Beauty and the Beast

The Themysciran army marched in perfect unison towards the forests of their island home. Armed and armored in leather and bronze armor so polished and tanned that they appeared almost golden in their luster in the mid-day light. Shield so pristine they gave a mirror finish and spears whose tips glittered in the sun in such a way they appeared like well cut diamonds. Overhead banners of their nation fluttered in the breeze, each a tapestry of their history as well as their nation’s identity. This was as much by practice as well as intent. The queen demanded her personal army wear the heraldry of their nation with distinction. As symbol to stand behind as well as what to present to the enemy she had declared.

Enemy… The idea was unthinkable days ago. She had thought her people unified, singular in their purpose and mindset. It took a curse to show her otherwise, that deep within her people’s hearts was a monster, one that could either be slain, or set loose. Looking over her armoured shoulder to her guards and army, each and every one of them looked magnificent in their garb, warriors without peers ready for battle. The illustriousness of their armor was match equally by their exquisite beauty. Silken, flowing hair flowed underneath their helmets or shun exposed, tied back behind their scalps so their hair would not obscure their eyes. Their faces were angelic in their beauty, restored thanks to days worth spent in the acts of compassion, empathy, mercy, and kindness.

THIS was what her people should have been from the very beginning. Blessed by the goddess of love, justice, generosity, and skill. They had a responsibility to their gifts, to use them constructively, to become their voice on Earth and be representatives of their best qualities. Instead, after creating their personal paradise, they squandered their gifts in their idleness, and in their idleness, she and her people had become blind to the enemy they had vowed to face whenever possible.

‘Hatred.’

Looking back to her army, Queen Hippolyta knew what she was asking of them. These fiends, these monsters they were going to face were once their own sisters in arms. But where she and the others had been reminded of their duties and thus reclaimed who they were, restoring their appearance the more they let their hearts guide them. These… Harpies had betrayed everything they stood for, and thus now look as hideous as their black hearts. They weren’t her sisters anymore.

“AMAZONS! PREAPRE FOR ARMS!” Called out Phillipus, raising a spiked bronze mace in her hand and pointing it towards the broken treeline that made a passageway through the dirt pathway, one once treaded by her amazon people in their training runs, now defiled with fallen branches and trees.

Entering the brush, the amazons kept a wary eye around and above them, knowing full well their former sisters now had the power of flight on their side. It wasn’t until they were a hundred paces deep into the woods, did they notice a pungent smell ahead, the smell of burnt-out fires… and other things they dared not contemplate. Their approach was met with silence until the sound of a branch breaking was all it took for the 50 or so amazon warriors to raise their shields and aim their spears at what slowly approach them.

Whatever it was, the creature was truly hideous. Standing with the gait of some simian like creature with its thin, elongated arms, it wore their armor, or what was left of their armor over its misshapen frame. Filthy, tattered and hanging off its outstretched and hunched frame while it held itself propped up on sharp claws like those of a vulture or owl. Scraping and scratching at the ground as it hobbled proudly before the queen. It’s body was covered in black and dark brown plumage and pin feathers that looked slick and filth caked over its entire body save for its elongated neck and bald face, now bearing wrinkled, leathered and rotting skin off its skull and neck. It’s black eyes bore into the queen’s crystal blues, smiling with jagged, chipped teeth like the grin of some terrible angler fish.

“Ssssoooo… Her Magesssty finally gracesss uss with her presence…” Hissed a spittle drawn cackle from Aello, standing up to her feet with some difficulty.

A chorus of laughter and the fluttering of wings overhead made the amazon army look up and raise their defenses to the dozen or so harpies looming over them from the tree branches.

“Come to reward usss perhaps?” Called out Alkyone, hobbling into view from behind a tree to join Aello. “You were not as gracioussss at the docks.”

“You should hold your forked tongue you snake!” Threatened Phillipus, pointing her mace at the harpy who sneered back at her. “And BOW before your queen!”

“Not our queen!” Gurgled a third harpy landing with the other two, the one they quickly recognised as Ocypete as she flapped her folded wings behind her and raked her talon across the Earth at her feet. Drool escaped her almost beak thin lips where foam could be seen between her fanged teeth. “OUR queen was a warrior without match, and you couldn’t fight against ME! You needed that little vermin from Man’s world to save…”

She never got to finish her sentence, at that moment with the speed of a thunderbolt and just as loud, the offending former general was struck across the face with the polished surface of Hippoyta’s shield with such intensity, the ring of bronze against bruised flesh was like the gong of a bell. The power behind the strike was enough to send the offending bird creature straight through the tree, showering the clearing with splinters of pulverised wood and bark in every direction, stunning the harpies and Amazons alike when their Queen stamped the pommel of her spear to the ground, her face stern as the injured Ocypete looked up in stunned silence.

“His name… Was Phin Thracy!”