My name is Jake Brown and I am screwed. I always hoped I would die in my sleep unaware and in peace. Unfortunately, for me, I died being struck by lightning while taking out my trash. There I was just walking to my trash bin, when I started getting this weird tingling feeling. Then suddenly I felt more pain than I ever felt in my whole life in a fraction of a second. It was a strange feeling, feeling every fiber of your being. What followed was complete paralysis. Shockingly, I didn‘t die immediately. I went blind, and deaf, and couldn’t feel any of my body. I laid there quickly dying, but not quickly enough, thinking of my life and how lame it was. I was a 22 year old virgin, no girlfriend, no true friends, no living family members, a dead end job, a crappy apartment, spent all my spare time reading fantasy books, and playing video games; in other words my life was going nowhere fast. I was mad at myself for wasting my life. I was pretty good looking, smart, and in decent shape, but somehow I still found my life in such a sorry state. The last thought I had before I died, was how I wish I could get a second chance to do better.

Strangely, and confusingly, I awoke in the fetus position. “What happened,” was all I could ask. It felt like I had been asleep for a very long time. When I opened my eyes I was in complete darkness. Getting the urge to stretch I tried to move my arms, but they were stopped by something. Getting more confused, I tried to move my legs, they were also stopped by something. Trying to move everything, I soon figured out ,I was surrounded on all sides. Getting a little nervous I started to push against what was ever surrounding me. At first it didn’t want to budge, but after I started panicking, I got a burst of panic strength and the wall started to crack. When it cracked some light slipped in, at the same time a window popped up in my face. The light was so blinding, to my eyes I ignored to window. It felt like I was right next to the sun. Freaking out, as I’m prone to do, I started thrashing around. The crack must have weakened the structure of whatever I was in, because as I was flailing my limbs around the structure gave way and I soon found my self even more blinded now that I was out. After a few moments of cursing at the sun, my eyes slowly started to get adjusted to the light. Before I could fully get my vision back I heard the sound of steps from behind me.

“Look what we have here, this is the first one from this patch,” said a stern sounding female voice.

“Oooo, beat the others ones by a long shot. The others don‘t even have cracks in their eggs,” said a energetic voice.

Turning around in the direction of the voices, my still sensitive eyes saw two blurry women. At the same time another window popped up in my vision, and again I ignored it. As I was about to ask them where I was, I got distracted by my surroundings. I was in a small cave, that could best be described as a room. It was filled with massive eggs everywhere. I looked back from where I had broke free of the object and there was an egg, I assumed that I had broken out of it. Whilst I was scanning my surroundings, I felt something on my shoulder. Spinning to the direction of that something as quickly as I could, I came face to face with one of the women. She was not human, well not fully. She was a bird woman, or a harpy as we are called. Yes I said we, because as I removed her arm wing from my shoulder I saw my hand….or talon claw hand. The harpy started talking to me, but I ignored her as I started to inspect my body. I felt short, around the height of an 8 year old, around maybe 4 ft tall. From my knees down, were bird legs with sharp talons on my feet, three talons in the front and one on the back of my bird feet. My thighs were covered with light brown feathers. My chest and stomach area looked like a typical human. My arms were a combination of arm and wing, they reminded me of a bat‘s wings, but unlike a bat’s wings that was only skin, mine were covered in light brown feathers. At the edge of my wings, I had two main claw talons with a third talon claw that acted like a thumb. My face felt like a younger version of my human face. My hair felt spiky, similar to Gohan’s hair from Dragon Ball Z when he was an adult. Around my neck I felt a feather collar that wrapped around my throat area, like the fur on those flashy pimp style fur coats.

“Am I dreaming?” I muttered as I was confused by the situation. Then it hit me, didn’t I die? Why am I here? Why was I in a egg? Was I reborn, no reincarnated? These kind of thought rushed in my head as I tried to make sense of my situation. Normally one wouldn’t come to such a conclusion, but I was an avid fantasy novel, comic book and manga reader. I at one point felt it could have been just a dream, but I was more than certain that this was reality. As I was lost in deep thought, the older looking one of the harpies got fed up with me ignoring her and started yelling.

“Listen to your elders when they talk to you little brat!” screamed the stern sounding voice. Shocked by the outburst I was immediately hit with a wave of pressure she seemed to be producing at me. I felt my hair, and feathers, stand up and felt a sense of immense dread.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to ignore you, I was just thinking.” I said with the best puppy dog eyes I could muster.

Now that I was focusing on her, I got a good look at the two harpies. The looked close to identical, but one looked far older and serious with blue feathers, while the other look younger and more carefree with dark brown feathers. They were both around 5 ft 2 inches tall. The older one had impossibly pale skin with pale blue eyes. While the younger one had more moderate skin tone with brown eyes. The older ones hair was a sky blue color, while the younger one had brown hair. While looking at them, I noticed that they wore no bras and just silken loin clothes. They didn’t have the feather collar around their necks like I had. Their features reminded me of Native Americans.

“Hmph, anyways congratulation on being the first hatchling of the group. Go outside and report to our sister outside for a loin cloth and then head to the palace to see our Queen Mother for your name and further instructions,” said the older harpy, with a look of utter annoyance on her face.

“Queen Mother?” I asked. “Is that my mother?”

“Queen Mother is the mother of all the harpies in this flock, therefore she is the queen. Which is why she is the Queen Mother. Now go!”

