The journal praised Heroshi’s meteoric rise in power. All kinds of experts came to the temple to train the teenage boy who all of humanity put their hope in. He gained skills, stats, and levels quickly. His training was focused on anti-demon abilities. A party of the strongest adventurers in the kingdom gathered when the training was complete to head out to the starting town and power level him.

  “Looks like sir hero got the red carpet rolled out for him. Must have been nice.” Alex compined to no one.

  The librarian was listening. “Yeah, it was a pity. But I think we are partly to bme. He was a teenage boy but we treated him like the world’s savior. In hindsight I think shrugging off the responsibility of saving the world to live a peaceful life would have been the decision anyone might make.”

  “That makes sense I suppose.” Alex said, closing the book.

  Fufi looked at the harpy but didn’t say anything.

  “Well Fufi, we should head back. I don’t want to be gone so long that Merumeru starts to worry about us. Besides, it is a little hot here for how warmly I’m dressed. We don’t have a change of clothes.” Alex said.

  The librarian seemed to think Alex was talking to them. “Oh, if you are going to undergo purification then there are special outfits for the rite. You’ll even get your own room to sleep and pray. It will take several days in the hot spring to purify you back into a human. You’ll be even better than when you started when you complete the process.”

  Alex left then headed back to the courtyard. Walking back, Alex couldn’t help but notice how simir many of the people looked. All of the women had long bck hair. All of the men had shortly cropped bck hair with no beards. They all wore the same priest’s robes with no variation whatsoever.

  Also, apple trees were present. They were being sneaky and not showing any apples. Alex’s opinion of the pce dropped a notch.

  When the two birds made it to the gate, the priest and priestess were up on the battlements, standing guard.

  “Hello Ekta and Yuti.” Alex waved.

  “Welcome back, have you considered the offer of purification?” They asked in unison.

  Alex thought that was a little creepy. “Yeah, I’d like to take you up on that but I told our companion I’d be back. I need to go check in with her to let her know I’m safe.”

  “Okay, we’ll be here. Just come back and tell us your decision and we can prepare a room for you in the inner temple. May purity protect you.” Ekta said.

  The priests opened the door and the pair of feathered friends headed out into the bitter cold. After a short hike they found Merumeru hard at work.

  The slime girl constructed a stone pipe facing downwards into the rocks of the overhang. It looked about the exact dimensions of the pipes going to nowhere by the apple tree back at Bob and Martha’s farm. She dissolved stone into her body and pasted it around the outside. It looked like she was just putting on the finishing touches of her test plumbing project. Luckily, she wasn’t a slime sickle. Apparently her liquid body had a much lower freezing point than water. Either that or her fancy plumber’s outfit kept her warm. On the flip side, Merumeru might not handle heat well. Do slimes evaporate in dry hot pces?

  “What are you up to Merumeru?” Fufi said to the slime girl.

  “Ru ru ru.” She replied, making some odd gestures towards the rge pipe.

  “I see, that is a nice pipe. Good job.” Alex smiled, not having any idea what Merumeru actually said. The harpy went to inspect it, but it looked to go up a few feet and end in bare rock. Maybe the slime girl was practicing building a sewer drain pipe? Who knows?

  “Meru!” The slime girl hopped up and down.

  “Anyway, come in the carriage. It is cold out here. We can talk about the temple.” Alex opened the carriage door with a cw and hopped inside.

  Fufi followed, Merumeru came st after getting to a good stopping point for her work.

  “So, do the people there seem a little weird to you?” Fufi started.

  “A little bit, I mean they are growing apples.” Alex agreed.

  “No, not that. I mean they seem really in sync with each other.” Fufi expined.

  “I guess? They have been living isoted here for at least three generations? With only people coming here seeking a very specific type of healing I doubt the gene pool is very deep.” Alex waved a wing. “Also, small communities don’t keep secrets well. Everyone knows each other's business.”

  “I know you enjoyed reading that journal. But did you think about your answer to those two priests?” Fufi gave Alex a look.

