Chicken Scratch

“DON’T DARE TOUCH ME!” Roared Aello, practically swiping her clawed hand at one of her sisters in arms when she reached out to touch her arm after offering wine. Scaring off the amazon, Aello narrowed her eyes and clutched at her pint with unfamiliar hands.

They weren’t even human anymore.

Her fingers, she had three now, her thumb now opposite to the three and platted with mottled skin like that of a hawk or owl. Each bulging fingertip brandishing a claw the size and razor’s edge of a spear tip. And just like a jumbled cluster of spear tips for fingers, the crone of a woman struggled to keep the wooden mug in her hands as she tried to sip her drink in front of the fire. Spilling some over her chin as her claws lacked the dexterity to tilt her mug properly. Looking up to a group of elderly looking amazons watching her, the woman hissed.

“What are YOU looking at?!”

Turning away, they went about their business, leaving the general to look away, but her scowl remained. She and the other generals had retreated to the encampment where the Bana-Mighdall

“Those MEN, its all their fault.!”

“They are poisoning our sisters.” Hissed Ocypete, stabbing a wooden stick into the fire she and the other generals sat around. All around them, the rest of the amazons who had not had their beauty restored only festered in their jealousy and confusion. “Especially that little parasite that has ensnared our sister, Nubia!”

“Indeed… YOU’VE seen what effect he has on them all, they forget themselves so quickly before his beguilement. They forget they are warriors the instant they see him.” Looking over to one amazon keeping to herself at her tent, Alkyone nodded towards her.

“You there! Bana-Mighdall, YOU come from Man’s world, are those urchins so proliferous beyond our shores?”

Keeping herself warm in the night air with a blanket around her hunched form, Artemis looked to the trio at the campfire, pulling the blanket tighter around her.

“They are everywhere…”

Scoffing with her chin up high, Alkyone chuckled as she picked up her drink and swirled the wine in her hand. “Typical, to think any woman would lay with one of those animals to procreate is disgusting. Tell me… Did your tribe abandon paradise to be with those fiends? Or could you not handle the martial discipline?”

Getting up from her seat and tossing aside the blanket to keep warn, Artemis picked up the nearest sword laying sheathed and brandished it at Alkyone. “You think my sisters weak? You think ME weak? The Bana-Mighdall have fought the predations of man and survived for centuries! Unlike YOU fat immortal cows who live in luxury, who are YOU to question our prowess?!”

Getting up from her seat and unsheathing her own sword, the crone stepped away from the fire, with Artemis keeping pace until the two were in a nearby clearing, with the rest of their sisters surrounding them, cheering their respective leader as they saluted each other and charged. Screams and cheers echoed out as swords clashed, sending sparks as the cold steel impacted one another. One strike had them locked together, the two sneering at each other with pure hatred on their faces.

“You speak of weakness, yet it was YOU who afflicted us with this curse.”

“That MALE cursed us, our goddess of Justice can do no wrong, he squandered a gift to make us suffer!”

Breaking away from each other, the two went back to fighting, their strikes becoming less graceful as they essentially just hacked at each other, blocking each other’s sword strikes as they circled like a pair of angry wolves.

“Your curse has DOOMED us, robbed us of life and vigor. How long do my sisters have as… THIS?!” Accused Artemis, waving her free hand to her elderly and sunken features.”

“YOUR sisterhood has always been the meal feed of Thanatos, like ALL those who dwell in Man’s world… All I need do is wait and you’d be defeated by time.”

“RAAAAAAARGH!” charging towards Alkyone, Artemis held her blade forward, barreling towards the Amazon general who girded herself ready for the strike, only to be surprised when Artemis spread her arms wide and cartwheeled around the woman, leaving Alkyone to hesitate until she felt the hot sting of metal swipe at her back. “BITCH! Living in paradise has made you complac…HNGGGH!”

Falling to her knees, Artemis gasped as she dropped her sword and looked down at her hands, her fingers bulging and cracking, transforming before her eyes into avian looking claws. Looking down and flexing the unfamiliar clawed fingers, she was unprepared for the boot that kicked her face and sent her rolling onto her back.

“COWARD! MORTAL MAN-LOVING FILTH! HOW DARE YOU…. AAAARGH!”

Her own hands going into a paralysed fit, Alkyone watched in horror as her thin fingers grew and twisted, curved black claws forming from her overgrown, chipped nails. Seeing Artemis sneer and grimace back at her, Alkyone tried to reach for her sword, finding her new hands too crude to wrap fully around the handle of the blade. Trying and failing repeatedly until the red-eyed general gave up and attacked the Bana-Midhgall amazon with her bare claws.

The cheers had died down instantly, any semblance of honour or glory in the unofficial duel had lost its glamour when the two clawed at each other like alley cats. Taking swipes and slashes at each other until they were **** to separate. Even then their appearances only worsened, not only from the scars they inflicted, but their bodies changing further in their blind fury. Kicking each other away, Artemis returned to her tent, hobbling on all fours like a wounded animal clutching at the scratch on her arm. Alkyone did the same, clutching at her sides with her one talon and looking down at her shoulder to find it scratched and bleeding. Reaching for a cloth, she no longer had the dexterity in her claws to even grasp it, forcing herself to lick at her injuries.

Seeing the others look back at her in shock, her red eyes glared with unbridled hatred.

“What are YOU all looking at?!”

Turning away, the woman chuckled to herself, licking blood off her thin lip as she scratched at the back of her neck, finding feathers and plumage forming around her shoulders. It was the men’s fault. It HAD to be! And she was going to prove it, one way or another.