After she said that she pointed to the door and stopped talking, as another harpy had just started to crack out of its egg. Wasting no time I headed out of the cave, taking my first steps and walking awkwardly the whole time. When I reached outside I was stunned by the view. I was staring directly at a cloud at eye level. I was currently on top of a mountain, at a staggering height. Normally this height would make me nervous, but I guess being a harpy negates that somehow. The cave was severely dark compared to outside, so once again my eyes were assaulted by light.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Taking more wobbly steps, I made my way the harpy that seemed to have been handing out loin cloths; however, before I could say anything to her, she looked me up and down. Her eyes stopped at my crotch and she begin to scream like she had seen some sort of monster. She then flew away with amazing speed. Being confused I looked down and saw my junk. I found it odd that I didn’t check so see if I was male until that moment. I guessed in this strange situation it had just slipped my mind. Looking back at my crotch area, I noticed something was missing. I saw my penis, but I didn’t see my balls. Freaking out, I started feeling around my crotch searching for them. They were not there! “Where are they?” I screamed out loud. Inwardly and outwardly panicking, I begin to think I had been born with some sort of physical defect. Calming myself down, I started thinking of an logical places where my balls could be. Then my mind went to birds, I had never seen a bird’s genitals before. I have no real knowledge pertaining to birds’ anatomy. Maybe my balls are in my body to fight air resistance. Convincing myself that this was true and a good thing, I grabbed one of the loin cloths from the basket the fleeing harpy was suppose to hand out to me and proceeded to put it on.

Feeling less awkward, I decided to take a more consorted effort to analyze the mountains and general area. The harpy flock had built their homes in the mountainside. It reminded me of how some Native Americans tribes built their homes in such a way. A lot of the homes didn’t have paths to them, I assumed due to harpies flying ability. Getting intrigued, I tired flapping my wings in an attempt to fly. I quickly figured out, that there was no way I was flying anytime soon.

After a few moments of taking in the view, I proceeded down a road I assumed led to the palace. Walking on the poorly kept paths around the mountains, I soon found a building that had to be the palace, it was much fancier and bigger than the others. I walked up to the nicely carved wooden door and was met with two harpies wearing armor, and wielding bows on their backs and swords at their sides.

“May I enter to see the Queen Mother?” I asked sheepishly.

“The first hatchling of the batch?” the guard asked not expecting a answer. “Proceed in to see Queen mother for the naming ceremony and first born honors,” with that one of the guards opened the door and gestured for me to go in.

Proceeding forward, I made my way forward towards the throne, where the “Queen Mother” was currently proceeding. As I got close to her, one of the many guards screamed for me to bow. I bowed as soon as I was told, all the guards were heavily armed and I was not one for conflicts.

“What do we have here, is it already time for my precious children to be born? Raise up and let me see the first hatchling of the group.“

Doing as I was told I stood up and faced my new mother. She was breathtakingly beautiful. Her face looked like a Native American goddess. She was taller than all the other harpies, at about 5 ft 8 inches. Her pale skin was flawless, her eyes were golden and radiated wisdom. She looked no older than 30. Her feather were a majestic silver. She had an extra pair of wings on her back, and she wore a white dress. She had on many jewels and rings. Her hair was snow white and down to her waist.

“I have high hopes for you first born. As the first hatchling of the batch I bestow upon you earned right, the Mark of Greatness. Come fort and take my hand.”

She stood up and extended her hand and gestured for me to come to her. I proceeded to walk up to her and take her hand. As I touched her hand a magic circle appeared at my feet and I felt some sort of energy coursing through my body. I felt another window pop up in my vision, but I was to engrossed in the energy to care. A tattoo appeared on my hand. It was a chain of diamonds wrapping around my wrist.

“Finished, now look in my eyes, so I can ask the gods for your name.”

Looking into her eyes, it felt like she could see everything about me. Her eyes started glowing and pulsating with power. While I may have only looked in her eyes for 10 seconds, it felt like hours. When her eyes stopped glowing she proceeded back to her throne and sat down. Feeling this was my cue to go to where I was station before, I proceeded back.

“Your name shall be Strife,” she said with a smile that showed pride.

“Now go with your elder sister to see where you will be staying,” she pointed to a woman standing next to her.

Feeling this was the end of our time for now, I bowed to show respect. That bow would turn out to be a huge mistake. As I was coming up from my bow, my loin cloth fell off my waist. I was standing there with my junk out in front of my new mother. Feeling ashamed ,I picked it up immediately and put it back on, but the damage was done.

I looked at my mother and her eyes were open wider than I thought possible.

“Seize him guards,” she scream at the top of her lungs.

Within second I found my self on the ground with my arms pinned behind my back. I could hear my mother talking to herself in a rage.

“I can‘t believe this how could I give birth to a monster, if the other flocks find out about this I will lose a ton of face. I even gave him the mark. I should have known that name could only mean bad things,” she said as she began pacing back and forward

“Why?” was all I could say to her as I lifted my head in her direction.

“Because you are a demon in harpy skin, violent incarnate, uncontrollable monster of pure lust and carnage, A MALE HARPY! You bring nothing but misery where ever you go,“ she said with a rage filled voice. “Guards clip his wings and burn the wounds shut so he can‘t heal, as our traditions state!”

The last thing I saw before I hit on the back of the head, was the Queen Mother, my new mother, looking at me with disgust and turning around to sit back down on her throne. As I was losing consciousness I could hear the Queen Mother.

“Just my luck a male harpy, we must keep this from the other harpy colonies at all cost. Make sure you throw him far away from the mountain, so he can‘t be traced back here. Hmm, the lizard men area should be good enough to fix this problem, take him to Vile Forest”

I could only laugh inwardly as my consciousness left me. Just my luck, just born and already hated. Well Fu!ck me.

              Author note: This is my first time writing anything creative. If you see any mistakes tell me.