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The Harpy Matriarch - Part II
🕑 Added 2020-06-05 06:17:49 +0000 UTC
A farmer wiped the sweat off her brow with a rag she had pocketed. Before the sun was to set, it blazed one last heat onto the field of workers, punishing them on this cloudless day. The others across from her looked up; she thought nothing of it at first, until a shadow blanketed the earth. She wondered if the weather was changing, but upon staring upwards, she realized that such was not the case. It was no cloud, but a silhouette gliding through the sky. Before long, every farmer was ceasing their labor as to awe up at a distant figure, what could only be a monster from myths. Long wings flapped and drummed a low rhythm that was heard regardless of how far this creature had to be.
An uneasy motionless fell upon the farm, like prey without a place to hide. Some trembled back towards the barns, others quietly muttered a prayer. Suspenseful seconds passed, everyone standing on edge, but the shadow was past them. The monster, if something that big was merely that, was uninterested in the farmlands, and continued to fly by. As the enormous figure continued to the mountain-lined horizon, the farmers breathed once again, wondering what disaster was about to unfold elsewhere in the world.
The harpy matriarch had no reason to acknowledge the peasants of the countryside. Atilda was not an aimless beast looking to strew senseless mayhem; she was a queen, bound to a mission of her own devising. There was only one destination she would stop for: Countess Harmonia’s vineyard manor, located in scenic Redrun. Rarely did Atilda stray far from the Crumbling Valley, but this was thus far her most joyful excursion yet, a wicked grin maintained through most of the flight.
Much of her amusement had also stemmed from Reina, the defeated warrior turned accessory. She was Atilda’s guide to Redrun, dragged into aiding the matriarch under threat of her and her mercenaries being slaughtered. Losing in battle to a beast was humiliating enough, but the torment persisted with where she was trapped. Hugged between Atilda’s very own breasts and forced to hug them back, for if she didn’t embrace her prison, she would plummet to an inarguable death. Every beat of Atilda’s far-reaching wings teased that risk, pushing Reina to relief when the walls of Redrun first appeared.
“So many buildings,” Atilda mused, surveying the civilization. “So many little lives…! How exciting… This is my first time visiting a true human city! And I have you to thank for this.” She glanced down to her chest, always aware of how Reina squirmed in her cleavage. It had kept her entertained for what had become a long flight, that occasional tickle of a warrior’s struggle.
Reina had been silent throughout the voyage, at odds with where she was positioned. She shuddered between the breasts, using the fat to ward off the high-altitude cold that would otherwise freeze through her tattered clothes. It was almost an escape from reality to succumb deeper into the cleavage’s heat, but upon hearing Atilda’s enthusiasm, she had to protest. “You made a promise, bird!” she yelled, striking a hard punch into a flab of skin. “You are only to take the countess! That is what we agreed to--”
Atilda laughed over herself, “Such an attitude from a trivial runt! You still don’t know your place, do you? It’s out of your control how I and this countess decide to settle matters. If you care so much for others getting involved, then pray -- pray that she offer herself up quickly. Or, perhaps I could turn around now, and settle with keeping your mercenaries as slaves for the brood~ They’re tough warriors, so they would last us a decent while.”
“That--! No! Those were not the terms!” Reina barked back, enraged into another pointless attack against one of the fleshy walls. The frigid air bit at her exposed skin, but regret gnawed through her soul. “Innocents will not be thrown into this! You will leave them be--” She was cut off, gasping; the massive creature was suddenly on the descent.
A crash struck the earth’s surface, accentuated by sweeping winds that blew across the land. Atilda had landed with a storm-raising debut, and Reina was nearly jostled free from the impact. She swam between the skin and rose out from the cleavage, where she was greeted to the cacophony of Redrun’s reaction. Screams of horror stood out from the chaotic muttering, a stampede could be heard of panicked citizens in the streets, but Reina saw none of it, tucked deep into the giantess’s chest and only capable of hearing the distress and how it compared to Atilda’s smile.
