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It all started with an egg. Not a normal egg, not a_harpy_ egg, but the largest egg I had ever seen. I was only seven at the time, barely a fledgling, my wings too weak to fly. I thought I'd seen everything there was to see on the Shorn Coast - caves in the cliff walls, hundreds upon hundreds of my fellow harpies, the beating waves against the rocky shore - but I'd never seen an egg like this before.

The adults had just picked apart a feast from the vicious, spiked rocks. A ship had been smashed ashore, perhaps fleeing the kraken that unwittingly protected us from sea-ward threats. The giant squid could hardly be bothered to grab a harpy or two from the air when entire ships floated by like unprotected eggs ripe for cracking. The kraken had eaten what it could, leaving a dozen or so humans dead or dying on the sharp stones. If any had entertained hopes of surviving this encounter, they were dashed as our flock descended, ripping and tearing with their talons and carrying up what flesh they could to us kids.

I was stuffed with raw meat, and though I was passed over for the liver, I couldn't have been happier. While my mother was tending the other fledglings, I hopped and flapped my way around the cliff's edge, exercising my wings. I liked to gaze over the edge, shivering with anticipation of when I could safely soar out over the sea to scavenge with the others. We were safe up top thanks to the uneven ground - faults and fissures lined the top so that the ground was all but impassible by those without wings. The humans had tried a few campaigns to route us out, and had even reached the peak, but they had no way of descending to our cliff caves while we bombarded them from the air. All their attacks managed was to feed another generation of youth.

It was within one of those crags that I saw the egg. Ever curious, I hopped carefully down, knowing I'd have to climb my way out. How could anyone miss it? The egg was the size of a man's small shield, and glistening bright red. Glancing around, I wondered what it was, and why it was here. I saw no nests, large or otherwise - just the egg lying in the cold earth. Creeping forward, I reached out with one of my feet and tapped it gently.

It was warm.

Feathers rumpling, I reached my wings around it, only able to wrap it twice despite my ten-foot wing-span. I could feel something inside the egg moving, responding to my warmth. The egg shifted, as if the creature inside were shuffling closer to my chest. All thoughts of eating this strange egg were gone at that moment. Perhaps it was love at first sight?

I stayed there all afternoon, warming the egg, heedless of my mother who must've been worried sick. My efforts were finally paid off when the egg began to crack, not on its own, but at the hands of a bright, yellow beak. Screeching, I backed away, watching in uncertain amazement as the shell was shattered in all directions, leaving a large, damp _bird_in its place. About thirty pounds, the hatchling was covered in bright red feathers. How could I have known it was a Roc? They were so rare that the adults told tales of _ghosts_to scare the kids, not Rocs.

It screeched up at me, shivering, and I quickly embraced it once more. I couldn't let the poor thing suffer. Whatever had happened to its momma, I was the only thing left for the poor bird. Hacking up some relatively fresh man-meat, I gave the Roc its first meal.

I told no one until a week later, when the bird was growing faster than I could feed it. Soon the red-feathered fowl was as tall as my waist, and 40 pounds. I could see already that she would have a larger wingspan than any harpy, but I had no inkling of just how large. My mother was happy to explain.

"That - that's a Roc!" she screeched, flapping backwards. "Where did you find this, Jhora?"

"She was right here, Momma, as an egg. I've been feeding it what I can, but she's still hungry!"

"We should kill it," she said, without flinching. "Do you realize how big and dangerous Rocs get? It'll be as large as a ship! As large as the kraken!"

My eyes widened, but not at the declaration of size. "You can't kill Plita! What'd she_ever do? She's my _friend."

Mother was startled. "Your...friend?" She could tell that I wasn't going to let Plita go without a fight. "Well, we'll have to tell the elders - whatever they decide is what we'll do."

I think she knew that they'd order Plita's death, but she didn't want to take the blame. Sure enough, the elders figured there was no reason to take a great risk on the Roc. Tears in my eyes, I threw myself around my friend, gasping, "No, no, she won't hurt anyone. She'll help us! I promise!"

I'd like to say my protests worked, but it was Plita herself who saved the day. As the harpies approached with their axes, she spread her wings and screeched, "No hurt me!"

The elders stopped in their tracks, the eldest, an eighty-year-old woman with a raspy shriek of a voice, gasped, "You can talk?"

