by Ruby Ryan
"As opposed to...?"
"I mean, we're heading deeper into the metroplex. Wouldn't it be easier to head east of Dallas, or north?"
"It would be easier, but that's not the plan."
"Well aren't you mister coy today?"
"Hey, I've had lots of time to research. Trust me."
It was mostly friendly banter: I did trust him. I trusted his plan completely, without needing to know what it was. It was freeing feeling that way about someone. I'd never felt that way with Mark, or any other ex.
Could something like that last?
We passed Arlington and the massive Cowboys stadium, then wound around downtown Fort Worth. Ethan guided me along, always short directions rather than the full picture. When we were an hour west of Dallas, well beyond Fort Worth, he had me exit the interstate and drive on county roads for another 10 miles.
Finally we pulled into a dirt clearing next to a farm. I stopped the car and said, "After what happened yesterday, I thought we'd want to avoid farmers."
"Not this one." Ethan got out of the car and said, "this is an area where paramotorists come to fly."
"Now that's a made-up word!"
"It's..." Ethan struggled to explain. "They're like hang-gliders, but the pilot wears a big fan on their back for propulsion. But what matters is the farmer who owns this land allows them to fly out here." His smile turned smug. "And I contacted him online, paid him for an hour of airspace, and warned him that we had a special paramotor that looked like a real bird. Especially real."
"You're not just a pretty face and a nice body, you know that?"
He blinked. "You think I have a nice body?"
I rounded the car and stepped close to him. "My experience is limited only to the past two days, but yes, I think I can definitively say your body is nice." I brushed my lips across his and patted his chest. "Let's do this!"
We were the only ones there since it was a weekday, and we walked out into the open field until we were a safe distance from the road. Not that it mattered since Ethan would be visible from the air, but it made us feel safer. More secretive.
Ethan put down his pack and pointed. "I've got a pair of spare clothes in there."
"For what?"
"Well, you know." He gestured at himself. "The last time it happened, when I changed back into my human body I was naked."
"Oh, I remember," I said with exaggerated lust. "But that's because your clothes tore when you changed. An easy solution is for you to strip."
He arched an eyebrow. "I bet you'd like that."
"Hell yeah I would." I crossed my arms to show him I wasn't going anywhere until I got a show.
Showing an adorable amount of modesty, Ethan slowly removed his shirt and then his jeans, then folded them neatly on top of his bag. "I'm leaving my boxers on," he said stubbornly. "I don't care if they're ripped apart."
"I guess I'll survive." I reached into my purse and removed the totem. Now that we were here, at the point we'd talked about and waited for all day, the totem felt like a bomb in my hands. And it seemed to know of our plans as well: it pulsed more than normal, its excitement mirroring our own.
"You feel it too?" Ethan said.
"Uh huh."
"Is it my imagination, or is it glowing?"
"Not your imagination," I said. "It's glowing like there's an LED bulb inside."
Ethan took a deep breath, clearly as nervous as I was. More nervous, even. And with good reason. He's the one with the hard part of all this.
I handed him the totem. Even though it easily fit in one palm, he accepted it with both hands and held it like a newborn baby. "Is this going to hurt again?"
"I don't know why you're asking me."
"I was hoping you'd lie to me."
I gave him a bright smile. "Ethan, I promise it won't hurt a bit."
"Yeah," he said, shaking his head, "that doesn't make me feel any better. Alright. Here goes nothin'."
He ran his thumb along the totem's back, up along the wings and then finally around the emerald. He felt along the outside edge, then placed his thumb directly on the top of the gem, and squeezed.
Nothing happened.
After a brief pause, both of us exhaled as one.
"See?" Ethan said, exasperated. "This was how it was when I was on the plane ride back from Belize. The emerald's wedged in there tight." He shoved it at me.
"I don't understand," I mumbled, turning the totem over in my hands. "When I did it, it was as easy as--"
CLICK.
The emerald depressed inside the totem the moment my finger touched it. The air around us moved, whooshing past my ears like a tornado, though I couldn't feel it on my skin and it didn't stir my hair. Ethan hissed with pain, clenching every muscle in his body tightly, but didn't scream the way he had the first time.
And then he began to change.
His skin bulged with force from underneath, muscles expanding and spreading grotesquely. He fell to his knees as finger-like bones pressed up through his back, then broke the skin as if it were melted plastic, wings in miniature sprouting from his body. They grew rapidly, like watching a timelapse of a flower growing from the soil, blooming wonderfully with the spreading of powerful wings, feathers flapping into place from nowhere. Ethan's boxers were a distant memory as his torso expanded, the thick muscles in his quads and calves distorting with fur and claw.
I didn't see his face transform because he'd tucked it close to his chest, but in an eyeblink it was the head of an eagle, golden beak curved down to tear at meat and golden eyes sharp behind the feathers of his face.
For an instant time stood still, Ethan's transformation complete, posing like the stone statue in my hand.
I am free! I felt him think.
And then he stretched his wings like sore muscles, and leaped into the air with the strength of a cat.
I stepped back from the sight as he beat his wings and rose away from me, pulling his body heavily into the air.
