The Arrival: An Epic Fantasy Romance

by Nicole MacDonald

  ‘You know what I mean.’

  ‘Yes, of course, Alek.’ Loushka relayed the message to the other griffons.

  Alek frowned and leaned over me, working one of the saddle bags open then dragged out my cloak. Holding it tight, he flipped the ends out so that they caught the wind and wrapped it snugly around me. I beamed up at him; warmth! So good.

  Catherine gave Alek a huge smile when he wrapped her up in the red cloak. He gave her arms a brisk rub through the cloak, leaning to her ear again. 'I’m sorry, I didn’t even think about the cold.'

  Alek’s lips brushed my ear when he spoke and the skin flared hot. I looked up at him wide-eyed. Oops, hope he didn’t notice that. 'It’s okay, I’m a big girl I should have thought of it myself,' I said, clutching the cloak around me. He tucked a couple of strands of my hair back behind my ear, which was totally ineffectual—the wind whipped them straight out again. Alek laughed and I caught a whisper of the noise before the wind snatched it away.

  'Shall I show you some of the sights?' he offered. I attempted an enthusiastic nod.

  'Would you like to sit in the front seat? It’ll be easier to show you that way.' Alek watched while Catherine considered that for a moment then bit her lip and looked up at him. 'Tomorrow' she mouthed.

  He leaned to her ear again. 'I’ll still point out the sights. Sit close.' Alek intentionally brushed his lips past her cheek again, watching the skin flare with color. 'Are you over heating?'

  I narrowed my eyes at Alek, so the lip brush wasn’t accidental. Assuming a nonchalant look I replied, 'I’m good thanks.' He did that annoyingly sexy smirk and turned, facing Loushka’s head. I scowled, tempted to stay put, but concluded that would only make me look like a child so scooted forward again, hunching against his back.

  ‘Stop teasing her, Alek,’ Loushka thought reprovingly. ‘Honestly, how old are you?’ He had to resist the urge to retort. Loushka knew it and snorted in amusement.

  Alek began to point out some sights, or I guess the correct term would be landmarks. It seemed strange to only see forests, small (tiny) towns, lakes and rivers. I half expected a proper city with skyscrapers to pop out somewhere, but it didn’t. I began to relax more. At least while I held on to him, I didn’t have vertigo.

  Alek has a nice voice. My eyes got heavy while I leaned against his back, trying to pay attention to what he said. Bleah, can’t pay attention, I thought dozing off.

  Alek felt Catherine slump behind and twisted to check on her. Her head lolled against his chest and he realized from her breathing that she slept. ‘Look at that,’ he thought in astonishment to Loushka. ‘She’s managed to fall asleep mid-flight? And I thought she was terrified of flying.’

  ‘Her aura is a lot calmer now, Alek, they’ve had a stressful time since their cross-over to our world,’ Loushka thought. ‘I think it was your voice that made her sleepy in the end. She trusts you a lot more than she realizes.’

  Alek thought curiously, ‘Could you sense it when they came through? Like Elena?’

  Loushka paused while considering whether or not to share that information with her friend. She decided as Elena hadn’t asked her not to, there shouldn’t be any issues. ‘Yes of course. You know griffons have a form of magick; we can sense others who do too. And these four women have a kind of magick I haven’t seen before and Elena hasn’t seen for centuries. That’s why she was so insistent we rescue them.’

  Alek thought about her words while he turned and lifted Catherine onto his lap, shifting himself to the back seat on the saddle. I really hope she doesn’t wake up all of a sudden, he thought, concerned for a moment. But Catherine’s breathing didn’t change so he leaned her head on his chest and adjusted his seat until comfortable. ‘Have the women used their magick since entering our world? Is that how they managed to hold off the gragnolls for so long?’

  ‘Yes and no. They haven’t deliberately used their powers but I do think that’s what kept them going for so long.’ Loushka paused, ‘And it’s how we spotted them.’

  ‘What do you mean?’