I was as surprised as they were. Sure, I'd spoken to her since she was an egg, but I had no idea she was learning our ways. Plita said, "I talk. No hurt me - no hurt Jhora."

The three maidens shrieked and screeched amongst each other too quickly and quietly for me to follow, but I more than understood their final decision. The eldest cried, "Perhaps a Roc that can be reasoned with would be...as useful asset. I've heard tales of such creatures plucking entire whales from the sea!"

The second spoke with more caution, "But only if this...Plita stays tame. Rocs may not have the ability to assault our caves directly, but our fledglings would be sitting sheep on the cliffs above."

The third agreed. "Should this bird prove too dangerous to handle, she must be culled, and quickly - before she grows to large to slay."

I gasped, "She won't! She wouldn't! Thank you! Thank you!"

The decision was made.

* * * * *

By the time I was twelve, Plita was the size of an elephant, and still growing. The harpies had fed the bird until she was finally able to hunt for herself, descending upon the waves at a speed thrice the fastest harpy. All she had to do was dip her massive talons deep and pluck up whatever she grasped - a shark, a dolphin...but never a whale just yet. The elders kept hoping for larger hauls, because Plita herself ate everything she caught, she was so voracious.

Her language skills improved as well. Before every hunt, she would embrace me in her great, giant wings and say, "Stay safe, Jhora. I return soon." We did everything together except hunt, because there was simply no way I could match the Roc's pace.

She only listened to me. The elders loved to shout instructions to Plita, but the Roc only obeyed when I would whisper in her ear. When we were both full, we sang and danced and fluttered our wings, simply enjoying the constant, gentle weather of the Shorn Coast, which by all accounts was the greatest place to live in the world. Some had travelled to the great monster city, where creatures were said to live in peace - an alliance against the encroaching humans. They dared not attack a stone fortress filled with dragons, gryphons, elves, centaurs, and more, all united. But neither did they approach our coast - at least not intentionally.

Our joy would not last, however, all thanks to a _male_of all things. At twelve, I was breeding age, though I was not as eager as my peers to lay a clutch. How could the touch of a male compare to the embrace of a Roc? Most boys were intimidated by Plita anyway, but one was a bit more...insistent.

Llanuc had had his eye on me since he was ten, or maybe all he wanted was Plita. He danced and flapped and ducked his head, always trying to court me, even well before I was of age. I used to roll my eyes at him, but truth be told, he wasn't so bad. He was the only boy that took an interest in my best friend.

"How big will she get? How much does she eat? How fast can she fly?" The questions never stopped, but I was happy to answer them when Plita was too busy to speak for herself. Though I found Llanuc interesting, Plita did not.

"He treat me like an animal," she said, croaking in her deep baritone.

I told her I thought she was being ridiculous. I didn't tell her, but I began sneaking off with him, kissing hidden in the rocks. I would need a clutch eventually - it may as well be him. I just wanted to get that over with - while the other girls my age were lifting their tailfeathers for all the strongest males, I was hoping for a quick breeding so that I could get back to playing with Plita.

Everything came to a head in late August. Food was getting scarce - between the Roc and the Kraken, sea life was wearing thin, and men's ships had learned to steer clear of the coast. I'd never heard Plita complain before, but now her stomach grumbled. "Hungry..." she said, as we sat watching the sunset.

"I know, Plita, but you'll catch something tomorrow - I'm sure of it."

"I catch something now!" she joked, wrapping me up with one, massive talon.

Only...it wasn't a joke! I laughed, but suddenly I was being drawn upward to Plita's open, yellow beak, her stomach groaning like the rush of the sea. I struggled against her talons, but she was far too strong for me, and I was a small meal compared to her new standard - orca. "Plita, wait!" I gasped, just before that gaping maw would have descending around my head.

To her credit, the Roc paused, cocking her head at me. "Why wait?"

"You can't eat _me!_If you eat me, I'll die, and you'll never see me again!"

"You...die?"

"You'll be alone, Plita. And none of the other harpies will like you anymore. They'll even try to kill you!" I gasped, kicking my legs.

"But I'm hungry - I eat."

My eyes widened. Again I was being drawn upward toward my doom, like a twig doll in her grasp. "Please, stop! Stop!" I screeched.

