Feeling exposed...

The bathhouse was quite luxurious looking. Something that made Gary a bit apprehensive as he walked into the fair-sized room where there was a pool at its center. There were at least half a dozen rooms like this at either side of the tiled stone walkway to where he was now. All around him the walls were etched with the same décor and murals as the rest of the palace. Having undressed and wrapping a towel around himself, Gary Thracy made his way down the walkway where there were several pools and picked one that seemed empty.

Dipping his foot into the water, he was surprised to find it warm to the touch. He wondered if the building had centralised heating, or maybe some natural hot spring. Not wanting to question it, he sat down over the ledge of the pool and found a natural bench made of stone around the lip of the pool, allowing him to sit and bask in the warm waters. Sitting in the heated pool for almost a minute, Gary sighed and leaned his head back against the tiled edge of the pool, staring up at a mural of robed women holding vases filled with water and washing one another in an almost ceremonial fashion.

He stared at that image for a little while, either trying to focus on its meaning or the history behind it. It’s something he noticed when he was allowed to walk around the city and the island with the guards who kept an eye on him and his family. The city and island felt less like a city and more like a museum. Everything was carefully tended to, preserved to the point that it looked as fresh as the day it was first built. None of the buildings seemed to show any age like cracks or chipping, even the paintings and murals seemed untouched, like time wasn’t allowed to touch the island.

“This place is like a time capsule…” He mused out loud. “Like… every day is the same day over and over again. Does it even rain here?”

“Sometimes.”

Blinking to the sound of Alexa’s voice, Gary looked down to the rest of the pool and turned a bright shade of pink when he realised he was no longer alone. There in front of him was the red haired beauty he met at the library along with several other amazon women slipping into the pool without even making a sound… And they were all unclothed!

“But then again there is a proverb to that; wish every day a sunny day and your paradise will be a desert.”

Gary in that split second found himself looking up at the stunningly beautiful woman as she stood in the water with her arms crossed, tapping her lip with her finger in thought while the water stood waist high to her. She was devoid of any scratches or scars or blemishes across her skin and with her hair undone it flowed down her back and shoulders like sanguine fire. Realising he was staring, Gary instinctively clasped a hand to his eyes, especially when the other women padded towards him.

“So… THIS is one of the men visiting our island?”

“He seems so small, what kind of warrior is he?” He heard one of them ask, too afraid to lift his hand from his eyes lest he see something he’d regret.

“Agreed, what battles require someone so small?”

“Now, now sisters.” Defended Alexa, Gary could feel the woman sit next to him and rest a hand over his shoulder, making him shirk from the touch. “Mr. Thracy is a scribe, he is not one for fighting.”

“I… I do taxes…” Gary stuttered out an explanation. “A-and sometimes financing, i-it’s my job.”

The rest of the amazon women let out a series of murmurs, just as he felt one of them sit at the opposite side of the pool to him where Alexa sat, hearing water splash as she cupped a handful of the warm waters and poured it over her shoulder to wash herself.

“A scribe, hmm? Alexa is our own record keeper and scribe.” Explained the woman, nudging his shoulder with his, playfully. Surprised that his reaction was an anxious recoil to her touch. “Why do you cover your eyes?”

“Is he afraid of us?”

Shifting in his seat, Gary didn’t answer as his mind was trying to find a way to flee where he was without anyone catching him.

“I think he IS sister.”

“Why would he be afraid?”

Hearing the water shift and Alexa move from her seat, he felt a pair of hands touch his own. Gary went stone stiff as his hand was gently lifted from his eyes and given a chance to open them. What he saw was the warm smile of Alexa looking back at him while she still held his hand in hers. Rubbing her thumb over the knuckles of his hand soothingly. Tilting her head and in doing so let her hair slip down her shoulder, Alexa’s smile only grew warmer as she showed the man kindness, her beauty becoming more pronounced as she tried to calm his anxiety.

“You won’t be harmed; our queen had declared it so.” Alexa explained. “Even if that were not the case, I would not harm you.”

