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Puppet Strings - Chapter 19
By Kudara
Disclaimer:
All the characters appearing in Gargoyles are copyright Buena
Vista Television/The Walt Disney Company. No infringement of
these copyrights is intended as this is a not for profit fan
fiction work. All original characters are the property of the
author.
Warning: none
Rating: Teen
Feedback: Always welcome, feedback is what encourages me to keep
writing. Please let me know what you like and what you dislike
about the story.
Revision History: 04/09/08
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The Ancient One took one stride towards
her, easily covering the intervening distance with his long legs
and dipped his head. Without hesitation, she leaned against his
broad muzzle and rested her head against his for a few moments,
taking in the solace and comfort he offered. When Demona
straightened, he lifted his head enough to ruffle her fiery hair
with a well-placed exhale. She smiled as the spirit realm and
he faded away and turned to face the worried blue eyes of her
lover.
“Hey,” Kendra said softly, reaching up to
run her fingers through the gargoyle’s red hair, “How about you
stay in here while I go reheat the stew.”
“It’s alright, I want to get up and move
around some anyway,” Demona reassured her, “I just found out
about another rather significant number of memories that the
Weird Sisters blocked.”
Kendra drew in a startled breath, “Again?”
she said in disgust. Then more gently she asked, “What were
they about?”
Demona sighed, “Let’s start heating the
stew and I’ll tell you about what I learned tonight,” she said,
zipping open the side of the sleeping bag so she could slip
out. They had warmed the stew, taken it back into the tent with
them and finished it before the flame haired gargoyle finished
relating the condensed version of everything she had learned
tonight.
“He sounds like a real charmer, I bet he
had plenty of young women sighing over him when he grew up,”
Kendra said, speaking of Luach.
Demona thought back, she smirked, “He did,
they got quite annoying at weapons practice trying to attract
his attention.”
Kendra chuckled, “Oh I can guess.” She
smiled thoughtfully, thinking back to those overheard
conversations of her high school days by the girls watching the
basketball players, “Ohh,” she fluttered her eyes, “Isn’t he
just the dreamiest hunk you’ve ever seen, look at how hard he
can hit the pell. I’m sure he could singlehandedly defeat any
one foolish enough to attack the castle,” she cooed.
The gargoyle stared at her wide eyed, and
then she started laughing.
The black-haired woman made a disgusted
face, “Bimbettes strike in the medieval ages, I gather I’m
pretty close to what actually happened.”
Demona nodded, still chuckling, “I used to
have to growl at them to get them to go away, Luach tried, but
their antics were distracting to even me with all their sighing
and chattering.” She smiled softly obviously remembering the
past. It faltered as sorrow flashed in her green eyes and she
clenched her hands. “I don’t understand why this is bothering
me so, Luach has been dead for a very long time and it wasn’t as
if I didn’t know about his death.”
Kendra regarded her thoughtfully, “Yes, but
you haven’t been aware that your friend died on the same day for
very long at all,” she said, her voice filled with compassion.
Demona stared into Kendra’s blue eyes,
struck by her words, “No…I guess I haven’t, have I?” she said
softly. Finally, she surrendered, stopped fighting against the
grief she felt, she lowered her head and permitted the tears to
come as Kendra’s arms wrapped around her. She allowed herself
to be pulled close, let herself lean against her lover’s strong
body, and rest her head upon Kendra’s shoulder.
When Kendra awoke in the morning, she was
surprised that Demona was still in the sleeping bag with her.
On every other morning, the gargoyle had risen with the sun to
transform into Dominique. She reached out to touch the
gargoyle’s shoulder and when her hand met stone instead of soft
flesh, she jerked upright in startlement. It took a half second
for her mind to realize what must have happened. Demona had
woken at sunrise, but instead of getting up to transform she had
gone back to sleep and turned into stone.
In the dim light that filtered into the
tent, she leaned over and looked at the gargoyle’s sleeping
face. The stone obscured some of the finer details of Demona’s
expression, but she could still see weariness and grief upon her
lover’s face. “It’s no wonder you just turned over this morning
and went back to sleep,” Kendra said softly reaching up to trail
her fingers gently over Demona’s stone features, “these past few
days have been hard on you haven’t they,” she said sadly.
“I guess I’ll be making breakfast for just
myself then,” Kendra commented to herself, staring at the
gargoyle’s stone form. Something was nagging at her memory,
something to do with stone sleep and…sunlight. The discussion
about the mutates and Sevarius’s comment about sunlight being
absorbed by the gargoyles during the day as a source of energy
came back to her. She nibbled on her lower lip as she
considered this, if she were careful enough while moving Demona
it certainly couldn’t hurt her to be out in the sunlight instead
of in the tent.
