71 The Auction of Tallmire [5]

Lot twelve, the one with the two holstaur women of which one had been pregnant had proven the more expensive of Meira's purchases coming in to a neat seven hundred and seventy-five buckles in total. She had winced and grumbled that they shouldn't have been that expensive.

The stack of tokens she'd accrued come the thirties had come to a neat five lots. A total of seven holstaurs by then, most all already within breeding and milking range. The only ones that weren't milkable just yet being the calves she'd proudly gotten for cheap and the one younger holstaur in lot twelve.

Past lot thirty-three Meira's bidding drastically decreased with her not winning any more, bar a single sub breedable holstaur just a few months off from the appropriate age.

"That should be enough for a beginning," Meira muttered. "I would prefer to get a larger herd but that may very well be too much for a beginner." She pinched her chin and pondered. Mouthing something in silence to herself. Meira looked to him, narrowed her eyes then looked back to the auction ring as lot thirty-seven came in. A harpy with dark feathers and a twitchy temperament.

It hugged its wings close to its body but Noah could still see them, her lower legs were a light grey shade and covered in small scales before ending in a taloned foot of four toes. She glanced around, hopping and walked to the centre of the ring with her dark raven hair framing a face of thin features and beady black eyes.

"Black Harpy," Meira muttered.

"Expensive?"

"Not particularly. No more than the common brown harpy, if anything they're cheaper. Superstitions around them say they bring death. Their eggs and feathers are popular in with the necromantics."

Noah froze, necromancy was not something he wanted to know about. Not in this world, he could just imagine what form of ungodly monster would come out of the fray. Just the idea of a rotting, half decomposed woman with her organs spilling out of her stomach riding him was a disturbing notion. 'God I hope it's anime zombies and not the walking dead kind.' The difference being one had stitches and light green skin while the other had to suffer through hearing some guy shouting for Coral.

"They're not worth it?"

"Not unless you know a witch or wizard with a penchant for raising the dead."

In other words, no, they were not worth it.

The lot went by quickly coming to the low price of one hundred and twenty buckles. The lowest he'd seen anything go by the entire day. More lots came but went just as quickly with little festivities. Noah was already guessing they were just there to watch at this point, that or Meira was waiting for something to show up. 'The striped sheep girl?' he guessed.

"Coming up next is lot forty-two! A common brown harpy." Noah perked up at Davor's yelling. "This one is feisty as it's a wild-caught specimen from the plains just west of here so it will need some breaking in before being a viable egg layer. Bids will start at one hundred buckles."

Noah sucked in his lips and clasped the handles of his seat. Not realizing he was leaning over, hunching poorly and sharpening his gaze just well enough that he could only see the matte brown feathering of the harpy girl as she scratched and pecked at the man catcher pole locked around her neck by the auction worker. He shoved her into the ring and pulled something on the pole releasing the harpy into the ring.

She stumbled but didn't fall. Spinning she glared and chirped at all the eyes staring at her. Much like the harpy before her, she had sharp eyes though brown was the prevalent colour within them. So much so that had Noah not seen her earlier he may not have realized she had those rings of red inside.

Her nose was sharp and pointed which almost resembled a beak to Noah. Her hair was short, cut to just barely below her chin, Noah very much doubted she was the one to trim it like that. Most likely the seller had done so to make her more appealing.

Body wise she was lithe yet also shapely. She didn't have as drastic of curves as Liora or even Meira but she still had breasts and hips that gave her a small form of the enviable hourglass body shape. From her shoulders down her arms turned into a bundle of smoothly laid and matte brown feathers that ended in a small hand of three fingers. The largest bundling of her feathers descending from her arms in much the same shape one would expect from a bird.

Her skin, though pristine and clean was muddled only by a few minor scars and the pinkness of her nipples. from her upper thighs down to just below her knee she grew what essentially surmounted to stockings of smooth downy cinnamon feathers. From the bottom of those her legs drastically thinned gaining a more birdlike bony structure and scaling.

Unlike the other monster girls he'd wandered upon to this point, this one didn't have fur—or feathers in a harpies case—covering her crotch. Meaning he could see her lower lips clear on view. The smoothness and W shaping of her labia causing his inner boy to start running amok to beat down the portion of his brain that told him to turn away and show her some modicum of respect.

The harpy bounced and chirped in a strangely human way. Turning to the sky she grew a shade of determination and flared open her arms and launched herself into the air. Except, barely a meter up what power was meant to keep her aloft failed and she went careening straight back into the hay covered ring. She didn't let that deter her and quickly rose back to her feet… talons to make another attempt yet went nowhere fast.