The winds of her wings had caused their own havoc, separate from any intentions Atilda herself had. The gusts battered the walls and billowed through the gates, which were seen to that they be closed immediately. The wind whipped at the people, knocking some off their feet and startling others into taking cover. When they next looked up to understand what had befallen their community, they saw a feathered woman that towered over everything, even the highest buildings failing to to surpass her digitrade joints. Not a meteor or magic, but a single harpy, hundreds of feet tall and eager to invade.
Atilda stood at her complete height so that she could wallow in her superiority. She hesitated to speak, allowing the humans to arrange themselves before introducing herself. The long wall that supposedly blocked her was one step away from being breeched, regardless of how far its sides were spread or how frantically they drove the drawbridge up. Guards fought against the crowds to maintain a semblance of order, leaving only a handful of soldiers to arm themselves in the face of the impossible opponent.
“Redrun!” Atilda announced, her voice booming and bouncing off the colorful rooftops for all to hear. “I understand that this is a human city, but all I see beneath me are insects scurrying at my talons! I’ve come here in search of someone you humans prize as a beautiful noble, but…” She leaned forward so that her weight overshadowed several blocks of buildings, stirring new wakes of fear where her amethyst eyes hovered. She giggled, “Is it actually possible that Countess Harmonia is among you? I’ve heard such wonderful things about her grace~ Would any of you pathetic things do me the honors of taking me to her?”
She knew well how her question would be answered, tantalized by that very outcome. Of course, it was not an escort that was arranged for her, but a defensive attack. A line of catapults along the city wall unleashed their loads, having overcome great doubt to commit to the attack. Despite the courage, however, their shots did nothing, splintering against the talons that they aimed at. In retaliation, Atilda merely clenched the claws of the leg that was hit, scarring the soil as she braced to scratch an itch. The other talon rose; its size boasted a tremendous weight and yet the harpy maneuvered it expertly, mocking the combined efforts of the archers.
Atilda wouldn’t even recognize such a feeble defense, finding it beneath her. If nothing else, Reina had succeeded in upping the standards the matriarch had for resistance. She would respond callously, raising her talon over the heads of her enemies and launching it past their positions. “No one will offer to help?” Atilda teased, her purple wings displayed from her waist for all to envy. “That’s fair enough~ How do such small, wingless things navigate the world, anyway? I’ll just let myself in.”
Those words were the townspeople’s only warning, had they not heeded the threat of her hugeness before. Crowds disassembled from the roads that the talon hovered over. Wiser folk flooded out into alleys and other streets, while others mistakenly hoped they could hide inside one of the many buildings. The first footfall into Redrun was being placed, and beneath it was a fraction of that civilization. Roofs crumbled first, then the walls toppled down. Darkness deepened, and finally, an extensive crush, rubble and bodies being grinded into a flattened, claw-shaped heap.
That very shape was what saved some from their demise, contrasted to that of a human-like foot. Between the toes of her talons, survivors pushed up from the debris and looked up at their destroyer. Their eyes climbed the long, monstrous legs and then climbed further for the woman they became, a mature and devilish woman that had no interest in the lives that she trampled upon. Shops and warehouses and homes alike all disappeared under her step, and it was just the beginning of her intrusion. The survivors could not even celebrate their luck as the next talon was flying overhead, targeting another district entirely.
Atilda laughed at how the people ran from her. “Such cowards! That’s my talon, you fools, just a talon~” Her next step landed, doubling the damages in an instant. The walls that had reliably thwarted a history of invasions had been bested that quickly, failing to prevent one harpy from entering. “If humans are truly so adaptable like you claim to be, then you will surely widen these roads when you rebuild. Where else do you expect me to step?”
A trail of destruction followed Atilda as she proceeded into the center of the city. Complex architecture was instantly wiped out and replaced with footprints of debris. In some steps, small fires broke out and smoke thus rose to the sky, yet still not as high as the destroyer herself. Within the central squares of the city, the disaster was upon them faster than expected, and few at the time had even comprehended what monster terrorized their home. The roads had once been busy with ordinary traffic, but now all paths were tightly congested with rioters running for their lives.