  “Question? Which one? Something about the hero?” Alex sounded confused.

  “About if you wanted to be male or female.” Fufi said ftly.

  “To tell the truth, I was trying not to think about it.” Alex weakly smiled.

  “So you want to stay a harpy?” Fufi probed.

  “No no, I miss my hands.” Alex protested.

  “Well if you don’t come up with an answer that is what you’ll be by default.” Fufi said.

  Merumeru smiled cutely but didn’t say anything.

  “Look, I didn’t get a choice to be a harpy or a nymph. Can you see why I would reject things forced on me?” Alex protested.

  “I can, but we need to pn for the future.” Fufi pulled out the dance shoes from a cupboard. “What do you think of these? Do you want to try them on? You earned them from the dungeon. They might be magic.”

  “Well, yeah. They are nice shoes. I bet they’d be great to dance in.” Alex gushed over the footwear.

  Merumeru giggled.

  “So, if you had to face those two again what would you say?” Fufi said slowly.

  Alex gnced around nervously then whispered. “Well the shoes probably wouldn’t fit me back when I was a man.”

  “What’s that? I couldn’t hear you well.” Fufi twisted her head upside down.

  “It is kinda creepy when you do that.” Alex said, trying to change the subject.

  Fufi threw up her wings. “Well, I guess that is about all the answers I can get out of you today. But please don’t be too stubborn and consider who you are.”

  “Yes yes, I know. I’ll think about it for real this time.” Alex shrunk down.

  They threw some more coal in the stove and cooked some tea. Merumeru helped make some warm soup. Wanting to look better, for tomorrow, everyone took a shower. The water was cold and the shower stall very small but the carriage was well insuted and kept warm. Fufi and Merumeru helped Alex dry off. Alex used the feather duster to clean their clothing. Fufi’s feathers were hydrophobic so the water just ran off her. The sun went down and while bitter-cold winds blew harshly outside, inside it felt warm and toasty. The trio buttoned up the carriage tightly and slept snugly without issue.

  The next day they asked Merumeru if she wanted to go to the temple but she pointed at the pipe and shook her head. They left the carriage deployed and Merumeru agreed to hold down the fort for another day.

  Leaving the slime girl behind, Alex and Fufi took the cold flight back to the temple. They nded in front of the gate and approached to knock. However, the gate started opening on its own. The two priests waved from battlement.

  “Welcome back Alex.” Yuti called down from the ramparts.

  “I’m back.” Alex bowed and stepped in out of the cold.

  Fufi followed.

  The pair came down to greet her. “So did you remember who you were before you turned into a harpy?” Ekta asked.

  Alex hesitated and finally answered. “I’ll go to the women’s part of the temple.”

  The pair of priests nodded in unison. “Follow us. We’ll get you a room right away.”

  Ekta and Yuti lead them through the narthex and deeper into several winding corridors. They went down several flights of stairs. The pair of priests stopped on either side of a door.

  “Here is your room. Please change your clothing and pray to the goddess for purity of mind. Feel free to look around if you’d like. Leave your old clothing in the chest and an acolyte will come by to clean them ter.” They said in unison.

  Alex nodded and headed inside. The room was very small. It had a cot and a chest and an altar to pray at. Next to the altar was a single book filled with psalms and prayers. Several sticks of incense were burning next to the altar.

  “Thanks, I’ll get changed.” Alex said.

  The chest contained a towel and a set of priest's robes that matched the outfit everyone in the temple wore.

  With Fufi’s help, Alex got changed and pced the fur dress in the chest. Alex’s phone hid nicely behind the sash of the robe. “Bleh, it is so hazy here. Can you help put out the incense?” Checking the character sheet, Alex glumbly noticed that the outfit didn’t provide any bonuses.

  Fufi nodded and extinguished the incense with her beak. They opened the door to air the room out.

  They checked the doors around seeing if anyone was home. “Hello, is anyone there? May I come in?” Alex said.