That may have been my end if it weren't for my clutch-sister Marivou. She heard my cries and flew over, alighting upon a nearby rock. "Plita! What are you doing!?" she gasped.

"I eat!" she said, insistently.

"But Jhora is your friend! You'll kill her!"

The Roc paused, making sense of this. "I not want Jhora to die, but my stomach hurts."

"Plita..." I gasped, tears streaming down my face.

The Roc flapped her wings nervously. "I not eat Jhora," she concluded finally, and we gasped in relief - for a moment. "I eat Marivou."

Opening her talons, Plita dropped me to the ground. My sister was so shocked by her words that she was too slow - before she could flap her wings, my friend had snatched her from the rock.

"Plita, no!" I yelled, bruised on the ground as I watched my enormous friend draw my sister toward her maw.

While Marivou shrieked, Plita said, "Marivou is not my friend," by way of explanation.

That is when Llanuc arrived. "Plita, wait!" he gasped. "There's another way!" He spoke as if he knew exactly what was happening. Had he been watching this whole thing? Why wait until now to step in?

Plita looked at the male, the feathers on her forehead rumpling, displeased. "What way?"

"Let me take you hunting. Not the sea - to the west, to the forest. I'll ride on your back and show you what you can and can't eat. There are people, and elves, and centaurs - nothing you can't handle. We will eat like kings!"

"Food in the forest?" Plita asked. She shook her talon, making Marivou squirm. "Food here."

Llanuc fluttered closer to the great Roc. "If I let you eat her, will you join me in the forest?" he asked.

What!? He couldn't really be considering this! Did the treacherous cock ever really want me, or did he just want Plita? "No, Plita - don't eat my clutch-sister!"

I know that I could have convinced her, if not for Llanuc. The male was actually egging her on! He said, "Go on, eat her, and we will go find more food - endless food!"

Plita looked at me, and then at Llanuc. She ignored my tears. She ignored my screams. I watched helplessly as the Roc did as she was told, lifting my screaming sister to her beak. This time, she didn't hesitate, pushing the upper half of Marivou into her mouth before squeezing down around her. She let go with her talon, but tossed her head back. With no breeze or momentum, my sister flapped her wings to no avail, falling head first into the giant bird's throat. After one gulp, just her legs and tailfeathers were showing. Plita bobbed her head up and down, throat bulging as Marivou slid down, screaming.

By now others had started to arrive, wondering what on earth the matter was. The truth was obvious based on my sister's talons, still peaking out of Plita's slick beak. The first batch of onlookers watched what could only be the last, desperate moments of a harpy, sliding into the bird's gullet where she barely made an indentation.

"Stop her!" the harpies cried, but this time Llanuc and I were united. We both leapt in front of our friends, protesting.

"Leave her alone, this isn't her fault!" I cried, trying to burn the image of Marivou's descent from my mind.

Llanuc however, spoke to Plita. "We have to go, now, or they will kill you. Let me onto your back!"

The Roc was confused. The only thing that she knew for sure, she said. "Still hungry..."

I spun to face my friend, paralyzed in fear. How could this be happening? Llanuc took his opportunity, saying, "Let me on, we'll hunt in the woods!"

Plita said, "Hungry now."

The crowded harpies were scrambling now for weapons, not used to a sudden, unforeseen threat. The armory cave was far away, but those who had left already would return soon. Llanuc looked around, urgently. "Then...eat Jhora - but quickly! We have to go."

My childhood friend spun her head around and settled her eyes on me. I could see the burning hunger there, and I knew for a fact that her love for me paled in comparison to her growling stomach. "No..." I shuddered as the Roc took a step toward me.

She was going to eat me. I was going to slide down her wet throat like so much meat before me, to join Marivou in the bird's growing belly. Would she miss me? Would she even realize what she'd done? May last thought before Plita's talons closed around me was to wonder how I could have misjudged Llanuc so badly.

Llanuc...

"Eat him!" I cried, pointing at the bastard that had driven this situation completely out of control. "You love me; you don't even _like_him!"

Llanuc hopped backwards, a new look of concern on his face, especially as the Roc's head turned around to face him. "No, don't listen to her. I can bring you food - lots of food."

Plita took another step toward him, saying, "Hungry_now_."

