Zeke was holding his hands in his pockets and looked in front of him. He walked a long way, and now it was afternoon.
In front of him there were many tree houses, there wasn't a single building made in the ground. Harpies flew back and forth, while some baby harpies were playing with human males of any age in the land.
This was Harpy Village when everyone was awake.
An 'Evil' and 'Malefic' village where flying 'Murderers' 'ate' the villagers they kidnapped.
Now, swap the words inside the ' ' with the following ones and place them in this order: Amazing, Peaceful, Beauties, and Married.
Then you will find the real description of the Harpy Village.
Zeke breathed in and exhaled, before he started to walk inside the Harpy Village. A dozen of seconds after he stepped in the borders of the village, something tackled his left leg.
He looked down, and found a little chick. The Harpy with blue hair looked up at him and smiled. "Hey mister, do you want to play with me?"
Zeke couldn't help but smile and crouched down, before stroking her head. "Sorry but I am busy now, do you know where is the house of the Harpy Queen?"
The little chick pouted when she heard Zeke won't play with her and shook her head. "I won't tell you if you don't play with me!"
Zeke sighed, feeling a small headache. "Alright, alright, I will play with you when I finished to talk with the Harpy Queen about something important."
The small harpy smiled again and asked. "Really? You promise?"
"Yes, if you want then you can follow me so you will see if I said the truth or not."
The little girl started to think and said. "I'm going to ask daddy!"
Zeke nodded and watched the little Harpy flying away, then he sat down and waited. Soon, the little harpy and a young man arrived at Zeke.
"Daddy! It's him!" The chick pointed a wing at Zeke, and the young man turned towards him and nodded in affirmation.
The father approached Zeke, who stood up, and extended an hand towards him. "Pleased to meet you, I'm John, the father of Pipi."
Zeke grasped the hand and shook it. "My name is Zeke, a traveler. I heard about what is happening at Happiness Village and came here to reach an agreement with the Harpy Queen."
John was dumbfounded and asked. "What is happening there?"
Zeke's eye twitched… They didn't even know what is happening there? "*Sigh* The village lost its manpower, the only male there is a boy that is even younger than me.
The women are incapable to work fast enough to self-sustain with not only half of the people in the village, but with no one capable of doing heavy labour for a long time. And if this goes on, in less than 50 years the village will disappear due to the absence of a new generation taking the place of the current one."
The young man looked mortified at the news and immediately gave him the little harpy. "Please take care of her while I am out, I'm going back in the village. Pipi, daddy will be a bit busy so please listen to this young boy, ok?"
Pipi nodded and her and Zeke watched the father running at west. "BETTY!"
And so, Zeke and Pipi remained alone. They looked at each other for some moments and Zeke asked. "So, where is the Harpy Queen?"
Pipi pointed a wing at one direction and said. "There, in the big house!"
Zeke nodded and walked further in the village. However, Pipi tugged on his leg. Zeke looked down while she asked with an happy face. "Carry me!"
He stopped his thoughts and his mouth gradually curled into a smile. "Alright little champion."
Then Zeke lifted up the Haroy and placed her over his shoulders. Since Harpies were made to be light so they can fly better, Zeke didn't have any problem carrying her over his shoulders.
Since Zeke looked like the father of the child on his shoulders, no Harpy approached him to disturb, and he was able to safely reach the center of the Harpy Village.
"This is it!" Pipi pointed to a really big tree that was able to support a big house made of stone bricks and wood together.
Looking up, Zeke was amazed at how it was built. It looked like a small mansion with many floors, some of them were for the royal guards while the biggest one belonged to the queen.
Zeke put an hand behind him and took out his scouter from the Imperial Arm that was still held up with a belt going past his chest and left shoulder.
He placed the scouter in his right eye and looked up, seeing many signs of life past the walls. He backed away from the tree to have a better sight of the building, and pressed some buttons on the side of his scouter, zooming the vision on his right eye.
Looking around the building, he saw many Harpies with light armor and iron claws on their talons, and then he found the one he was looking for.