  She sent him an image of what she’d seen that night. Alek could see through the rain that pelted down, even through the heavy canopy of trees, four shimmering lights could be seen; yellow, red, green, and blue. The next image showed the four women when they had landed around them. He could see their exhausted faces like he had seen that night, but this time a shimmering light surrounded each of them. Catherine’s light was red. He looked down at her. She still slept, head resting on his breastplate. A strange feeling of protectiveness came over him while he watched her. She looked so delicate and gentle, it felt hard to imagine that the four of them had fought off so many gragnolls. Curious, Alek asked, ‘Loushka, how many gragnolls did they hold off?’

  She thought about it for a moment. ‘I would guess about twenty. It was a good sized group that moved away when they heard us coming.’

  ‘How the heck did they learn to fight like that?’ Alek wondered.

  ‘Perhaps it’s normal for such instruction in their world,’ suggested Loushka. ‘It’s not unheard of here.’

  ‘Well I’ve heard of women having sword and archery instruction before but they must be very skilled to have survived that long.’ Alek paused while he considered. ‘How long did you say you thought they’d been fighting before we reached them?’

  ‘A good two hours.’

  Alek fell silent, lost in his thoughts. Loushka let him be. She knew where he’d like to set up camp for the night so continued on while chatting with the other griffons.

  The conversation stayed firmly on their four guests, with each griffon voicing different theories as to why Elena wanted them, and where they came from.

  Phroma felt grateful that Gredel had his lovely wife to go home to, a little concerned at the intensity already expressed between some of the couples.

  'After all' she reasoned to Nesha 'We only met them the other day. We still don’t know what their powers are. For Elena to be so interested they must be either very valuable, or very dangerous.'

  Nesha politely acknowledged Phroma’s concerns, though personally felt the women weren’t dangerous to them.

  Kerak butted in, furious that Phroma would insult Kassandra. ‘I think the women are really nice—I like Kassandra.’

  ‘Settle down, Kerak’, admonished Tomiar gently. ‘Phroma’s not saying Kassandra or the others aren’t nice, just that we don’t know much about them yet.’

  Nesha moved positions so he flew closer to the young griffon. ‘C’mon, Kerak, I’ll race you to the next town sighting. I could do with a good stretch.’ Nesha and Kerak shot ahead of the others, eliciting surprised whoops from Sian and Kassie.

  Catherine stirred in Alek’s arms when shouts from the others rang out around them. 'Whhtd?'

  'Shuushh,' he whispered in her ear. 'You’re safe, go back to sleep.' She relaxed back down again.

  Chapter Eleven

  The rest of the flight was peaceful. Nesha and Kerak ran a few races then Phroma insisted on racing the winner which Audrey thoroughly enjoyed. She yelped at Kerak the whole time Phroma raced him. Tomiar obliged Kerak with a race too. The men were pleased to see the griffons felt up to strength again. The effects from their leap appeared to have faded fast.

  ‘Alek,’ Loushka’s voice shook him out of his meditative state. ‘We’re going to locate a suitable campsite shortly. You’d best wake Catherine now.’

  Alek shook her gently. 'Catherine, wake up we’re nearly there.' She mumbled against his chest and sleepily looked around. Then she registered where she sat and her head snapped up. Wide emerald eyes stared up at him in shock.

  WHOA! When did I get to the front of the saddle!? I gripped the sides of it and stared around for a moment, it was a hell of a scary view if you weren’t a fan of heights. I looked back up at Alek and attempted an "I’m cool with this" smile while the silly voice in my head did the insane giggling for me. Better in than out I guess.

  Catherine gave him a tentative sm
ile, her lips pressed together. It made her cheekbones jut out and a tiny dimple in each cheek show. The expression enchanted Alek, he gently pressed his lips to her forehead unable to resist.

  I sat very still while my insides did somersaults.

  He just kissed me on the forehead! And that look… That smile… Well that was the most efficient way to distract you, my rational voice sounded amused. Just imagine what you’d have done if he’d kissed you on the mouth. The silly voice loved that idea. I swallowed hard—surely it wasn’t possible to fall for someone this quickly? Really, he was practically taking advantage of me considering the situation. I worked on the indignant feeling while my rational voice laughed at me; why not just go with it? I considered that. Oh what the heck, let’s just enjoy it—after all it might amount to nothing.

  Alek’s voice interrupted my thoughts. 'Catherine.'

