding glow with that same light.

“Squa-a -acwk... Quawk...”

With that soft gobble Janice joined her flock, bending her knee and lowering her head.

“Good,” nodded Freda. “Great, almost perfect.”

She turned her back to the flock and began to walk away, she didn’t look back as her seagulls lost their harpy component and were instantly reduced to birds once again, neither did she have to utter commands for the seven gulls to hasten in following her, flying and hopping behind their master.

“This has been fun but quite a tiring experience. I still have lots and lots to learn and so do you all with me, Am I right?”

“Bwack!” clucked Shanon.

“Exactly, but for now we should go and rest. I need a shower and some grace from your healing wings, Velena. I will also probably have to explain it all to Susan, I hope she helps me figure out an excuse so Yaga and Adelia don’t get too mad about this little adventure,” she sighed, but didn’t really sound troubled at all. “I’m so getting grounded for this. Let’s go home, my gulls.”

The waves fondled the sand on the coast and Freda Colpot, accompanied by her flock of familiars, left the beach through the same door she had used to arrive.