Seed Of Speed

"Diegoooo!" a happy voice called from outside.

Celita sighed and stored away her pipe. Diego opened his eyes and adopted a light smile as he stood up. The next moment, a familiar monkey-girl raced into the room and jumped head first into Diego's arms.

"Rozama says I can show you around the village! Wanna go?" Zedava asked excitedly.

"I would love to, but you should also ask your aunt if she would like to come," Diego chuckled as he carried her over to Celita.

"But she smells like smoke," Zedava complained as she scrunched up her nose.

"What do you think she will do if she doesn't come with us?" Diego asked in a loud whisper so that Celita would it hear... He could see the vein pulsing at her temple with evil joy.

"Come with us, Auntie Celita," Zedava said as she hopped out of Diego's arms and over to Celita. "But you can't hurt Diego! Rozama said he could be my best friend!" she added quickly.

Celita held in her sigh of defeat as Zedava grabbed her hand and she fell prey to the heiress's adorableness. She did manage a glare at Diego when she heard him snickering, but she could not say a word.

Zedava grabbed Diego's hand with her other then practically dragged the pair out of the room. Outside, next to the hanging bridge, a silver branch of the Zivot Tree appeared to be waiting on them. It craned itself over the walkway then snaked it way over to the trio. With both Zedava and Celita stepping onto the branch like an everyday fashion, Diego had no choice but try to keep his face neutral as he followed them on.

(Is it Zedava, or the tree really alive?)

::In a way, both, but you are misunderstand what Zedava is. Think of her more as a manifestation of the divine tree's will. While she is a separate entity than the tree, it is closer to that of a seed since child does not fit either. Right now, she is in her budding-phase hence the youthful appearance and strong vitality she gives off, and once her flower blooms, she will be an ȧduŀt, but that is also when she is in the most danger. Normally, a Savaty Priestess would leave the parent tree and spread their life energy throughout the world, strengthening it, but with the existence of Daemora on the planet, she can only tie her life energy back to the divine tree::

(What happens if they catch her?)

::A similar fate as you, have her life essence drained from her body. I won't say it is a pleasant death, but it is a quick one which is the only mercy you get from a Daemora::

(And if I help her...?)

::She will remain safe, but forever locked away, under the canopy of the Zivot Tree::

Diego sighed and looked up into the silver branches of the Zivot Tree. Rozama must know about the restriction, her flower was gold after all. Now that he thought about it, he could remember a slight bitterness in her voice when she spoke of 'Joshua' who was likely the person who helped her. Did he leave, and she was unable to follow?

The branch dropped them off on a platform in the center of a large cluster of nests... not the woven-branch spheres he had seen before, but bird-like nests that were big enough to hold Celita in her lizard form. Diego was imaging all sorts of scary bird beasts flying out of the nests when Zedava shouted.

"Naaaaa'deice!" Zedava squealed, throwing her arms up.

Obviously waiting for their cue, over a hundred streaks of neon green, blue, red, yellow, and violet shot into the air from the different nests. Most were about half his size, there was one larger streak of each color. They danced around in the sky, creating complex, moving patterns before they burst out like fireworks with the small ones returning to their nest and the larger ones landing on the platform around the trio.

The five different-colored streaks of light turned out to be harpies, each representing a different element. All five had the upper half of a beautiful woman with an oversized ċhėst that made it a true wonder that they could fly at all. Their legs were like those of a bird, scaled and in shades of orange to yellow, and their arms were their wings, each topped with a pair of talons that they used like fingers. They were completely bereft of any type of clothing, just relying on a few well-placed feathers to hide their sėnsɨtɨvė areas.

"I see why you were so excited about him," the violet harpy cooed with a content expression on her face.

"Hilaca, stop hogging him all to yourself," the red harpy snapped as she tried to pry Diego out of the violet one's clutches.

"Birdbrains," Celita grumbled as she stepped away from the fighting harpies.

The yellow and blue harpies stood back a little, amused, but not willing to fight of the human. Zedava wriggled out of the green harpy's arms and attempted to push the violet harpy off Diego, but she was not having any luck. Although he enjoyed the pleasant warmth and softness of the harpy's ċhėst, Diego quickly started to run out of air, so he casted {Thunder Clone} then used {Spatial Swap} to free himself before anyone could react.