"One fifty! Am I hearing one seventy?" Davor bellowed.

"What's happening to her?" Noah turned his head and asked.

"Clipped Wings," Meira replied. "Stops them from flying."

Noah paled, her tone was so cold, so neutral and uncaring. He knew she wasn't being cruel, but to him… it just wasn't right to watch a girl flounder in a desperate attempt to escape knowing full well she couldn't.

"Two hundred! Do I hear two twenty-five?" Davor rumbled, "Going once!"

Noah sucked in his lips, watching as the girl swept her wings and slapped them against the ground in a feeble attempt to make them work again. Within the determination and fire of her eyes, there was something… a cold fear. She dashed her head around, flinching at all the loud noises of people screaming over each other and let the fire die down to only focus on her clambering escape.

The harpy flapped her wings, rose a meter but went not up but to the side, having to tap her claws across the hay to even walk once she came down. She reached the fence and Davor went silent as all eyes fell to her just as she reached up, grasped the topmost rung of wood with her hooked claws and pulled herself up to the ledge.

Men with man catchers dashed around with their poles grasped like spears.

She lifted her wings once more and when one closed in she kicked off the rung and threw herself into the air, a single flap from her wings kept her up and sent her skywards. There was excitement and happiness in the way she moved but when the wind's catching halted panic quickly set in.

She flapped harder yet the only direction she went was down.

Below her, the men with man catchers jabbed them upwards and she tried to move her body out of the grasp but one still hooked her ankle and ripped from her, her flight. A harsh jerk of the man catcher brought her thumping painfully back into the ring.

At first, she just laid there, still and staring at the passing clouds above. Birds she saw flying above seemed to flitter away, disappearing one by one until only one remained above. But its wings failed, the winds couldn't catch it like they couldn't catch her.

She weakly sat up, her legs splayed out in an M around her. Looking around Noah could see the light rapidly dying in her hazy eyes then she curled in on herself. Brought her legs into her chest and wrapped herself tightly beneath her wings. Hiding from the world with her head buried with the rest of herself. Leaving only her back and the dimples of her bottom bare for all to see.

"Ahem. Apologies for that. As mentioned earlier this one is quite the feisty one. Now, where were we, two twenty-five! Do I hear two tewnty f-"

"Three hundred!"

Heads spun and fell to Noah.

"What are you doing?" Meira hissed. "Holstaurs are enough for now."

"Three twenty-five!" Another man bellowed.

"Three fifty!" Noah shot back without thought then looked to Meira. "I don't care."

A dark frown took her expression but she only rolled her eyes and huffed annoyed and rested back into her chair. "Fine, do what you will but it's already way over the proper pricing for a harpy like this."

Noah kept silent, he could tell her he suspected she was more than just a regular harpy but he didn't want to say anything, not yet. Not until he could confirm it with his almanacs. He could swear he'd seen something about Harpies with red eyes in one of them.

"Three fifty it is! Is there a bid for Four hundred?" Silence filled the square, the bidder who tried to go against Noah was quiet just as well. "Going once! Twice! Sold to the man on the podium."

Auction assistants filed into the ring and caught the harpy around her neck and arms and forced her to her feet. She was limp, didn't even struggle as they dragged her back to her cage and returned with another holstaur.

As Noah watched them drag her away his grip on the seats handles only proved to tighten further. Had he the strength there was no doubt it may have very well shattered to pieces.

Meira slightly turned her head and moved her eyes to his hands. Frowning heavily. "You can't be a hero Noah. Not with what you are. Not with what you can do. You may be able to provide a haven for this Harpy but you can't do it for them all. You're better off just letting it be."

No words could describe the tenebrous feelings running amok in his heart. He knew that, he knew that he was nowhere near the best for protecting them. "I didn't buy her because I wanted to save her." He lied.

"Ahhh, I see, so Harpies are a fondness to you."

"I also didn't buy her because of that."

Sinking into his seat he leaned his head over the backrest ignoring Liora and Meira's shared confusion as they glanced between him and each other. Soon a boy with the purchase token arrived and Noah took it. Staring at it with a horrible sense of exhaustion.

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Yo! So, little too uppity but I'm taking a break from MGR till the end of the month. In case you haven't noticed, updates have been a snail pace recently which I blame entirely on myself. So while I figure myself out, MGR going on a short break till the beginning of the next month. Hopefully this'll be the last one for a while.