Reina heard it all. Although she rarely had an angle to peer down at the city far below, a clear image was painted in her mind. The battle she had only just survived was repeating again, more one-sided than before. Instead of a brigade of hunters falling to the very prey they sought out, it was bystanders to the conflict being crushed underfoot, only coughing a pitiful resistance against Atilda. She distinctly heard the strain of wood and stone under pressure, cries for mercy being cut short, and the harpy’s playful giggling.
“This is wrong! You promised me!” Reina screamed, newly invigorated with rage. She clawed out from the crevice, almost able to free herself. “They are innocents, matriarch! They are uninvolved!” She spat, uncaring of how it flicked onto a wall of skin. Her desperation weighed on her, and she nearly stuttered aloud, Please! Please stop this!
“You again, spoiling my fun…” Atilda grinned while whispering to her captive, enjoying how it must have hung over someone that plead to her. “These insects are more than free to avoid where I step. Besides, they did attack first~ Humans, barbaric as usual.”
“Quit this! They did nothing to you -- to the harpies! I-It was the countess, it was her decision!” Reina groaned, “I am begging you, matriarch, consider their lives--!”
Atilda’s patience ran dry for Reina, and so she brought a wing’s edge to her chest as to usher Reina deeper between her breasts. “Quiet now, you,” Atilda gently hushed. Her strides were slower but unceasing while her wing sank Reina. Her tone was surprisingly soft and motherly, all while her footfalls boomed over a panicking crowd. “You will learn soon enough that the countess thinks of her people the same way as I. For now, you can just relax, and breathe.”
Reina was sentenced to just that, incapable of anything else while trapped between Atilda’s breasts. Shadows conquered her, leaving her in a bleak prison that bounced and shook with each footfall. Reina pushed against the walls that closed around her, but the fat was too heavy to be moved. Worse yet was that fatigue dragged at the hunter, and so she breathed in the humidity, the scent that polluted what little air she was allowed.
Having handled that nuisance, Atilda refocused her attention onto her intended target. She scanned the city from its center, blissfully ignorant of how stragglers attacked her anchored talons with anything that could be salvaged. Her eyes lit up as they crossed one of the corners, locating a generous square of land within Redrun that featured open courtyards, rows of colorful bushes, and a manor that proudly overlooked it all. It was a vineyard, like the one Reina described, and Atilda grimaced at the sight. She could smell the property, that unmistakable stink of nobility.
“What a gaudy looking place,” Atilda complained, striding over towards the vineyard. Rubble spilled from her talons and rained upon townspeople as she walked, each step swallowing entire streets and homes whole where they crashed. “Of course that countess would live here. Does she feel big looking over her subjects from so high up? Fufu~”
A long staircase followed up the steep hill that held the manor, but it was ankle-high to Atilda’s massiveness. Where the flight of steps ended was an impressive gate that encircled the home, a defense that would be easily bested with just a single step. Within the walls were Harmonia’s personal mercenaries, hired guards meant to protect the property. Their numbers were normally stretched across the entirety of the vineyard to ensure its safety, but all had been arranged at the front gate. An array of guards stood at the ready, their ranks scrambled together in the courtyard and shivering as they watched the mighty harpy approach.
Atilda laughed at the forces propped against her. “What is this, what is this? An appetizer for an unexpected guest? If nothing else, nobles do know how to greet company properly!” Her words struck nightmares into the crowd of guards as she planted her feet deep to either side of her, a bold stance that looked down upon them. The guards gazed at her legs which stretched higher than any tower, awing at her from within her shadow. Not one raised their weapons, assured that they would be obsolete if used against the tyrant.
A talon rose and took aim into the wide courtyard, its shadow unnerving the guards. She took her time, as though it mattered where her next step went. As proven when it crashed into the earth, Atilda’s talon flattened all that was underneath it -- hedges, trees, fountains, and guards alike. Those that survived the impact scrambled for shelter, and a crowd quickly formed at the tall double doors into the manor. They pounded against the wood desperately, but the entrance could barely budge. It had been barricaded from the inside, just after the guards took position, so that their lives were committed to delaying Atilda’s assault.
