Shooting stars

Right after being asked by Five to bring all the harpies back to the Black Wings clan, Harriet was initially conflicted in her heart, but in the end, her feelings triumph over her duties. She left the group of harpies to go back by themselves while she secretly protected Five from the shadows.

It took all her self-control to not immediately return with the harpies and instead stay with Five. In her mind, she promised to only protect Five for a short period of time; until he would found his dungeon. With the management skills he displayed, Harriet was confident that Five would then be able to protect himself with his dungeon and she would then be able to return to the Black Wings clan with her heart at peace.

The only reason she wanted to go back was for the winged man that once captured her young maiden's heart. Before being sent to the dungeon, Harriet was raised as the little princess of the Black Wings clan and interacted with the different races. As a beautiful princess, she naturally had a lot of suitors but one that particularly caught her attention was the first prince of the Azure Feather clan, Ivan.

He was not very different from the others as all her suitors were both handsome and had a good background. In fact, when mixing among the other 'nobles', Ivan would easily blend in the crowd. But the truth was that that winged man was extremely daring and that was precisely what attracted the innocent Harriet. He would even go as far as to sneak into the Black Wings clan and secretly meet Harriet in the middle of the night. For the young and innocent Harriet, this was a real display of love as Ivan had to take a lot of risks just to meet her. If he was ever caught, his punishment might go as far as to be disinherited.

By acting as a perfect prince in public but a rogue in private, Ivan slowly captured her heart and the two lovebirds were officially engaged. However, their happiness did not last for long. Just one year after their official engagement, Harriet was chosen to be summoned to the dungeons. The couple was distressed but there was nothing they could do. Before being separated, the couple met one last time. It was then that Ivan swore to find Harriet at all cost and to stay with her forever; if needed, he was even disposed to become one of the dungeon master's monsters just to stay with Harriet.

The latter was touched by this declaration and no longer struggled to leave the clan, after all, she would soon be reunited with her beloved. However, it turned out that she was completely wrong. Even after three years, Harriet did not see a single trace of Ivan. She impatiently waited for him; he was one of the reasons she gave it her all in defending the dungeons but in the end, Ivan never came.

When she finally got the opportunity to return to the Black Wings clan, Harriet was naturally curious and wanted to ask Ivan why he never came to meet her. But it was then that she learned that Ivan had also been selected to be sent to a dungeon.

The news struck Harriet like thunder. Was it because of that that he never came to find her? But the timing did not line up; she had been staying at dungeons for three years while Ivan was only gone for 6 months. Two and a half years should have already been more than enough for him to find her and since that was not the case, Harriet firmly believed that something must have happened to her beloved.

Since Ivan was no longer there, the only reason for her to return to the Black Wings clan had completely disappeared. She had already ensured the safety of the harpies and was free to roam around but she could not forget about that winged man.

Hoping to find him once again, Harriet decided to once again muddle in the dungeon society. It was the fastest way to find Ivan but she could not really just appear in front of Five and ask him to take her back. As much as she wanted to, her morals prevented her from doing so. In the end, she chose to stay near the dungeon and secretly protect it until she would be ready to once again meet her master.

...

"Anyway, let's forget about these, for now, we can discuss again when the time is ripe. For now, I still need to go to the thunder eagles. I waited for you to give you these..."

As she broke the awkward silence, Harriet swiftly took out a small bag from her cloak. She quickly opened it and from it, took out a small pile of fangs and tusks.

"Woah! What is this thing? How come so many things can be stored in such a tiny bag?" excitedly asked Alice.

"Don't be so surprised, it is a small storage bag. It was made with space magic and can store about one-meter cube of items. These items are what I took from the beasts during the trials. There is a lot of meat and fur that could have also been harvested but since I have no means of storing them properly, I only took the non-perishable ones. I don't know if the items are still there, but you can still go and have a look this way," answered Harriet while pointing to the direction she fought the two beast kings.

Ariel quickly grabbed one of the tusks and started examining it. "What are we supposed to do with all these items? There are so much, just how many beasts did you take down?"

"Don't worry about, I only picked a few items, so you can bring them all back to the dungeon in one go. Give them to Five, at best, he will keep them as they can be used for crafting, at worst, he will just sell them for some DP in the dungeon shop."

"Oh, then Angela should just keep all of them, right? Since she will be crafting anyway, we might as well save them for later?" asked Alice.

Harriet calmly turned toward the silver-haired harpy and explained, "you are right, but these materials are a rather steep starting point... Also, if I am not wrong, they are mainly used by blacksmiths... It's not that I don't want you to become a blacksmith, Angela. But I don't want to see you get an oversized arm after hammering for an entire day."

"Oversized... arm..." murmured Angela. At the same time, she made a mental note to herself to avoid blacksmithing. While she was willing to try crafting, she was reluctant to deform her body for that.

"Good, you all know what to do. I just have one last thing to give you before leaving." After saying that, her cloak slightly moved, revealing a slim pair of black wings but before she could do anything, the daring Alice immediately assaulted her.