The young male leaped, flapping his wings, but he was no match for the titanic fowl. She reached out with one talon, plucking Llanuc from the air. I wanted to close my eyes, but I couldn't. I just stared, horrified, as my best friend lifted my boyfriend to her lips, pushing him feet first into her mouth. "No! Wait!" he gasped, kicking, but by the time Plita had released his body with her digits, she had wrapped her thick tongue around him. Saliva immediately coated his wings, weighing him down and preventing any attempt to fly away. As a last ditch effort, Llanuc wrapped his feathers around Plita's upper beak. She casually snapped her head back, and he fell straight into her throat, just his wing tips visible, and only for a second. She clapped her jaw shut, the only visible evidence of what was happening to the young man a distended bulge in her neck.

Three loud gulps, and he was gone. I watched his body slide deeper and deeper, until he too disappeared into my friend's belly, now, with two meals, looking a bit fuller. Plita licked her lips and buuuuurped, smiling down at me, oblivious to the oncoming spearhens. I scanned the sky for them, and sure enough, an entire contingent of harpies darkened the sky, descending upon my friend.

Squawking, I flapped onto her back, shouting, "We have to get away, now! Now!"

Plita smiled at me again, and simply said, "Not hungry anymore."

"Fly, damn you, fly!"

Shrugging, the enormous Roc left the confused onlookers behind, hopping toward the cliff and open water. I glanced over my shoulder to see the first volley of spears fly. "Jump now!"

She jumped.

Metal-tipped weapons clattered against the stones around us as Plita spread her wings and flew. I grasped onto her feathers with my talons for dear life, never having flown on my friend before. The wind gushed through my feathers, until I was almost blown free. I had to wrap my wings down, or I would be battered and broken by the sheer speed we were flying. The flock behind us never stood a chance, and soon, they were nothing but a speck in the distance.

"What's wrong?" Plita asked, still confused about the whole affair.

I couldn't help but think of Marivou and Llanuc, nestled up together in Plita's belly. We could never return home again, but where could we go? The city of monsters would never accept a Roc with no self-control. The ocean was all but empty of food. Llanuc was right, the only place to go was the great forest.

"Oh, Plita," I whimpered, tears in my eyes. "Everything...just everything."

* * * * *

When we finally landed I realized the danger I was in. Plita was already hungry again, and the way she was looking at me... Tired though I was, I convinced my friend to fly further, looking for food. What we found was a carriage full of elves.

They were heavily armed, but hadn't been counting on a_Roc_. Their swords were useless, and their arrows were mere pin pricks in the birds thick hide. I'm not even sure she noticed they were fighting back as she devoured each and every one of them, including the three little ones. She saved the children for last, seeming to take extra pleasure in popping each one down like scrap meat. Plita left nothing for me, but I managed to find passable meat in their supplies. Most importantly, however, my friend was full.

I explained as best I could what happened: eating harpies was not okay, and now all my friends and family would try to kill her on sight. She never really seemed to get it. "I was hungry," she would say, simply. She did, at least, seem to understand that if she ate me, I wouldn't be around anymore. She didn't want that, thank god.

To be safe, I made sure that I was never alone with her on an empty stomach. We hunted a lot, and when food was scarce, I hid until she found some horserider or something to sate her belly. The sheer amount of humans and elves disappearing in the forest was sure to bring trouble, however, but I had no idea what to do. We just kept travelling, first west, and when the forest ran out, back east again. There was nowhere near enough food in the arid wastes to support a Roc!

After a month had passed, and no army had arrived to destroy us, I finally began to have hope. Perhaps we moved enough to not draw attention? Perhaps Plita's newfound liking for gnolls had gotten her some goodwill among the others she had made her prey?

Either way, for once since our escape, things were finally starting to look up.

* * * * *

Jhora was nowhere to be found once again. She disappeared often, especially recently. The deer and wolf herds had been thinned so much by my belly that the only food I got was the occasional caravan of people. Though I rarely found them, they were a special treat - their young were particularly tender!

I was hungry, and no people were in sight. My shadow bathed the forest in darkness, sending mice and rabbits scattering, but they were not large enough to interest me. Had I picked all the deer clean? Soon we would have to move on.

That was when I saw it. Instant darkness. The sun was gone and I had to blink my eyes to see. As my eyes focused, I saw my shadow below me, only twice as large. Had I fallen in altitude? No, that wasn't my shadow at all. Glancing upward, I saw him.