  I looked up. He did that slow, wide smile again, making my toes curl.

  'We’re about to land, so hold on,' Alek continued.

  Hold on? To what? He wrapped one strong arm around my waist and gripped the saddle with his other hand. Then we dropped from the sky. Still clutching Alek tight while making choked gasping noises, it stunned me when he said. 'Well that was nice and smooth, well done, Loushka.' The griffon made an appreciative noise at him.

  Nice? Smooth?

  I guess he isn’t wrong, my rational voice pointed out. I mean, it’s not like you noticed an almighty bump when we hit the ground, you barely even jolted in your seat. Yes well, when my stomach returns from squishing my brain I might consider that point of view, my silly voice snapped.

  Alek let go of me and I clutched the saddle with both hands while he did his clever trick of sliding down Loushka’s forearm. On the ground he called up to me and beckoned. 'Slide down, Catherine.' I stared down at him. I had a very vivid image in my head of me doing a giant belly flop onto the ground in front of him. Not a good look. As I considered my options he stepped closer to Loushka.

  'Slide down, I promise I’ll catch you,' he coaxed. He could see Catherine wasn’t thrilled with the idea.

  ‘Maybe you should let me bend down for her,’ Loushka suggested.

  ‘No.’ Alek thought in a firm tone. ‘We’ll be doing this often. She needs to learn.’ Loushka silently approved.

  'Okay,' Catherine called nervously. 'Just make sure you do catch me.'

  Alek smirked and she glared. 'I’m not joking!'

  He gave a soft laugh. 'Neither am I, now slide down.'

  I took a big breath, lined myself up then forced my fingers to let go of the saddle. I shot down Loushka’s leg, Alek caught me just before I touched the ground. I heard him chuckle. 'Catherine,' he said a little reproachfully. 'Open your eyes. You really need to learn to do this with your eyes open.' I peeked at him from one eye, making him laugh then before I chickened out gave him a tight hug, made a tad awkward by the breastplate and stretched up to kiss his cheek. He froze and stared. I dropped back to my heels. His astonished look pleased me immensely. Giving an evil little chuckle, I darted off to go see the others.

  Loi arched an eyebrow when Cat came over. Almost skipping, she noted. 'Enjoy the flight?'

  Cat looked guilty for a moment. 'Errr, yes,' she gave a sheepish cough. 'It was pleasant.' They looked knowingly at her.

  The four of us, with Audrey, had to collect the firewood, I could see the rebellious looks on Sian and Loi’s faces. They didn’t like being delegated the easy work, just because we were women. I was happy to do it. It meant we could talk without being overheard by the guys. The instant we were out of sight the questioning began. Sian seemed certain that Daron could be someone special, Kassie felt the same about Rumal. Loi appeared to like Sabyn a lot, but didn’t want to commit herself just in case. I knew how she felt.

  'Although I don’t really understand why we’re being so skeptical,' I said when I stopped to sit on a fallen log. Audrey sat between my knees and I fussed over her, it’d been strange to spend the entire day without her, though Gredel said she’d enjoyed the flight. 'I mean, we cast the spell to meet our soul mates, it whisks us away to a far away land, and NOW we question whether this is real?' I shrugged. 'Really, we should be delighted it worked out so well.'

  They still looked dubious. 'I don’t know.' Kassie said hesitantly, 'It just seems too easy.'

  Too easy?!? The last few days had felt anything but easy, I thought while giving Kassie an arched look. She flushed and gave a defensive shrug, swiping her curls out of her eyes.

  'Sian, what do you think? You’re the expert in this field,' Loi turned to Sian.

  Sian looked a bit overwhelmed. 'Well,' she hedged. 'I really don’t know. IF it was the spell that brought us here then it would make sense that these are the guys. But then, no spell I’ve ever cast before has done this. What if this Elena person brought us here, what then?'

  'Any suggestions as to how we handle this?' Loi attempted nonchalance, but her voice sounded tight even to her. While she didn’t really want to admit it to the girls, she’d fallen for Sabyn rather hard.

  They sat in silence for a few moments then Kassie spoke up. 'I think we should just take it slow. And remember we don’t know the etiquette around here, so until we understand it all, let’s not get ourselves betrothed or something without realizing it.' The others stared at her.

