After drifting in the cold river for what seemed like hours, Jon finally felt the river begin to slow down. Looking ahead she was that the river leveled out and opened up to a large marshy area.
Approaching the reeds Jon felt her feet scrap the river bed. She quickly dug her talons in and began to claw her way towards the shore. Cursing her useless wings as she crawled over the riverbank, Jon fell shivering and exhausted onto soft grass. Awash with relief at finally being out of the water, Jon let a few sing-song notes of laughter escape her lips. These were quickly cut off though, by the chattering of her teeth.
Realizing she needed to get warm fast, Jon got up and wrapped her wings around herself as best she could. This wasn't enough though and Jon frantically looked around for a way to get warm. To his amazement he could spot what looked like a campfire through the trees. Jon almost laughed again with joy, but he mood was quickly sobered by the memory of the dead body he found in the river.
Ducking low, Jon sneaked towards the fire as quietly as her shivering body allowed. Clinching her teeth to keep them from chattering.
Upon reaching the small clearing that contained that camp fire. Jon was alarmed to see that a giant snake laid coiled beside the fire. Jon let out a short squeal of fright. She was just about to run away when a head raised up and looked straight at her. It wasn't a giant snake head, as Jon had expected, instead it was the head of a human girl, on a naked and mostly human torso, except for the six arms. Jon barely noticed the arms however, his eyes were locked onto the face, the strangely familiar face...
Peering at the snake-girl's face as she peered back at him with a quizzical expression, Jon unconsciously began stepping forward for a closer look.
Karyn woke up to a strangely musical squeal. Looking up to see what caused such a noise she was startled to see what at first looked like a giant bird. As her vision adjusted though she saw that the bird had the head and torso of a young girl, and only the wings, tail, and talons of a bird. The harpies large yellow eyes gazed at her intensely, in a familiar way that Karyn found unnerving.
"Karyn...?" the harpies voiced chimed, uncertain.
Karyn blinked, "...Jon?"
A large toothy smile filled the harpies face, "Karyn! It is you!" The feathered girl ran forward and flung herself into Karyn's arms. "Oh thank god, it's been terrible!"
Karyn tentatively hugged the harpy girl, "Jon, your freezing! And soaking wet!" Karyn pulled the girl back to get a good look at her. Jon looked away embarrassed.
"...and I'm a girl. With useless wings for arms!" Jon pouted bitterly. Spreading her wings to emphasize her point.
Karyn was about to point out her lack of legs when she noticed Jon looking at her six arms, obvious jealousy written on her face. Instead she hefted the harpy up, with surprising ease, and placed her down beside the fire. "Well, we can worry about that later, right now you need to get warm." Karyn then slithered around the fire to talk to Jon face to face. "How did you end up all wet?"
Jon sighed and leaned back, unconsciously resting on Karyn's tail. Karyn decided to ignore how weird that felt as Jon spoke, "I guess I kind of fell into the river...that's how I ended up here." Jon snuggled up against the warm tail and settled in. Her mouth stretched wide in a yawn. "Ugh, I'm exhausted. I just want to sleep right now..."
Karyn nodded, "I was just sleeping myself, we rest here for while."
"First thing I'm going to do...when I wake up...is find...some...clothes..." Jon was asleep by the time she finished her sentence. Karyn was alarmed as she realized that she had been naked all this time in front of Jon. She tried to put the thought from her mind, but now she couldn't help noticing Jon's cold breasts rhythmically brushing against her bare, scaled skin.
