Natasha Hollander-Ho

Prompt Generator Assignment (1000 Words)

Norophine looked at herself in the mirror, she had an uneasy look as she took in her new unfamiliar features. Gone were the feathers coming out of her head now replaced with thick curly black hair the same colors as her feathers had once been, her features were now softer and less angular. Her eyes weren’t as red and piercing and instead changed to a soft gentle hazel color. Making her look more like what she could have been if her mother hadn’t been a harpy and her father had married a normal human woman. Her lower torso was no longer feathered and she had human legs and feet, no more sharp talons. As she turned to look at herself more in the mirror the most shocking change was her wings that she so loved and adored were gone, now just an empty space on her back, the openings in her dress where they used to come out of showing a smooth bareback.

 Rhea, her best friend, looked at her excitedly grinning from ear to ear.

“It worked! It actually worked! Wow, you look so gorgeous! Not that you didn’t look amazing and cool before but wow! Who knew that this spell would work!”

She chattered on not realizing how uncomfortable Norophine felt in this new body.

“But remember! This only works for one week! So we got to whoo that stupid boy and make him fall in love with you then BAM! The week is up and you reveal who you really are!”

Rhea’s eyes gleamed deviously

“When you turn back into a bird, he will be horrified! And hopefully, see the errors of his ways!”

Rhea finally saw how uneasy her previously half harpy half human friend was and grabbed Norophine’s hand

“Don’t worry, it will wear off after a week then we can put all of this behind us. I’ll come up with some excuse to your parents why you aren’t around for a week, tell them you’re spending the week with me! And I’ll tell my parents you are my new lady in waiting I have found for myself! If they ask where you are I’ll say you went home sick. I have thought of everything!”

Norophine looked at Rhea still worried and unable to say anything on the matter. Rhea finally sighed and turned her best friend to face the mirror again.

“Think of it as a break from people staring at you all the time and maybe being able to live like a normal teenage girl for once.”

“I guess it would be nice to be able to live normally without the stares and people talking behind my back.”

Norophine slowly told herself more than to Rhea, as she started to get used to her new features. Even her voice was different, gone was the raspy edge, instead she had a smooth graceful voice to match her new look.

“Plus it’s only for a week and we deserve to get some revenge on how Andreas treated me the other day.”

Norophine added with more strength in her voice thinking about getting back to the boy who had thrown eggs at her calling them her offspring.

“That’s the Phine I know and love!” Rhea squealed hugging Norophine before pulling her to a nearby couch to sit on.

“What could go wrong? I mean if I never turn back into a half harpy, I guess it wouldn’t be so bad to live as a human, although I will miss flying so much, and mother wouldn’t be too happy either.” Norophine thought to herself as Rhea began to lay out the plan to make Andreas fall in love with her and how they should make the dramatic reveal that it was actually Norophine.

Rhea was always the one coming up with these plans, she was an only child and was trained to not only be the next Dutchess after her mother, but a powerful sorceress as well. She had been training with the best sorcerers since she could walk and talk, and to their dismay has only used her powers to get into trouble with her half harpy best friend.

They talked until the sun set and they had to light candles to see each other again deciding to move to Rhea’s queen-sized bed as they got ready to sleep.

“You know I can’t just call you Phine with this look or we will be caught quickly. We need to give you a new name, something human-sounding…” Rhea turned to her side and gave Norophine a quizzical look trying to rack her brain.

“What about Androniki?” Norophine said out loud after a few minutes of both of them thinking.

“Why that name?” Rhea questioned as the name was not common even among humans.

“It means ‘victory of a man’ and that is what it shall be when we reveal Andreas’ cruel heart.” Norophine said as a matter of fact.

“Oh I like that!” Rhea’s eyes gleamed again, proud of her best friend. “Then welcome Androniki! May you have victory over this man’s heart in the coming week!”

They had a long week ahead of them and they knew the first thing they needed to pull off was tricking their parents into not realizing that Androniki was in fact Norophine, changed to be a normal human girl for a week. The biggest hurdle was tricking Rhea’s mother who was herself a very powerful sorceress and usually saw though all of Rhea’s ticks and spells. But Rhea had made sure that this was a full transformation that was undetectable to anything beyond a reversal spell or potion. That only the timer of one week could reveal the true nature of the person transformed into a human.

Rhea had assured Norophine that there was no way her mother would notice who she really was and the plan was full proof. They giggled and laughed into the night before they both fell into a deep sleep, not knowing what the week ahead would unfold.

November 8th, 2023