Another Roc, nearly twice my size, flying forty feet above me. Our eyes met and he squawked. Perhaps _he_was the reason no more game lived below. I narrowed my eyes at him, stomach grumbling. If I could have eaten such a large creature, I would have, so hungry I was. "This is _my_forest!" I squawked up at him.

He gave no response, simply glaring down at me. Irritated, I took a wide turn, and he mirrored me, forty feet above. "Stop following!" I squawked.

He gave a long, shrill screech, but no words I could make out. I banked right, and he followed again. Shrieking in frustration, I tucked my wings in and landed heavily atop a small hill in the forest. He _thumped_to a halt a mere thirty feet away, eyes scanning me.

"What is your name?" I asked with a pointed tone.

He cocked his head and squawked. "Don't you talk?" I asked.

The enormous Roc spread his wings, flapping them gently in the air. The nearby trees cracked and swayed, leaves being ripped from their limbs. No answer. Was he stupid? He seemed no brighter than the animals and people that I ate. With a low bellow, I said, "Leave me alone," and turned away, spreading my wings.

I felt the air before I heard him. I was only just able to glance over my shoulder before I saw the huge Roc leaping forward, impossibly fast. I tried to take flight, but before I could hop, the huge beast landed on my back!"What are you doing!?" I shrieked, pecking upward at his head.

He was twice my weight - I was going nowhere. He bobbed his head back to avoid my strikes and screeched. His massive talons rested on my back, allowing the male to rest his tailfeathers on top of mine. "Get off me!" I cried.

And then I felt it. My tail feathers were shoved apart by...something. Massive red feathers spread to the left and to the right as something thick and warm stretched out from the Roc. I glanced over each shoulder, but his talons were both resting uncomfortably on my back, so I had no idea what this thing could be.

Whatever it was, it wasn't good. Tossing my head, I_shrieked_ again, kicking my feet and flapping my wings in an effort to dislodge the intrusive male. "Stop it! Stop it! No!" I cried, but he didn't listen. I wasn't sure if he even understood the words. I flung my head back, barely clipping the bird on the chin, but he just_screeched_ and held on.

"Keep fighting!" Jhora called, suddenly visible by my side. Where had she been? Was she hiding from me? I listened, struggling harder, as the harpy explained. "He's trying to breed with you!"

I blinked. I wasn't ready for _that!_I didn't even _know_this big, dumb male! How dare he think he could just leap onto my back and force a clutch under my tail! "Don't you dare!" I screamed at him.

Jhora fluttered over to the Roc's back, dropping down talons first to rake the huge male. He didn't even seem to notice. And he certainly didn't care about my protest. I was about to spin around when he finally did it.

I wasn't even close to prepared. His huge, thick cock dangled between his legs, shoving my tail apart and snaking up to poke into my downy feathers. He was huge, designed for a hen twice my size, but he shoved himself in just as hard. I arched my neck, _squealing_as his curved, throbbing cock (easily the size of a killer whale!) slammed into my quivering cloaca. He knew just where to go, sliding painfully into the right tunnel until I was stretched and shuddering. "Oh my god!" I shrieked.

Jhora clawed and raked the ship-sized bird as best she could, but the Roc didn't even seem to notice. He just pounded home again, wedging his over-sized shaft even deeper. I dropped my jaw from the sheer pain. What could I do? He was too big and too strong, and wouldn't listen to reason! Squawking, I did the only think I could do - I spread my legs apart, tailfeathers open and trembling. He would get what he wanted from me, and that's all there was to it.

The hilltop shredded beneath my talons, shrinking fast, our joined wingbeats felling some of the largest and oldest trees in the forest. Jhora had to grab on to the big male to keep from being buffeted away and torn to shreds. All she could do was ride the big Roc as he raped me mercilessly. His swollen cocktip pushed its way inside until I was screaming, his huge bulge poking through my belly where it nestled against my unprotected, obviously fertile womb. How could I not have noticed that I was in heat? I suppose I never expected to find _another_Roc.

He humped, grunted, and groaned, sliding more easily into my cunt as I began to get wet. I squawked, but couldn't help it - my heat-swollen cloaca was clenching eagerly around him, betraying me. The way he claimed me, grabbed me and did as he pleased with my small body made my face flush and my wings beat. How on earth can this feel good!?

