On the shores of the Nile (Monthly tale - 3) X

(Woman into ostrich)*

Chapter 1

Way before the dawn of the age of civilization, before the Chinese Empire, the Greeks and the Pyramids, when humanity was clumsily stumbling out of the Stone Age, in the heart of Africa, close to the great Nile, there was a tribe.

The actual name of the tribe was devoured by the dust of time long ago, but two things were known for sure, they were a matriarchal society… and they were amongst the first practitioners of the craft…

Not the first ones, of course, the art of witchery was with humans when humans were still in caves, but their women were, most likely, the first ones to officialize and contextualize many of the early teachings, tricks, customs… and rituals…

…

The interior of the large communal hut was suffocating. 

In the ground in the centre of the room an enormous fire was blazing wildly, but none of the twenty-three dark skinned women around the flames seemed to complain, even though the sweat was making their white robes sticky and the heat made their nipples erect.

Amanra was sitting right where she belonged, before the fire, in the chair of the elder priestess.

A tall woman that radiated serenity more powerfully than the flames radiated heat. Her long grey dreadlocks tied, resting over her right shoulder, on the left side of her chest the exquisitely tailored white robes ended abruptly, revealing one of her big round breasts with it's big dark nipple.

Amanra’s stoic, dark eyes looked slowly around the room, stopping on each of the young and old priestesses. They stopped for a few seconds longer on Kaki, the tallest of the priestesses, a muscular woman who was whispering something to one of her companions with a malicious smirk.

When Kaki noticed the eyes of the elder on her she immediately lost her smile and became serious, crossing her arms behind her back.

Finally, she  a slight hand gesture and, after an instant of doubt, Mireya, her apprentice, took a step forward.

The small frail girl raised the large leather bag that she held with both hands, master and apprentice exchange glances as the young girl opened the bag.

Amanra leaned back, closing her eyes, and extended her arm… the girl shook the bag as the woman’s fingers touched the thing inside the darkness of the bag… the hard, the sharp, the soft…

The deep silence of the hut was only broken by the shaking of the bag and the crackling of the blazing logs…

The fingers closed, Mireya recoiled and the elder priestess slowly opened her eyes …

She opened her hand equally slowly, holding her breath… not tusk, fang or claw, but between her fingers she held a big feather that was mostly dark but with a white tip …

Amanra raised the feather and the women claimed her name as one…

…

The ritual was performed in the middle of a circle of small rocks, on the sand on the shores of the great river, a circle big enough for an elephant to easily stand inside.

The atmosphere of expectant tension was palpable as the eyes of all the priestess were fixed upon Amanra, the elder priestess was standing in the middle of the circle of women and rocks, toying with the feather.

She felt very old as her fingers slowly turned the feather round … everybody there knew very well what was going to happen, the only question left was her choice…

Most of them had their own ideas on the matter, even if they didn’t speak them too loudly, but any assumption made about Amanra would have been a bold one.

Nobody was surprised when she began to walk towards Mireya, the frail girl humbly lowered her eyelids.

Kaki was standing at the side of the girl, she was brave and foolish enough to show her discontent, snorting, but that was followed by a poorly contained gasp coming from most of the other women in the circle.

Mireya raised her eyes and saw Amanra’s arms extended towards Kaki, her hand offering the feather to the tall woman…

Kaki’s lips formed a perfect 'o' of disbelief, she looked at the elder priestess, shocked for what may well have been the first time in her life.

She gulped and kneeled, lowering her head and raising her hands with her palms open... she didn’t dare move as the feather was dropped into her hands…

The choice had been made and Amanra walked backwards towards the centre of the circle, with her arms open, her hands empty and her eyes closed.

The women were now looking at Kaki, the woman, still dazzled, stood up again, her eyes on the feather until Mireya pulled her arm, forcing her to return to reality.

Kaki looked around, sweating now more than she had inside the hut, she nodded once and then all priestesses moved towards the middle of the circle.

The younger ones, with Mireya at the front, surrounded Amanra and started to remove clothing and jewels from her body, one by one.

They took away the earrings and the bracelets and the rings, the garnets in her hair and the clothes covering her skin, Amanra raised her leg when one of the young girls pulled down her underwear to the floor, so she could pick it up easier.

She was left completely naked in front of her peers as the young ones moved backwards, taking away with them her signs of status… and humanity…

Next it was the turn of the older women, they stepped forward, Kaki with them. One of the oldest priestesses moved closer to her, carrying a large pot in her thin frail arms.

The old priestess opened the pot and put it down in front of the new elder, following this piece of the ritual Kaki crushed the feather and mixed it with the smelly oil like substance inside the pot, adding the final ingredient.

With the lotion ready the women one by one soaked their hands in the oil and then proceeded to surround Amanra once again.

Delicately and efficiently half a hundred fingers began to spread the oil over Amanra’s naked skin. The fingers touched without restraint in their quest, from Amanra’s most sacred places to the scalp under her hair, they didn’t stop for anything until every last inch of skin was covered.

Amanra didn’t move, protest or complain even once, she even opened her arms and legs to make the task easier for her companions.

Once it was over all the women, young and old alike, retreated, leaving the circle to stand back in their original places.

Amanra was left inside, in the middle, around her, on the sand, were dozens of footprints from bare feet.

Her moist skin shone under the sun, her hair disheveled, falling free down her back.

She and the others waited in silence for it to begin… but they didn't have to wait too long…

The sun was still high when the tingling began, the oil, now dried, itching her skin.

It started with a soft, almost inaudible moan that made the old woman cross her knees like a blushing little girl.

She put her hands on her sides as her stomach started to swell with a loud grumble.