Standing on the tallest window, there was a beautiful woman with light blue long hair. A golden crown was holding up her frontal bangs, allowing her forehead to be shown; she had sky blue eyes, and her lilac feathers looked comfy.
She was currently looking on him from far away, and probably didn't notice that he was also looking at her. At least until he waved at her.
The Harpy Queen was surprised at the human that was capable of seeing her from such a long distance, and jumped off from her window. Her long feathers coming from her pelvis left a trail as she slowly descended down, and soon she landed in front of Zeke.
Zeke removed his scouter and held up Pipi, before lowering her. "Please wait a bit, ok?"
"Ok." She agreed, and watching how Zeke faced the Harpy Queen. The Harpy Queen sized up Zeke and said. "I never seen you around, do you need something from me? Even if I have a pretty good guess."
"Yes, I already know about the situation. You all kidnap human males to reproduce with for your low number of subjects. However, there is a big problem…"
He took a deep breath, and continued talking. "You are basically killing Happiness Village by not letting the men here know about what is happening there."
The Harpy Queen was a bit surprised at his words and asked. "Can you please elaborate that?"
"You completely reversed the problem you had. Now the villagers at Happiness Village can't reproduce more humans, this already makes them have only a generation to live, unless they can pull out some bullshit. If you add the matter of not being able to carry out heavy labour for the necessary amount of time, the lifespan of the village gets even smaller."
Of course Zeke used complex words so that Pipi won't understand, she is still too small to worry about things like this. However, the Harpy Queen clearly understood what he was saying, and frowned.
"Oh dear… This… Can't they just gather more males?"
"This is another problem." Zeke immediately answered her question.
"Your population of Harpies doesn't seem to care at all about how many men are still there. There is currently only 1 male in the village and he is a boy younger than me, there was an Harpy attempting to kidnap him, too, but it was fortunate that I was there.
If the Happiness Village will bring more men, probably your Harpies will flock in the village and take more men. I appreciate that you are giving freedom to the men you girls captured, but both you and those idiots need to realize what is happening to their previous families."
The Harpy Queen looked down, and sighed. "I didn't realize this could cause such a disaster…"
Zeke nodded and said. "This is why I am here, to offer you a suggestion."
The wing-ears of the Harpy Queen perked up at the mention of those words and looked at Zeke. She only saw a smile appearing on his face, before words reached her ears. "I will offer a chance for both you and the Happiness Village to collaborate and combine together. If that happens, then this race at seeing who is the faster one to get extinguished will stop."
The Harpy Queen shook her head and bitterly smiled. "Sorry, but it won't be possible. After all the Happiness Village will refuse because we are monsters."
"They won't."
She looked at Zeke and only saw extreme confidence on his face, her smile got wider and started to giggle. "You seem really confident for a young boy, also really smart. Are you sure that you are not a noble or a scholar?"
Zeke shook his head. "I'm just a self-hired mercenary that studied a bit. If you don't trust me, you can bring your guards with you. As long as you and the men here come with me back at Happiness Village to talk about the situation.
Ilias' followers or not, once you put someone in a corner they will do anything to get out there. If they refuse the offer, just show them the consequences through words."
"And if they refuse even then?" The Harpy Queen asked with curiosity.
As an answer, Zeke raised his hands. "Not my problem anymore. I'm a mercenary, not a hero. If I was here to force you doing things then I would have just blasted you already, and I am not talking about my dick."
Upon hearing his joke, the Harpy Queen laughed a bit, and nodded. "Alright, I'll trust you. But first, let me talk with everyone else about this. I'll meet you here at evening, meanwhile, you can play around or just wait."
Zeke nodded and said. "Then, see you later. C'mon Pipi, let's go to play around like I promised you."
"Yes!" Pipi was happy about it and jumped over Zeke's back, climbing up all the way to his shoulders. She pointed at a direction and yelled. "Let's go, my proud steed!"
Zeke chuckled and said. "Now I am an horse?"
As Zeke ran around to maintain his promise with Pipi, the Harpy Queen watched them with a smile. She closed her eyes and muttered. "If every human was like this…"
Then she turned around and took flight to her house, to warn everyone about a possible change in their normal lives.