"Please...stop!" I whimpered, knowing exactly what he'd be leaving behind if he didn't. But even if he'd understood the words, I could only guess as to whether he'd have even thought once about stopping.

"I'm so sorry, Plita!" the harpy screeched. "I can't stop him!"

I knew now that it was Jhora I loved, not some stupid, forceful male. She'd raised me since birth, cared for me over her friends, and saved me when I needed saving the most. But she couldn't save me this time. No one could. I bucked my hips, causing a small landslide on the hill beneath me. "Unnnh..._squaaaawk!_He's almost..."

He humped forward so hard I was slammed face first into the dirt below me, his curved cock doubling onto itself in its effort to shove all the way inside. He could only jam three-fourths inside, squeezing his bloated tip right up against my helpless womb. This was it - it was too late!

Splurt!

A literal river_of cum exploded into me, splashing headlong against my softening womb. In seconds, the flood pushed past my thin barrier, _glugging_audibly. I'd always imagined I was big, but next to this Roc, I was a just a chick. My innermost chamber bloated instantly, nowhere near large enough for the ancient beast. Like an overfull water sack, my pussy exploded in a backwards gush of thick, bubbling cum that _squirted out of my cloaca like a waterfall onto the hilltop below me. Trees were drenched, and if any birds or squirrels hadn't taken their chance to flee earlier, they were drowned now. Cum flowed in a zigzag pattern down the hill, spilling into a nearby creek and turning the water a rich, bubbling white.

He wasn't done, either. He slammed forward again, letting loose another stream in time to his ear-splitting shriek, announcing to the entire, thousand-acre forest that he had claimed me and I was his. I bucked up against him, shuddering and pulsing beneath him, my face still buried in the dirt below me. At least the cum wasn't flowing down the _front_of the hill!

I gasped and squawked for breath, barely able to stay conscious under his onslaught, while Jhora must have been holding onto his back for dear life. She could probably feel every shuddering load he _splurted_inside of me, just as aware as me what that would mean for my next six months. The only consolation I had was that Jhora would be there by my side, raising my chicks with me. We could pretend they were hers...somehow. Some way.

He used me again and again until he was finally done, twitching to a stop deep inside of me. He was panting on my back, wings finally slowing, crumpling up against his body. "_Rrrawk!"_he crowed, leaving his orca-sized cock buried inside of me. I wasn't going anywhere until he decided to get off of me.

Grumble, grumble.

At first I thought I was hearing and feeling my own stomach, still sparse of food, but the rumbling shook my entire body to the core. No, it was him. His gut shuddered on top of me, making my beak chatter up and down. If this Roc was the reason for how few meals were left in the forest, he hadn't eaten in days either.

"Hmmm, you look delicious," he said, making my eyes bug out. He could talk!?_He'd known exactly what I'd been saying and still ignored me! I squawked - first in anger, then in realization. _What did he just say?

He didn't speak again. I looked up at him, only to see a black emptyness between his beak. I managed to squawk_once more before the big, male Roc engulfed my head in his mouth. It was dark, wet, and warm, and I knew what he meant to do. I squirmed and struggled beneath him, but he was still just as heavy as ever, and I was now weighed down by thousands of gallons of cum. _This is it... I realized. I could hardly fight back with my head already poking up against the back of his throat. At twice my size, he could fit me, though it'd be quite snug. I knew because I'd swallowed a humpback whale whole, once. I'd been unable to move for a week, but damn was it good.

I could smell the acrid, old scent of air in his throat and he pushed further down. My nostrils poked right through his sphincter, squeezing around my beak like the kiss he'd never bothered to offer me. As he gulped me down, he began to wiggle his hips free, pulling yard after yard of his fleshy cock out of me. I felt his beak unhook, spreading wide as he aimed to take my thick shoulders in. I squealed and screeched, but I was hopeless to resist as I was sucked further and further into his esophagus.

Soon, he was standing with both talons on the ground, careful not to slip in the cum with which he'd frosted the hill. He wrapped his wings around my whole body, holding me vertical, pushing his head down so far that I could feel the edges of his beak digging into my wings. I kicked my talons uselessly in the air, helpless to do anything but feel his excess cum draining out of me into a puddle.