As the skin of her pelvic area stretched she lowered her body into a squatting position, putting her closed fists on the sand, the sand that was sliding between her toes, her eyes firmly shut. Involuntary groans and moans were made as the lips of her sex opened wide, drooling onto the sand as the tip of the absurdly big egg appeared.

Amanra lowered her pelvis closer to the ground, her belly inflated even more and her neck stretched as she continued pushing, greyish black feathers started to sprout from the skin around the base of her neck and her shoulders, breaking through dry crust left by the oil.

Her neck was becoming thin and long, her torso elongating as she clenched her teeth in pain, sweat dripping from her white dreadlocks from the effort. 

Below, her feet tingled and swelled, deforming into appendages that had two gigantic toes with claws, claws that scratched the sand with the strenuous effort produced by the laying of the egg.  

It was almost out, the skin on her legs, head and neck began to wash from ebony dark to a paler tone, her chest expanded, spreading her breasts.

She squawked, raising her head and the egg landed on the sand, heavy and moist.

Amanra’s body was mockingly disfigured, her head almost bald, her over stretched neck tall above the collar of feathers across her shoulders, her feet deformed into bird-hood, her sex so ridiculously open that she couldn’t even close her legs.

As the dreadfully pleasant itchiness of the changes returned, she took one step forward and began to push again.

Her torso tilted forward as her rear raised, sealing into a lumpy tail, the feathers extending down her back and arms.

The skin of her legs and feet began to turn dry, becoming rough.

Constant small sounds could clearly be heard over the mix of squawks and moans, the popping of bones, the elongation of muscles, the slimy slid of the coming egg.

Shoulders cracked loudly and she leaned her neck forward, along with her bald head and her whole torso.

Nails fell and fingers fused as feathers covered them, longer at the end of arms and on the tail forming on her rear, they even covered her breasts, but left her head, neck and legs untouched.

So close to the end, Amanra opened her eyes once again to take a last look at her fellow companions, as her bald head shrank onto the top of her long thin neck.

She squawked loudly, flapping her big useless wings as a beak pushed out of her mouth, it was loud enough to make Kaki take a step back.

The second egg landed on the sand as heavily as the first and in the middle of the circle, where there should have been a woman, now stood an adult female ostrich.

Raising her head and flapping her wings, the big bird squawked once more and then started to walk away from the eggs.

The priestesses opened the circle, allowing the ostrich to pass, she soon started to run, leaving the eggs, the circle and the women behind.

Deafening cheers and claps exploded as the women surrounded the still dazzled Kaki, the young ones slapping her back and congratulating her ascension to elder, the old ones putting Amanra’s robe around her shoulders and around her wrists and neck, bracelets and collars.

Tonight they would have a feast with the eggs and tomorrow it would be a new day.

Kaki looked out from the middle of the crowd of women and saw Mireya, the young girl was still looking into the distance, towards the place where the ostrich had disappeared out of sight to join the wilderness…

…

In the present...

The blackboard was in the middle of the barn, the chalk slid down, finishing the last letter.

Adelia Colpot looked down at the open book she was holding with one hand, the other had the chalk, the chestnut haired, green eyed girl was wearing a yellow jacket, boots and a pair of glasses that made her look a slightly weird and calm even to the people knew her.

“The first practitioners of the craft believed that there was an intrinsic price for it's usage..." she said aloud. "That belief was the foundation that led to the first rituals, they were a method of paying, a cycle to mantain the line of power and the connection to nature, a difference to the common rituals of normal people, in witchcraft that payment was made by the sacrifice of someone in a position of power. 

With time, and after the invention of runes, we came to understand that the sacred side was a product of tradition more than necessity and that rituals were just another method to focus the powers that..."

"Adelia."

The voice of the young girl interrupted the explanation, Adelia looked towards one of the two small desks behind her, at the left one there was a girl in a white dress  appeared to be in her early teens, she had her arm raised, her skin was ebony and her long dark curly hair was tied in pigtails.

"What's the matter, Freda?" asked Adelia. "You have a question?"

"No, no, I get the whole ritual thing... it's just... well, Susan is doing it again..."

Freda pointed to the girl at the desk at her side, a young white woman with a lot of shiny braids and clips in her blonde hair. She was snoring softly with her arms crossed across the desk, at her feet a fat dark sow with some blond hair on top of her head was also sleeping.

Adelia stared angerly at the sleeping girl, she walked round to the front of her desk and closed the book loudly over her head, the noise woke up Susan.

"Uh...? Wha...?" she said, starting to get... before the side of the book hit the top of her head. "Auch!"

The sow woke up squealing and ran away, leaving the barn through the open door, Freda covered her chuckles behind her hands.

Susan looked up and shuddered under Adelia's green eyes.

"Freda, go play." said Adelia.

"Neat!" shouted Freda, getting up and leaving throught the same door as the sow, ignoring the pleading look on Susan's face.

"So, Susan..." continued Adelia, forcing the attention of the girl back onto her. "Did you like the lesson?"

"Sure... it was super cool!"

"And what was it about?"

"Rituals..." a lucky guess.

"Where?"

"A-As... Africa?" two hits.

"And the metamorphosis?"

"Heeeem... a penguin...OUCH!" the book hit her head again.

Susan fondled her aching skull with tears in the corners of her eyes. Adelia opened the book to the page with the picture of the painting of what seem to be an ostrich-woman on the wall of a cave, then she pointed  the two pages.

"Copy all of this, twice."

"But..."

"Three times."

The blonde girl knew that trying to protest would only lead to the copies multiplying, so she quickly grabbed pen and paper and started to write the text on the pages. Adelia leaned on the empty desk, crossing arms and legs.

"That's not how you write matriarch."

Susan nodded and scratched out the incorrect word...  learning history was such a pain in the ass...