11
ETHAN
I was free.
It wasn't just my gryphon mind thinking it, a body no longer imprisoned. I felt it with all of my human thought and emotion, an aching that I hadn't realized was relieved until just now.
The transformation wasn't the same fire-scalding agony as the first time, but it wasn't exactly comfortable. It was almost like getting a shot at the doctor, a pinch and a strange discomfort, except instead of pinching at the injection point it was my entire damn body.
But then the discomfort was gone, and I was in the form I needed.
My wings pulled me into the air with barely-restrained strength, struggling at first with the weight of my body but soon enjoying the exertion. Stretching legs after sitting on an airplane. Having a cast cut off from an arm and finally being able to bend the joint again.
Into the air I soared, swooping and diving once I'd gained proper altitude.
"Holy fuck!"
I simultaneously heard, and felt, Jessica's words down on the ground. The totem bonded us somehow, in a way I knew but didn't quite understand.
But I didn't care, because I was flying, and the tingle of air on my feathers felt better than anything else in the world.
I pulled my wings close to my body and turned toward Jessica, diving down next to her and spreading my wings as I passed, showing off what I could do. I heard her laugh with excitement and wonder as I pulled back into the air, the Texas countryside spreading out around me.
And then I remembered the voice.
I flinched in mid-air, bracing, ready for it to boom in my head. I wanted to be ready this time, in case its voice tried to make me crash again. I would be stronger against it.
I needed to be stronger against it.
But as I soared in a circle above Jessica's tiny shape, the booming dragon did not call out. I could feel its presence in my gryphon mind, like he were breathing on the back of my neck. The sensation filled me with unease.
"What's wrong?"
My eagle's
head whipped toward Jessica. Even from so far away I could hear her clearly, as if she were whispering right in my ear. A combination of our bond and this insane gryphon hearing, I guessed.
Nothing, I said to her with my mind.
"You're lying."
Nuh uh.
"Yes huh," she said stubbornly, "but forget about that for now. Come down here. I want to see something."
Obedient to the woman I held a bond with, I swooped down and spread my wings to slow my fall.
12
JESSICA
He was a show-off.
The moment I asked him to come down, he fell away from his flight and fell directly towards me. I let out a yelp as he plummeted recklessly, bursting open his wings at the last possible second to control his fall. He pumped them rapidly as he fell the final thirty feet, kicking up dust and blowing my skirt around like a helicopter would.
And then he landed on lion's feet, and folded his wings against his body, and stared at me with brilliant eyes.
Okay, so he was a show-off. But it was still impressive as hell.
What are you doing?
"What do you mean?"
He leaned forward and nudged the notepad in my hand with his beak.
"Oh. I'm taking notes!"
You're taking notes? he asked, incredulous.
"Well, the last time this happened I fainted. I wanted to make sure we had some sort of recording just in case."
Practical.
"I sure am." I scribbled a note, and then circled my beast-boyfriend, examining him from head to toe. Well, head to paw. "There's something around your neck."
It was gold and thick, like an enormous male wedding band. As I rounded the side I saw a gemstone fastened in the back, glowing green to match his feathers. I was fairly certain that if I crawled on his back and looked closely I'd see an exact replica of the rectangular emerald in the stone totem.
Ethan twisted his head almost all the way around, but came just short of being able to see it. I jotted down the shape and features, describing it out loud to Ethan as I went.
"Your feathers are... different than a bird's."
Different how?
"I'm not a veterinarian, but I'm fairly certain most feathers don't grow this long." I ran my finger along one by his neck; the core was almost an inch in diameter, and as long as a sword. The bristles weren't very soft, and felt more like the semi-stiff teeth of a hairbrush.
That's not nice!
"What?"
What you thought about my feathers.
I flinched. I don't know how I was able to hear his thoughts and emotions, but it was suddenly alarming that he could hear mine. I'd need to be careful while he was in gryphon form. No weird thoughts.
Like how sexy Ethan was in human form, the way I wanted to run my hands over his muscles as soon as he transformed back into smooth flesh, to feel his fingers running along my legs and let him take me on the ground, just like the first time...
Stop it, Jessica! The intrusive thoughts fired into my brain without bidding, because it was impossible not to think about something once you tried.
Ethan didn't say anything, but I could have sworn there was a smug smile on his gryphon face.
"I want to try something," I said to distract myself. "This might hurt." And without warning, I grabbed a feather from his neck and yanked it as hard as I could. It came away like an apple from a tree.
Ouch!
"Don't be a baby," I muttered, examining the feather. I broke a few inches off the tip and shoved it in my pocket. "That's for later. After you transform back." I cocked my head. "Do you know how to change back? How did you do it last time?"
Ethan shrugged, more of an emotion than a physical movement. I tore into that farmer's cow. And after, I felt satisfied. And then... I just let it happen. I cannot explain it.
"Do you think you could do it right now if you wanted?"
He nodded, this time a real physical bobbing of his head. I think I can. But I don't want to just yet. I have an idea first.
"What's that?"
Put down your notebook.