Hilaca, the violet harpy, looked down at the clone with a pouty look on her face, but the red one had already turned her eyes to Diego who was standing off to the side. He felt the hairs rise on the back of his neck and he jumped behind Celita before the red harpy pounced at him. Hilaca tossed the clone aside as her eyes locked on Diego, but before she, or the red harpy, could grab him again, Zedava jumped between them.

"Bad Hilaca! Bad Daba! Diego is mine! Not yours!" Zedava said with a stamp of her foot.

The two harpies being scolded, pouted, while the other three all laughed in a manner that sounded like a crow caw. With Zedava's back turned to them, Celita took the chance to pick up Diego and throw him over the little monkey-girl, and straight into the waiting arms of the two harpies.

"Aunt Celita!" Zedava yelled as she spun around.

"He jumped," Celita replied with an innocent shrug.

(What the hell are with those two?) Diego asked silently.

::Just like Jalu, they are drawn to you because of your high affinities with Thunder and Fire. Being Harpy Brood Mothers, it is even worse since you are a very 'capable' mate in their eyes::

(Nope! No way! Not going to happen!) Diego replied as he backed up, holding on tightly to Zedava.

"You two have gone and scared him off," the yellow harpy laughed in her 'caw' manner.

The red harpy distanced herself from the clone almost instantly, but Hilaca, having been scorned twice, ripped the clone in half while she glared angrily, yet pouty, at Diego. Picking up Zedava seemed to be the best choice for him since neither harpy looked willing to fight the young heiress.

"Forgive my sisters, young Diego. Zedava wanted to this to be a fun stop for you, but perhaps not that type of fun," the green harpy said as she walked over. "I am Geeda. You've met Hilaca and Daba, so my remaining sisters are Biya and Hawa."

"Nice to meet you, all of you," Diego said.

"Zedava told us about your stone bird that could fly... Could we see it?" Geeda asked.

Diego chuckled as he gave a sideways glance to Celita then replied, "I'm afraid it was damaged in... a misunderstanding between me and Celita, so it does not work at the moment. Once I fix it, I'll be happy to show you then."

"Too bad, it would be nice to have another flyer around," Biya, the blue harpy, sighed.

"I still can," Diego said with a smile, and formed the {Wings of Wind} spell in his mind.

He jumped up, with Zedava still in his arms, and glided through the air, causing her to have a fit of the giggles. It was nowhere as fast as his griffin and it used up more than ten times the mana, but he could maintain flight for roughly an hour if needed.

This also caused all of the harpies' eyes to shine and they took off into the air after the pair. While the harpies were faster than Diego, he was far more maneuverable than they were, so he was able to keep away from them by circling around the platform and hanging bridge. They kept up their game until Diego felt his mana getting low, so he landed back down on the platform next to Celita.

The harpies landed as well. Geeda, Hawa, and Biya were all laughing in their 'caw' manner while Hilaca and Daba were looking particularly flushed and breathing hard with their eyes fixed on Diego.

"We'll play again another day! I still need to show Diego the rest of the village!" Zedava said.

"Of course, dear. Come give me a hug before you go," Geeda said as she knelt down and held out her winged arms.

Zedava ran over to the green harpy and gave her a flying hug as she was prone to doing. Diego had been expecting Hilaca or Daba to take advantage of his loss of his shield, but surprisingly, they both flew off to their nest respective nests.

Instead it was Hawa who approached him and quietly said, "Hilaca, Daba, and I would be happy to entertain you one evening... if you have the courage to come without Zedava, of course."

Without another word, Hawa flew off, leaving Diego stunned by her forwardness. Celita started chuckling and snapped him out it as he shot her a dirty look.

"I'd be careful taking them up on their offer; their talons are quite sharp. You might develop some weird habits if your first time was with the three of them," Celita snickered.

"Two things: not my first time, and not going to happen," Diego said dryly.

Celita rolled her eyes, but with Zedava returning, she said nothing. A silver branch reached down from the canopy and scooped them up to carry them to the next location.