  Behind the door some rusting and squawking could be heard. Alex opened the door and saw a harpy dressed in the remnants of a familiar outfit. The bck feathered harpy wore too-rge leathers with a stone knife holstered on a too-big belt.

  “Squaaa! I mean, hello.” The harpy had to try hard to talk and not just squawk.

  “Hmm, that outfit looks familiar,” Alex said.

  “Do you squaaa, know me? Thinking is hard.” The harpy said.

  “Well, unless you changed clothing, I think that outfit belonged to the chief stone axe.” Alex said.

  Fufi nodded her agreement.

  “I don’t know who that is. The priests asked me if I was a man or a woman before turning into a harpy. I couldn’t remember. They told me to squaack pick one. So I looked at the priestess and she seemed simir to me so I picked female. The priests said it didn’t matter and this could be a good chance to start over and serve a greater power.” The chief fpped her wings.

  Alex fpped a wing to get the smoke coming out of the room away. “I suppose that could be true. From my brief interactions with you before, I didn’t get that you were a nice fellow.”

  “Ah, well things seem more clear the more I pray. I think that my destiny is to dedicate myself to purity.” The other harpy replied with conviction.

  “Hmm, okay? Do you know where they do the ceremony to return someone to being human?” Alex asked.

  “Oh yes, but is your heart ready? When I showed up here the other day they said to pray until my heart was in the right pce. I have conviction now and am ready to go if you are too then we could go together.” The chief answered.

  “Sure, let's go check it out.” Alex gestured the other harpy out of the room.

  The trio of birds went down some hallways and down another staircase until they came to a gated room that had steam flowing out of it.

  “This is the hot spring. The priestesses in there help with the purification.” Chief stone ax expined.

  Alex addressed the priestess inside. “Hello, could we come in?”

  “Greetings acolytes. Is your heart with the goddess and ready to become pure of the harpy pgue?” One dy came to open the gate.

  “Yes, my heart is ready.” The other harpy said with conviction.

  “Me too.” Alex added.

  The three of them moved to enter but the other priestess blocked Fufi’s path. “Your animal companion will have to remain outside. The ritual requires only humans to be present.”

  Alex nodded and the gate was closed, tched, but not locked.

  They led the pair of harpies towards the water and helped them change into just a towel wrapped around their torsos.

  Alex looked around and noticed that the spring had a Japanese hot spring vibe to it. Doubtless, the hero must have had a hand in that.

  “Sit over there and we will wash you off then you can enter the spring.” One priestess directed.

  Both harpies sat down on bath stools. The floor was rocky. A priestess dumped a wooden bucket of soapy water on their heads and began to scrub them with a brush.

  Alex’s whole body tingled.

  Alex watched in amazement at the transformation happening to the chief. The brush took out feathered hair like it was dirt and brushed the wings. Feathers fell to the floor and eventually hands could be seen. They cleaned the chief’s cws and legs and they lost their scales and talons and morphed back into human legs and feet. Alex couldn’t see but guessed the same thing was happening to her harpy parts.

  Another bucket of water was dumped on them to wash off the suds. They then went into the water. The priestess brushed the ex-chief’s head and after a few swipes it was full of long bck hair. The chief's eyes changed to the same color of brown that every priest in the temple had. It was a bit creepy.

  Still sitting in the water, Alex raised a wing only to realize it was a dainty hand. She lifted a foot out of the water, half-expecting a taloned cw to emerge. When the hair-brushing was completed, Alex noticed the long silky bck locks that were not there before. She felt a bit woozy. Perhaps the heat from the hot springs were making her light headed.

  “My heart belongs to Catalina” The former harpy exited the bath,dried herself and donned priests robes.

  “Welcome sister. Report to the mother superior for assignment.” The priestess hugged the former harpy.

  “How do you feel Chief stone ax?” Alex said, inching out of the bath.

  “Who is that? I am one with the goddess now. Who I was before is not important.” The long bck-haired priestess was the spitting image of the other two. They looked like triplets.