Blinking rapidly and trying to find somewhere else for his eyes to look at, he settled on looking at her smiling face, just as he felt a pair of hands gently cup his chin and turn his attention to his left. The woman who sat next to him was just as stunning. Her full-bodied hair was like a black storm cloud that framed her angelic face, drawing him in to her sharp blue eyes and lips. Her gaze seemed more aggressive than Alexa’s but showed the same kindness as she looked into his eyes and smiled. Rubbing a thumb over his cheek.

“He reminds me of the hares that frolic in our fields. Shy and skittish of the wolves that hunt them, but there are no wolves to find on this paradise.” Looking deep into his scared eyes, the woman’s demeanor softened as she let him go. “There are no wolves here little rabbit, you are safe here.”

Feeling another amazon take Alexa’s seat, Gary turned to his right to find a woman just as tall and firm bodies as the dark haired woman to his right. Her hair an almost golden blonde with emerald green eyes, her skin smooth and perfect as was her figure. Something that only made his blush all the more red.

“Tell us Gary of Man’s world, what is it like where you live?”

“Yes. Our princess occasionally returns from man’s world but does not share too many details of your lands.” She asked innocently, leaning in, and unintentionally pressing her shoulder against his. “Could you tell us?”

“Yes, please share.”

Feeling a hand at his shoulder, Gary found himself jump from his seat. Too scared to continue, he grabbed for his tower and quickly tied it around his waist as he practically scrambled out of the pool. Leaving many of the amazons confused as he left without a word. “I’m sorry! I’m sorry!” He gasped as he walked quickly out of the pool and out of sight.

“Mr. Thracy!” Alexa called out, watching him flee their presence.

“Did we scare him?” Asked the blonde, the question leaving many of them to check their appearance almost out of fear, wondering if the act would change them.

*

Stepping out of the bath house fully dressed and looking wracked with guilt, Gary marched out into the open and slowed to a stop, leaning against the wall and slid down until his rear hit the ground. Almost hyperventilating, he brought his hands to his face, trying to regain some composure.

It took him a minute to calm down and realise that they were not being cruel, they were just curious. He was just overwhelmed. Still getting over what happened all those weeks ago. Once he had calmed down and slowly lowered his hands from his face, Gary slowly tried to regain his footing and get up. As he got to his feet, he thought he heard the wing flap of something big coming down from the sky, followed by a shadow that eclipsed over his body when a massive claw grabbed hold of his face in a vice grip and pinned him against the wall so hard the plaster cracked.

His eyes wide open in terror, Gary looked up into the milky grey eyes of some hideous bird creature that wore a permanent mask of rage. A nose, far too long and riddled with warts sniffed at him like some predatory creature while chipped fangs grit together like the grinding of stones. Cracked, thin lips peeled back further that drippled a thin line of drool at either side of its mouth when it rasped a coarse hiss back at him.

“You… You were in our baths. Why?” It sounded like a woman, or once was a woman, but her voice was sickening, phlegmy and laced with venom.

“Mr. Thracy!”

Turning its head over its extended neck like an owl over to the bath’s entrance, the harpy hissed at the sight of half a dozen amazons stopped dead in their tracks at the bath’s entrance. A look of confusion on its gnarled features before turning her attention back to Gary with a cruel smile.

“Typical male, always ruled by your lussssts. Always reaching for something you don’t deserve.”

Unfolding her haggard, oiling black wings, Ocypete gave a single flap and already was heading skyward, leaving the bathhouse far below and Gary clutching desperately to the claw gripping around his head and neck. He couldn’t see it and thankfully so but the two were heading up higher and higher until they reached the clouds.

“You look like one of the ssssmarter males of your type, I assume you can read. Do you know the fable of Daedalus? He and his son created wings for themselves to reach what mortals were not allowed to touch, and his son Icarusss… He wanted to touch the sun.”

Flying up higher, Gary could see the fog of clouds pass them by just as the harpy finally stopped in mid air.

“Do you know what happened to Icarusss?” Smiling a cruel smile at the struggling man holding onto her arm and tilted his face to look up at the shining sun. “He flew too close…”

With that she let him go.