  'I hadn’t even thought of that.' Cat looked a little wild-eyed.

  'Yes, good point,' Sian agreed. 'Gonna take it nice and slow now.'

  For the next quarter hour or so we diligently collected firewood, not conversing. My mind felt like a mess while I made a vague attempt at thinking through what had happened, but had to give up, the thoughts only making me anxious. We pushed through the bush back to the campsite to find the tent now set up and the men looking over their griffons. They glanced up when they heard us and Alek’s blue stare had me chanting 'nice and slow' in my head over and over while we piled the wood beside the fireplace.

  Gredel, Rumal and Sabyn cooked a fantastic evening meal and the griffons disappeared for a couple of hours while they hunted their own dinner. After another game of cards, where upon I lost appallingly again, we girls decided to call it a night and headed for the tent. We’d managed to keep the evening just friendly and fun, which relieved me. I settled into bed feeling oddly content. Audi slept safe and sound under my bed, my friends were with me and while no one knew what tomorrow would bring, at least it wasn’t the mundane everyday life we had on Earth. No office administration job for me here!

  The next day we awoke to brilliant sunshine. Birds sung their hearts out while I got dressed and it surprised me to realize I looked forward to today’s flight. I hummed as I folded up my cot bed.

  Loi smiled when she heard Cat hum "Just A Yellow Lemon Tree". It grew lighter and warmer inside the tent as the sun rose, making it lovely to step outside into the still crisp air of the early morning. She’d always loved camping as a kid and this made her feel rather nostalgic. Walking over to the fireplace, she found Alek and Gredel deep in conversation about the day’s plan. They looked up when they heard her approach and smiled.

  'Good morning,' Gredel said. 'Are you looking forward to another day of flying?'

  Loi beamed at him. 'I am. I really enjoyed yesterday, will we stop at any villages on the way?'

  'Yes. We’ll stop at a village in Bresdon for tonight. The Inn there has accommodation for griffons. It’s owned by my wife’s brother.'

  'What’s the village called?'

  'Lilliton,' said Alek. 'It’ll be good to catch up with Brece and his family.'

  Gredel looked past them both so they turned. Sabyn walked toward them with a string of fresh fish looped over his shoulder.

  'I thought we’d have some fish for breakfast.'

  'Did you catch all of those this morning?' Loi asked, impressed.

  'Yes. Do you like fish?' The bright look of delight in his eyes had her nodding enthusiastically while thinking—as long as it’s battered and from the fish and chip
shop. The men set to scaling and gutting the fish, then seasoned them and threw them on the hot pans. It did smell good and the scent brought the other girls in quick. Sian, Kassie, and Cat had clean damp faces after visiting the creek and Audi dripped with water. Sabyn moved slowly while he served the fish because he had an ecstatic Lucky purring her way around his ankles begging for some. Loi laughed and scooped the cat up, holding her tight until he’d finished. The leftovers were divided between the cat and dog.

  After clearing and cleaning the campsite, packing the gear onto the griffons, it was time to go. Sabyn bent down to give Loi a leg up onto Tomiar but she hesitated. 'Can you show me how you do it? I’d like to learn.'

  He looked surprised. 'Sure.'

  She stepped back to watch while he and Tomiar performed their long perfected move. Tomiar kept her foreleg bent and Sabyn made a short run up then leaped, pushing himself off Tomiar’s knee, grabbing a good handful of mane and swung himself up. The entire move took about four seconds. 'W-O-W.'

  Sabyn looked down at her. 'Give it a shot,' he urged. 'I’ll grab your other hand.'

  'I won’t hurt Tomiar?' She asked in concern; she liked Tomiar after all.

  He laughed and Tomiar snorted. 'She says if she can handle me, you’ll be fine.' He winked, making her feel a little foolish.

  'Ok,' she mumbled, taking a couple of steps back. 'Here goes nothing.' Remembering at the last second which foot to push off with, Loi kicked off Tomiar—mentally apologizing—and stretched up, snatching a handful of mane. At the same time Sabyn grabbed her other arm with both hands and pulled her up to the front seat. Loi blinked at the sudden change of view then laughed in surprise.