In life it might have stood so tall as to brush the very ceiling, and it had a thick, slightly curved beak, stubby wings, and cruel, forward-reaching talons.

Soon three lizard-shapes with theatrically bat-like wings glided over the wave tops to circle the boat in perfect formation, treading the air with two sets of cruel talons.

The pain was intense, gripping her with its cruel talons, biting deep, but not so deep that it wiped out the sudden rush of anger she felt at his blind stubbornness.

I am from Arnisson, a village under siege, desperate to keep itself free from the cruel talons of the draconian army.

A falcon soared, swooped, clutched in cruel talons one of the gulls, bearing its prey to the top of the cliff, where it perched still within sight.

He moved closer to the mural and examined it minutely, running his hands over the wings and down its belly to the cruel curved talons.

Now as he lay in bed next to a stranger, still wrapped in the musk of their love-making, it clawed at him with cruel talons.

His cruel talons crooked, he scratched Janes' cheek until Janes howled.

With both hands he grasped the limb, and, at the instant that Numa sprang, drew himself and his prey out of reach of the animal's cruel talons.

Drifting over our heads, supremely casual, come a pair of giant Bonelli's eagles, their hooked beaks and cruel talons clearly visible.