When Andrew regained consciousness, he felt groggy, as though he'd slept for hours. He wondered why there was a cool breeze in the basement of the arcade, and just how long he'd been out. Suddenly he realized that he probably wasn't supposed to be in the back room, and if he didn't hurry someone might find him. He opened his eyes.
What he saw was not at all what he expected to see. Where the ceiling of the arcade should have been was a deep blue sky, tinged with red at one end. Was it dawn? How could he have slept that long without someone finding him? He blinked a few times, wondering if his eyes were deceiving him, but the view didn't change. Had they dragged him outside or something? If so, why were there no buildings in sight? Why couldn't he hear any cars? Even this early there should be at least the occasional bus going by.
And to top it all off, things felt strange. Something prickled at his back, like he was lying on old, broken wicker furniture or dry grass or something. Strands of something that like hair tickled at the base of his neck, but his hair wasn't nearly that long. His arms felt weird, too, and there was something unusual about the rise and fall of his chest. What was going on here?
Andrew sat up, and it was immediately apparent that something was wrong. There was significantly more weight to his chest than there ought to have been, and as he sat up the extra weight moved like it was hanging loose. Long red hair fell in his eyes; not only was it longer than before, but Andrew's hair was normally black. His arms seemed to have giant flaps of sling hanging off of them, or something. Andrew looked down at himself, wondering just what the hell had happened while he was out.
The sight was a shock, to be sure; so much so that Andrew just sat there for a long time, staring. The first and, to Andrew, most shocking difference was that there were two breasts at the bottom of his...her field of vision. Andrew wwasn't one hundred percent sure of the "her" part, but given the breasts and the fact that nothing was sticking out from the downy patch of her private area, it seemed like a safe bet. Andrew had become a girl. By comparison, the fact that her lower body was that of a bird seemed almost mundane. The realization slowly dawned on Andrew: she had become her character.
After an ear-piercing shriek and about fifteen minutes of hyperventilating, Andrew managed to calm down enough to think straight. Okay, she was her character, but where was she? Thus far, she'd only been paying attention to her body, but now she took a look around. She was in a nest about the size of a small car, made of twigs, straw, and assorted other debris jumbled into a loose thatch. The rim of the nest was about two feet high, and past it she could see a rocky ledge that abruptly dropped off about twenty feet from the nest. Carefully, she stood up to get a better look.
The nest - her nest - was situated on a ledge about thirty feet wide on the slopes of a mountain. Beyond the dropoff, she could see gradually smaller foothills leading down to a wide, grassy plain, the sun slowly rising over it. A little way from the base of the hills was a small village, and off in the distance she could see larger towns. Turning from the view, she took a look at her immediate surroundings. Aside from the nest, there was also a small cave - barely more than a dent in the mountainside, but enough to provide shelter if the weather got too rough. The ledge gradually sloped down to a pool, which was fed from a tiny waterfall far above. It was probably snow melt from higher up on the mountain, Andrew realized, which meant that it would be clean, but also very cold. She walked down to the pool, having a little difficulty balancing on the talons that had replaced her feet, and peered in.
Looking back at her was a lovely young woman of about sixteen. Her face was a little plain, but still beautiful in a rugged, tomboyish way. This was only further accented by her flaming red hair, which hung down to the middle of her back, uncombed and somewhat tangled. The human part of her torso was fairly shapely, though not extremely slender. Her uncovered breasts weren't especially large, but they certainly weren't small. Hanging between them was a small jeweled amulet, glowing softly in the morning light; the one piece of starting equipment she'd been able to buy.
The bird part of her body was a little harder to judge. Her legs were shapely, and more human in shape than avian, although the lower legs were spindly and covered in rough yellow skin. The fan of nut-brown tailfeathers that spread out behind her legs lent a certain exotic flair to the whole thing that was only further emphasized by her wings.
Of course, the problem still remained that the girl Andrew was staring at was, in fact, Andrew. It was a nice view, sure, but Andrew had no plans to stay this way if she could help it. But how to change back? She'd been turned into this harpy-girl by an exploding arcade machine, it seemed, but now she was in what she guessed to be the game world, where she was unlikely to find any arcade, let alone one with the same game. Maybe there was some magic that could change her back to a human male and send her home?
Whatever it was, she wasn't going to find it here. Andrew figured that her best bet lay in getting to one of the larger towns, where she might find a wizard that knew how to change her back or something. Obviously, the fastest way to get there was to fly, but did she really want to try that way up here in the mountains, with no prior experience?