I tossed it onto the ground with my pen, shoved the totem in my pocket, then crossed my arms expectantly. "Okay, so what do--"
He unfolded his wing and swung it under me, knocking my legs out and causing me to fall onto his wing. For a split second I feared I would crush it, because bird wings were frail and fragile things, but his strength held me easily as he lifted me into the air. I rolled sideways across his wing until I reached his back, where I was able to straddle his body with my legs and stop myself.
Hold on.
I knew what he intended just before it happened.
I grabbed a handful of feathers in each hand as Ethan leaped into the air with surprising spryness. The great muscles in his back rolled like rapid waves as he beat his wings, forcing us into the air with incredible power. I let out a yelp, felt embarrassed about it, and then stopped caring.
I slid forward on Ethan's back to grab onto the ring around his neck. My previous assumption was correct: the gemstone glowing there was identical to the one on the totem, its shape faceted with flawless cuts. The only difference was the size; this one was as large as my fist. For a brief second I considered how much it would be worth if we could pry it loose.
But the thought was met with a recoiling sensation from the totem in my pocket. Somehow I knew tampering with the collar was a grave mistake. That it would hurt Ethan.
Are you holding on?
Ethan didn't wait for a response before suddenly curving downward like a roller coaster. My stomach rose weightlessly as Ethan dove straight at the ground, curving up just above the plain. I let out a carefree laugh as we climbed back toward the blue sky, the endless sky, the forbidden sky that was now accessible thanks to my weird shapeshifting boyfriend.
And as crazy as it all sounded, my brain accepted it as if it were a new type of exotic food.
I could feel Ethan's pleasure at flying, spreading his wings wide and curving in long arcs above the countryside. And his enjoyment increased mine, helped my fear fall away beneath us as I trusted him. Because even if I somehow fell, I knew he would catch me the way he'd caught me yesterday. The safety of such knowledge spread over me like a blanket.
"Faster!" I yelled, and I could feel the grin inside his head.
He beat his wings as hard as he could, gaining altitude. The ground spread out below us in all directions; soon I could see a lake to the west that must have been Lake Weatherford, and in the distance to the east rose the skycrapers of downtown Fort Worth, tiny building blocks from so far away. Hell, I could almost see the curve of the earth from up here!
A thousand thoughts and emotions ran through my head, all of them good.
Ethan stopped flapping his wings, and we glided to an apex. Then we were falling, Ethan's wings pulled close to his body in a dive. We soared incredibly fast, recklessly so, and I wanted to call out for him to slow down but at the same time I trusted him completely. The wind was deafening in my ears and blew my hair all around, but Ethan's pale green feathers slicked back with beautiful aerodynamic form, because of course they were made for this.
This time he didn't dive dangerously close to the ground; he spread his wings and leveled out when we were still hundreds of feet in the air. Our momentum from the fall shot us forward ridiculously fast! I twisted my head and watched the ground speed by as Ethan glided forever.
"Are you sure you've never done this before?" I shouted into his ear when our momentum was wasted and he finally had to start flapping his wings.
Just the one time. I promise.
"You're a natural!"
He curved back around toward our car, then made a long spiral above it, slowly descending, testing a different strategy then simple falling straight down. When we reached the ground he landed lightly, barely more than a bump.
I slid down off his back and ran a hand through my crazy hair. I should have tied it back; it was all over the place from our
flight. But I couldn't make the silly grin disappear from my face.
Was it as good for you as it was for me? Ethan joked.
"I feel like I need a cigarette." I bent down to pick up my notepad and pen, but I didn't know what to write except: flying is totally awesome.
And then, before I could think of what to do next, Ethan began transforming back.
It was like watching the earlier shapeshifting, but in reverse. The feathers disappeared first, puffing out of existence as quickly as they had appeared, the skin and bone from his naked wing folding into Ethan's back. His entire torso shrunk. His lion's tail was sucked back into his hindquarters (which quickly became a pair of human butt cheeks.) His beak receded, then the feathers of his face were fading away, replaced by normal human skin surrounding normal human eyes, as green and brilliant as the gem on his collar.
The collar was gone, though. I hadn't seen it disappear, but it was now a distant memory.
And then Ethan was a human man, bulges of impressive muscle, nude from head to heel.
He shivered for a moment, then touched his body with tentative hands. "Oh man. That's... oh man."
"Cold out here?" I said, allowing my gaze to drift to his crotch.
He quickly hopped over to my bag and unfolded his jeans. "That's not funny!"
"It was a little funny."
"Stop it." He turned a hilarious shade of crimson as he put his jeans on without underwear, and then pulled the shirt over his chest.
I felt incredibly attached to him in that moment, the afterglow of our incredible experience. Watching him transform and flying on him was more intimate than sex, and not just because of the weird mental bond we'd shared. It was an experience nobody else in the world could boast, something that was his and mine and ours alone.
I wrapped him in a hug, feeling the warmth of his body. His human body.
"So how did you transform back?" I asked. "I thought I'd need to press the totem or something."
He shrugged, and ran a hand through his messy hair. The motion was incredibly sexy; I felt the urge to throw him on the ground and do more than just hug.
