NOVEL NEXT Year One
Over the next 80 days, which was two months in this world (40 days a month, split into four weeks of ten days each), I learned many, many things.
One of the more important was how the lifespan of a harpy worked. During the single year they developed in their egg, they developed the equivalent of four years for a human. Then they developed approximately two years of human development a year for the next four years, and then six years of normal aging. After a harpy turned ten, they were mature.
Then they had exactly one year to reproduce or they would die. One way that some worked around it if they didn't want to have an actual child was something called a false egg. They would create and lay an egg, but it would never hatch. It allowed a harpy to get past the one year even if they weren't ready for children.
It was all pretty strange.
During those two months, one thing that really annoyed me was my inability to talk. But on the day after the two months, I gained the ability to learn how to speak. Despite already knowing, I had to re-learn how to use my body, both to walk and move.
Within a week, I could walk, run for short distances, and speak in baby talk. My family and Leonne found it adorable. Over the next month, I practiced until I was great at all three things. I also got a personal maid, who was younger. She had turned 16 only a few days after I had hatched.
At the moment, I was running through the halls, flapping my wings when I turned a corner to turn faster. My maid, Helena, was running after me, trying to get me to change into a set of clean clothes. She had pretty yellow feathers.
She leaped forward and missed, her body landing on the ground as I jumped above her.
"Too slow!" I said, flapping a little and pushing off the wall to gain more speed.
"Evelyn!" She called after me. "Please just let me put you in a clean dress!"
"Never!" I cried out, turning a corner and slamming right into someone else. I fell back onto my bottom and looked up to see my mother staring down at me.
"Hello dear," She said in a cold voice. "What might you be doing running around in that dirty dress?"
"Eep!" I said. I jumped to my feet and was about to run back toward Helena when my mother reached out and wrapped me in her wings.
"Oh no you don't!" She said. She looked up as Helena turned the corner, panting.
"I'm so sorry, my lady," She said. "Evelyn is. . . fast." She took several deep breaths.
"It's fine," My mother said, handing me back to the girl. Then to me, she said, "Evelyn, you have to let Helena change you into clean clothes."
"She never lets me change her anyway," Helena said. "She insists on doing it herself."
"Why is that, Evelyn?" She asked me.
"I don't want her to see," I mumbled, hiding my face.
"See what?" Helena asked.
"Dear, she's going to find out eventually," My mother said. "She has to, she's your maid." Then to Helena, she said, "Evelyn has both kinds of genitals." I turned red and buried my face in my arms, hiding it with my feathers.
"Oh," Helena said. "Well, now that I know, can I help you change, Evelyn?"
"I guess so. . ." I said.
"Alright," Helena said. She turned and walked back to my room with me in her arms.
"Cooperate next time," My mother said to me. I smiled sheepishly and waved. She smiled and waved back.