"Wow! Your wings are so smooth, I want to caress them forever... When will I get wings like that, mother?" said Alice with a jealous expression.

Taken by surprise, Harriet was flushed red as Alice continued to shamelessly caress the pair of black wings.

"Cough Cough, that's enough!" declared Harriet with an embarrassed expression as she pulled back her wings.

As for the two other harpies, they blankly stared at the scene, not understanding what was happening. Deep inside, they also wanted to get a feel of the beautiful pair of wings, but they were not as daring as their sister.

"Ahhh, I wish I could touch more..." said Alice with a saddened expression as she looked at her hands. Ariel and Angela did not know how to react to their sister's behavior but what happened next surprised all the 3 harpies.

Without hesitation, Harriet decisively plucked out 3 of her feathers from her wings and presented her feathers to her daughters.

"Mother... What are you doing? This is dangerous!" exclaimed Ariel in panic but Harriet was still as calm as ever.

"Don't worry, it is just three feathers. In 2 weeks, they will already grow back. Keep them as a token from me. They will remind you of me when I am not there," said Harriet. Seeing that the harpies were not reacting, she forcefully pushed the black feathers in the hand on her daughters.

"But... Does it not hurt? Your feathers... are precious... won't it affect your flight..." asked Angela with a timid voice.

"Haha, it's fine, I am already used to it. This is yet another thing that you don't know about and you can also inform Five about it. You know how adventurers come to hunt monsters. They do so to collect part of their bodies that can be used for crafting. In our case, they aim to collect our feathers to make some sort of cloak. They usually kill us before taking out the feathers, but we can also simply pluck some of them out by ourselves. However, it might hurt a bit to do so and while I can take out 3 feathers every two weeks, remember that you can only take out one every two weeks!"

"All monsters are the same, they are able to take out part of their body without harming themselves too much. After a brief period of time, their body part will grow back as if nothing happened. But be careful, adventurers look for 2 things when hunting us. Our feathers which we can take out and also our heart. While we can give off some feathers, we only have one heart and if it is taken out, we will immediately die! It is the same for all monsters, they have some drops that they can give out occasionally but also some drops that will only appear when the monster dies!" explained Harriet.

"mmm, then, should we also start plucking out our feathers every 2 weeks?" hesitantly asked Ariel.

Harriet gently smiled, "you can if you want. My previous masters all asked me to take out 3 feathers every 2 weeks. I am already used to it, so it does not hurt too much but since it will be your first time, it will hurt quite a bit." As she was speaking, Harriet remembered how painful her first time felt. She was forced by her first master to do so and was almost bedridden after doing so. But after doing it countless time, Harriet no longer felt much pain, just some discomfort. It was similar to waxing, while the first time was extremely painful, after a few attempts, your body would already get used to it.

"mmm, we should also try then. This way, we can help master more!" said Ariel. Although she was scared of the pain, she still felt that it was the best decision.

"Do what you think is best, you are already old enough to take care of yourselves. With that said, it is time for me to go. I will miss the meeting time if I stay there any longer..." said Harriet as she looked at her daughters. She barely got to talk to the harpies for a few minutes and yet, it was already time to say goodbye.

"mmm"

"..."

Seeing her two sisters stay silent, Ariel stepped forward, "you can leave without worry, mother. We will wait for you. Please come back quickly!" She was unwilling to see Harriet leave but she knew it was inevitable.

With a gentle smile, Harriet quickly hugged all the 3 harpies, "it is just for a week! I'll be back very soon. You should all train well in my absence. Remember that our racial trait will only stand out if your train together! Once I am back, I'll teach you a few more tricks."

Angela quietly nodded, "Okay..."

"Goodbye then! We'll see each other in one week!" declared Harriet as she deployed her wings and started to slowly rise to the sky. She turned back to look at the 3 harpies who were hugging each other. She knew the longer she stayed, the harder it would be to leave. After taking one last look at her daughters, she decisively turned toward her destination and flapped her wings.

Merely a few seconds after she started accelerating, she heard Alice's familiar voice ringing through her ears, "Hurry up and come back! Don't forget to bring us some gifts from where you are going! We will be waiting!"

Hearing her daughter's shameless request for gift did not anger her. On the contrary, Harriet let out a smile as she flew in the distance, she knew it was Alice's own way of expressing her affection.

...

Harriet quickly flew North, she was already late for the meeting and needed to hurry. She was already tired but there was no time to waste; the faster she completed her task, the faster she would be able to reunite with the harpies.

However, as she was flying, she suddenly noticed a bright light appearing in the corner of her eyes. Harriet immediately went on alert and turned to look at the source of light. More and more stars of light appeared in the distance, but it turned out that she simply overreacted.

The stars of light completely ignored her and flew across the sky above her heard. Quickly, the whole sky was covered with these stars, creating a breath-taking scene. Even Harriet inadvertently stopped to enjoy the scenery. "Is this what they call shooting stars? It's so pretty!" said Harriet to herself.

Shooting stars continuously appeared at the horizon and flew across the sky. Harriet was completely mesmerized by the natural phenomenon but unbeknown to her, a faint yellow glow started to surround her body.