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I was startled awake in my shrub-cape camouflage at the sound of the Harpy Queen's powerful wings beating to take off.
When I checked the position of the sun, I saw that it was late in the afternoon. I guess that the Harpy Queen is going to do some hunting before her vigil to guard the Harpy Mountains.
After I confirmed that she had flown over the tall outer mountains and out of sight, I slowly looked around to see if there was any other harpy activity within line of sight of me.
Besides a few harpies I saw in the distance at the outer mountains, there was no activity. My best guess is that the harpies from the inner mountain near the Harpy Queen's were not disturbed and kept to normal sleep hours. That meant that they were mostly out hunting for food and would be back soon. So I'd better make this fast before they return to their nest, making it easier to look in my direction.
I left my shrub-cloak where it was because it would look funny if the harpies saw a shrub climbing up to their Queen's nest, and also because it was just less cumbersome and would slow me down.
Now that the Harpy Queen is away, I risk discovery and used aura to strengthen myself as I quickly bounded up the mountain's face, but made quite a lot of noise in the process. Luckily, there was nobody around to hear it.
When I reached the cave entrance, I stuck close to the walls as I entered, because despite seeing the Harpy Queen leave, I readied myself for something to come out and attack me.
As I went further inside the cave, I came across something I had never seen before. Instead of the dull grey of the stone walls and floors, the walls were lined with sticks, reeds, vines, and other vegetation woven into each other, and the floor was lined with fluffy dried straw.
But besides what I think is an excellent solution, the woven walls seem to have another purpose. They make excellent slots and holds to mount decorations, be it a shiny gold coin or a polished silver chain, all the way to an ornate ceremonial sword being shoved in the weave of dried vegetation.
And I got to say, the Harpy Queen has an eye for home decor because from what I can see, she put all the shiniest stuff in the places where the light from various openings floods into the cave, and this is what I assume is the equivalent of the hallway to her nest.
After making a turn at a bend, I finally laid my eyes on the Harpy Queen's nest. And if her hallway was well decorated, then I could only describe her nest as opulent even by human standards.
In her nest chamber, the walls were lined with gold and silver coins arranged in flowing patterns that were tucked into the woven vegetation, and her nest was draped with silver and gold necklaces that had the occasional gem encrusted on them, and surrounding the outside of her large nest was a fence made of ornamental swords and daggers.
This begs the question. How long did it take for her to accumulate all this stuff? Or did she inherit this nest and just add on to the hoard? Or she could have just "Taxed" it from the other harpies. But those were questions to research later; I had to search for the heirloom dagger that I came here to recover.
I reached inside my pocket and unfolded a drawing of what the jewel-encrusted dagger I was looking for was, and after stepping into the harpy Queen's nest, I saw quite a number of jewel-encrusted daggers, and more than a few of them had heraldry on them, the same went for the swords. This was a gold mine of political favors waiting for me to collect.
After searching and swiping anything the same size as a dagger or smaller that had heraldry on it, I eventually found what I was looking for. Instead of throwing it in the same sack as the rest of my loot, I secured it to my belt. If the worst happens, I can ditch my loot and run, but at least I will have accomplished my mission.
As I continue picking through the nest, there is the echoing sound of something thudding down on the ground at the cave entrance, followed shortly by the flapping of wings and tapping of talons landing on stone.
The Harpy Queen was back from her hunt a lot faster than I expected.
In somewhat of a panic, I look around for a suitable exit and choose one of the lower holes that act as windows, but I freeze for the moment, not daring to make any noise, lest she calls the horde of harpies down on me.
A few seconds later, I heard the tearing of flesh and was thankful that she was intelligent enough not to eat where she slept. This gave me time to slowly creep my way to the opening because I sure as hell am not going to use air magic to dampen the noise I make near her.
I crept out the window as silently as I could, climbed down to the ground, and made my way to my shrub camouflage and hiding. Night has not fallen yet, so I am going to have to chill here a few hours before I can sneak away from these mountains.
Around ten minutes after I hid myself, I heard confused chirping from the Harpy Queen's nest that soon turned to indignant squawking and then outright screeching. That was when I felt it, the air mana in the area became denser, and the wind started picking up.
This commotion got the attention of the harpies on the nearby inner peaks, who echoed the Harpy Queen's screeches and took to the sky to ride on the wind she was whipping up.
With each second that went by, the wind became more turbulent, forcing me to use instinctive earth magic to sink the edges of my shrub-cloak into the ground so my camouflage would not get blown off.
Stealing from the Harpy Queen must have really pissed her off, because the strong wind eventually turned into a tornado with what looks to be the whole population of the harpy mountains' harpies riding the wind.
After a few minutes of throwing a tantrum, the screeching stopped, but the tornado did not. A few seconds after that, I saw her shoot into the sky, screeching, and fly in the direction of the first mountains I raided.
As she flew, the tornado went with her as the eye of the storm. Now I just have to wait until she is gone, collect the loot I buried, and I'm out of here.
I just hope that I did not unleash a flock of harpies on any village or town in the Harpy Queen's path.