Another great crash rattled the ground from a second footfall. Atilda now stood firmly within the courtyard, her claws crumbling the masterful marble statues and shredding the intricately trimmed hedges. There was a meek resistance at her feet where brave survivors took up their weapons and slammed them against the hard talons, but they could only muster a tickle onto the harpy. She admired their efforts if only for how they amused her, but the guards had strategized a stronger attack than this.
The signal was given to strike. From along the walls of the courtyard, cannons were revealed that took aim up at the beast. At an officer’s call, all six cannons let loose their shells as if sieging an enemy fortress. Their loud booms were followed with fiery explosions up and down Atilda’s legs, every shot having hit their mark. Before the smoke could clear, however, it was obvious that this attack did nothing to cripple the giant harpy. Her legs stood as sturdy as ever, weighing heavily into the stone pathways of the courtyard. Only after a second round was prepared did Atilda even acknowledge their strike with a haughty laugh.
“Even your strongest bug weapons have no effect on me,” she taunted. “Should I make it easier for you? Will that even the odds at all?” As suggested, Atilda shifted so that she could make all of her body a possible target for attack. She lowered herself to the level of the courtyard, her legs kicking back and shattering through the frontward walls as she positioned into a crawl. With her rear propped up and her wings spread over the courtyard, she could now look at her prey on a more personal level, just as they could gaze upon their destroyer more closely. Not one ground-level guard stood their post and fought this impossible foe, instead cowering where they could, warmed by her giggling breaths.
There was a tense pause, so stiff that even the lit fuses of cannons seemed to stand still. Guards gawked up at their foe, drenched in shame at how miserable their defenses were. Cornered like mice, they all backed themselves away from Atilda’s presence as far as they could, and she matched that distance with a lean forward, her smile keener than their blades. She was the sky fallen to earth, locks of hair flooding through gardens and an enormous bust that swayed with tremendous weight.
A panicked grunt from the cluster broke away, and others followed. Their attempts to flee could lead them nowhere, only serving as a prelude of entertainment. Cannons popped furiously and without rhythm, six more explosions upon her giant body. One to her shoulder, two to her ribs, three to her ass; Atilda was tickled into laughter, feeling only pings along her skin. Even the most vulnerable parts of her were too thick and resilient to be effectively burned.
“Mmm, should I admit that I was almost worried?” Atilda teased, looking behind her and along the walls. “This is such an opportunity for you all… Is this the best you can do? Really~?” She turned her sinister glare over to the ground-level guards. “The cannons are fun, so I’ll have to start with you. Last as long as you can~ That’s what the countess wants! She wants you to slowly digest inside of me~”
At the peak of her excitement, Atilda could continue her mockery no longer. She revealed her tongue which dripped with a heavy strand of drool, taking on a savage look before lunging at her targets. A wave of textured pink crashed into the stone pathway, shattering a path that several mercenaries had been on. Turning made no difference for these souls as the tongue jerked forward with great speed, its wrinkles and saliva picking up stone, shrubs, and soldiers alike. There was little chance to outrun the monstrous limb, and as quickly as it had appeared, it vanished into the ominous mouth, leaving behind a scar of unearthed dirt where she had licked. Atilda’s head raised up from the ground, signalling a definitive swallow.
Screams of horror enticed Atilda to continue, her appetite far from satiated. She leaned forward even further, her breasts collapsing onto the courtyard to cause unintentional damage. Her tongue appeared again, this time with an even more delighted giggle behind it. The guards ran unsure of where she would strike, but her target was the doors, where so many still fought to break back into the manor. Without anywhere to duck away, the tongue caught its victims like a net, trapping them between its sticky wetness and the hard brick of the building. Ironically, it was as they hoped that the manor’s entrance would be broken; Atilda’s tongue forced forward and snapped into the luxury home, spilling into the foyer as it rose upward. A wide balcony on the third level was appropriately crumbled, and stained glass windows were gracelessly shattered into pieces that melted onto the tongue. This act of destruction was all swiftly dismissed when she swallowed again, sentencing the scene to her stomach.