I closed my eyes and stopped struggling, just as the bigger Roc let out a loud squeal!_The thick, constricting throat around my head and shoulders convulsed, popping off of me and bathing my entire body in the sunlight once again. _What was that?

I flopped onto the hill with a splash, looking up in shocked amazement to find Jhora flapping around next to the Roc's massive head. He was reeling, blood pouring out of his cannonball-sized eyeball, and he was swinging his two talons around as if he might hit the agile harpy. She must have got him right in the eye! She wouldn't last long in a fight against a Roc with no weapons, so I picked myself up, _screeching_straight at the bleeding monster. He might be the father of my clutch, but I was not about to forgive him for trying to _eat_me! I leapt, scoring two deep gashes in the Roc's side. Now that I was free to move, and he was partially blinded, the tides had turned, and the Roc knew it. Cursing, he leapt fifty yards into the air and spread his wings, flapping as fast as the wing would carry him. I couldn't have caught up to him if I had tried.

Aching and sore, I landed back on the soiled hill, shaking my head to send the Roc's drool splattering in every direction. _Not today...!_Panting for air, I curled my wings up beside me and collapsed on the ground, heedless of the massive, sticky mess that remained. "You saved me!" I gasped.

Jhora was gasping too, fluttering to a halt on a nearby rock. "Not soon enough," she whimpered.

"He was going to eat me!" I exclaimed.

"But he still got away with -"

"Not matter. I...may not be ready as mother, but with you I know I'll be fine," I said, cooing gently at the small harpy.

I winced, my rump hurting worse than ever. I spread my legs and squeezed, trying to dump as much of the Roc's seed as possible. The trees on the hill were covered in white slime. I leaned toward Jhora and nuzzled her, careful not to push too hard. "I love you, Jhora."

She was crying. "I love you, too," she wept, positively exhausted.

I kept an eye to the sky as we prepared for bed, just in case the Roc returned, but he had learned his lesson. Together, the two of us curled up, my wing resting gently over her like a blanket. The day hadn't gone exactly as planned, but I didn't mind. It all worked out in -

Grumble.

Jhora glanced up at me, startled. She'd obviously heard it too. I had already been hungry before the fight, now, after the excitement faded, I was famished. I looked down at the harpy, blinking.

"Let's go hunting," she said quickly.

"Too tired. Hungry now."

Jhora flapped into the air, backing up. "I...I have a stash of food in the big tree to the west - let me go get it and..."

"No," I interrupted, grabbing her with one of my talons. My stomach _rumbled_again. The hunger set in like a fever pitch, worse than ever before. It was as if my body knew I was growing a clutch deep inside of me, and I needed every ounce of energy available to me.

Jhora gasped up at me. "Plita, think about what you're doing!"

"Hungry. Eat now," I said curtly, glancing around the sopping hill. I saw nothing of interest. "No other food around."

"I'm not food!" she gasped, screeching. "You love me, remember?"

I nodded, but I didn't care. My belly shook, and a meal was in my talons. "I do," I said, nonetheless, I lifted my childhood friend toward my beak.

"But...but I _saved_you!"

"And I'm grateful," I admitted, opening my mouth wide. There were only two things that mattered now: my empty belly and my full womb. Jhora screamed as I pushed her head first into my mouth, just like her clutch-sister a month ago. My tongue caressed her svelte form, and she tasted every bit as good as Marivou. Her wings were instantly drenched, weighing the harpy down and causing her to slide even more easily down my vast throat. I'd grown a lot since I ate her sister - now I didn't even need to gulp to swallow her down.

Her upper body slipped effortlessly into my esophagus, and she was squeezed and pushed down my throat in waves. I watched her small talons disappear into my beak before I snapped my jaws closed, cutting Jhora off from the rest of the world. She was mine now, and she was food for my babies. I pumped her down my throat, feeling the tight constriction that made my stomach feel better already. Soon, I burped, feeling my harpy sliding with a _plop!_into my waiting, empty gullet.

Lying down, I realized that the meat in my gut wouldn't last long. I recognized the area we were in, however. Near the eastern cliffs! I knew where the harpies kept their weapons, and I knew now how to hover just outside one of their caves, reaching in with a single talon. Jhora had taught me everything I needed to know, and soon I would teach the same tricks to my clutch.

My belly gurgled_and _glurped, and I patted my less-than-full gut.

"Thank you, Jhora."