It was monstrous, uncultured, and exactly how Atilda loved to express her dominance. Every playful spat of violence she cast onto the guards awakened more energy from within her, and where she would normally slow herself to humiliate her victims, she instead continued her chaos headstrong. Eyeing the mercenaries that tried to escape into the manor’s newly opened front, she struck them next with a bite. Her lips, regardless of their softness, swept the hardened soldiers off their feet, tossing them into a throaty abyss. Other stragglers were attacked by a wave of feathers, her wings falling upon them with crushing force. All the while, cannons continued to shell her from all sides, but hopelessness was settling in. Rather than fight to their deaths, gunners fled for their lives and back into the city. It was the wisest tactic as just a moment later, Atilda’s talons would jet into the walls as she rolled about in joy.
Amidst the atrocity, Reina endured from her position in Atilda’s cleavage. Blind to what was happening to the outside world, she was thrown recklessly in senseless directions. Attempts to claw herself free were fruitless, her position constantly shifting and the weight around her too impossible to navigate through. A curse was upon her, for she could hear well the screams of victims and the crumbling of structures, and she was helpless to stop any of it, trapped in a sweaty prison that was unbearably close to the action. A rage snapped within her, and all at once, Reina pushed forward intensely, committed to ceasing this violence. Her damp world had slowed its shaking, allowing her a rare opportunity.
“Atilda!!” Reina roared the moment she felt the cool relief of open air. She pried the flesh apart until an opening allowed her to see the orange daylight, a glimpse of the ravaged scene. The first image she blinked into was that of the manor, a familiar sight had it not been for the gaping hole blown into its entrance. From the mounds of fat she continued to pull herself forward, discovering more of Atilda’s rampage. Where she once heard the cries of numerous mercenaries, Reina witnessed only one that remained, courted by two wings and a devilish smile.
Atilda’s head tilted from side to side, enjoying how the man crawled away from her and into a fluff of purple feathers. Every word she began with was interrupted with a giggle until she finally swallowed her amusement, “You don’t have to be scared. You’re very lucky~ You get to live your little bug life, if you just tell me one simple thing. Where is the countess?”
The man was deathly terrified by the immenseness of this threat, yet there was a certain calmness in how he was spoken to. His breathing was frantic, but with this proposal presented, it slowly steadied to just a rapid rhythm. Hesitation lured Atilda closer, conjuring spasms from the unfortunate guard. He cowered behind a shield and finally barked, “She’s behind the manor! A-A carriage is taking her away! Please, please!”
Atilda giggled towards the ground, imagining the countess’s haste to evacuate Redrun and how useless that struggle was. She lifted her head, causing the man to coil deeper into himself. He expected a cruel twist to the harpy’s game, but he was in fact stroked by the edge of Atilda’s wing as it passed over him. He looked up past his shield, gawking at the giant as she rose to a squatted position.
“She thinks to escape… This countess must love to play,” Atilda remarked, scanning the land that was beyond the high roofs of the manor. She glanced once more at the man, leaving him unharmed as promised. “You’re smart for an insect. Be grateful for that little life I’ve allowed you to have.”
Reina was perplexed by Atilda’s decisions. She was a surreal, impossible enemy for anyone to face. She made games out of a battalion of mercenaries, demonstrated without doubt that the manor itself was a toy to her. The conditions sparked fury in Reina, “Why?! Why do you torture these people, harpy?!” She smacked the breasts that enveloped her, panting from exhaustion. She continued to push and pull at the flesh, “You could have ruined this manor within seconds! Why do you play with their lives when you could so easily claim the countess?!”
Atilda snickered as she stood, using the manor as a prop to rise. “Why so curious of my methods? Are you trying to understand the logic of harpies?” Regarding Reina as a pest, she dismissed her once again by pushing her back into the cleavage, tickled by how she fought against her wing. “Killing the countess would be too easy and not very fun. That is how harpies think, my little hunter. Hunting is not just a means of survival to us, but part of what we are. Establishing our dominance, playing with our food… Oh, you disciplined hunters make me laugh! What a tasteless view of the world you all have, fufu~”