With the help of the tarp, ten minutes
later Kendra had carefully slid the sleeping bag with Demona in
it out of the tent and into a patch of morning sunshine. She
looked up at the slivers of clear blue sky she could see through
the deep green pine branches, thankful that it looked as if it
were going to be a clear sunny day. “I’ll have to chase around
the sunny spots, but that shouldn’t be too hard now that you’re
out here,” she said as she fully unzipped the sleeping bag and
opened it, exposing the gargoyle in her stone sleep fully to the
light. With a fond smile, she reached down and touched one
spiky lock of hair, marveling at how the silky mane had
transformed into this unyielding stone.
Mid-afternoon, as Kendra was washing the
dishes she had used for breakfast and lunch in the stream, she
paused and looked north. A faint sound came to her ears; she
cocked her head to the side and listened for a few seconds
before turning to the dishes and hurrying her cleaning of them.
There was a plane somewhere in the north, and from the sound it
was getting closer. She ran for the camp, there were a few
things she needed to cover less their reflective surfaces catch
someone’s eye.
The plane never flew close enough to worry
about it spotting the camp. Kendra suspected though that it was
only a matter of time before they flew over their location
because from what she had heard the plane was flying a search
pattern. She stared at the empty fire pit with its newly
stacked supply of deadfall; it wasn’t likely they could risk
lighting it any time soon. It would probably be a few dark and
cold nights for them.
Several hours later, Kendra watched both
the stone form of her lover and the darkening sky above waiting
for sunset to… Actually, she wasn’t certain what would occur at
sunset, only that something would happen that would change
Demona back into living breathing flesh instead of inanimate
looking stone. The slightest sound of stone cracking had
Kendra’s gaze focused on her lovers form. Hairline cracks
rapidly widened and then Demona literally burst out of what now
looked like a thin stone covering with a roar and reddened eyes.
The red glow faded quickly as Demona took
in her location, her reclined position, “I feel asleep again,”
she realized.
Kendra knelt beside her, careful of her
wings, “That’s my guess; I pulled you out here just in case you
did need sunlight.” As Demona rolled to her feet, the
black-haired woman rose with her. Kendra studied her lovers
face and was pleased to see that the flame-haired gargoyle
looked relaxed and rested. “You look like a day in stone sleep
did you some good,” she observed as she reached up and ran her
fingers through Demona’s wild mane of red hair.
Demona took stock of how she felt, Kendra
was right she did feel better. She felt completely rested, and
less stressed than she had in days. When she thought of Luach
it still hurt, but it was not the sharp pain it had been last
night. “I do feel better,” she said surprised.
Kendra’s lips twitched and her sapphire
eyes danced with laugher, “So…” she drawled, “I guess that means
that sometimes you just need to sleep like a rock?” she said
with a snicker.
The flame-haired gargoyle mock glared at
her, “Ha ha,” Demona said, “I bet you think your very funny
don’t you.”
The black-haired woman put a thoughtful
finger up to her lips, “Hmm,” she commented making a production
of giving the question serious thought. “Why yes, yes I do,”
she nodded decisively after a few seconds, smirking at the
gargoyle.
Demona shook her head, a smile curving her
lips, “Come here,” she requested huskily.
Kendra took a step closer, standing just a
few inches from Demona, “Here?” she asked with a teasing smile.
“Not quite,” said the flame haired
gargoyle, as she placed her hands on Kendra’s waist and pulled
her closer. “Here,” she whispered as she wrapped her wings
around them both.
Kendra half closed her eyes as she felt
Demona’s wings wrap around her, it felt so good to be held by
her lover like this warm, sheltered, surrounded. “Mmm,” she
murmured, “you’re right, here is better.” Demona’s lips met
hers and she fell silent, occupied with a much more interesting
activity than talking. It was all Kendra could do to keep her
hands on the gargoyles trim waist, as their lips met, touched,
and teased. She wanted to explore the slim, muscular back and
she especially wanted to see exactly how Demona would react to
having her wing joints caressed. However, they had things to do
tonight that couldn’t be delayed for an hour or two no matter
how much she wanted to, and there was a pot of soup on the stove
cooking. Reluctantly she pulled away enough to murmur,
“Dinner’s on the stove, I need to check it, and
unfortunately…really, really, unfortunately,” she grumbled, “we
have things to do and places to go tonight.”
Demona allowed her lover to pull away, she
was hungry and…her eyes lit up as she remembered what they had
planned to do tonight before going to the spirit realm.
“Flying, you’re trying your winged form tonight.”
“Yep,” Kendra said as she stepped out of
Demona’s winged embrace, “time for me to actually try
transforming into a were-jaguar for the first time.” She turned
toward the stove, missing the startled look on the gargoyle’s
face.
“I hadn’t realized you haven’t tried that
transformation yet,” Demona said, concerned.
Kendra lifted the lid and stirred the stew
inside; she glanced over, catching the worried look on her
lover’s face. “No worries,” she said lightly, “I’m not
concerned about the transformation itself, I’m more concerned
that I don’t have the wings quite right.”
Demona looked over at her searchingly;
Kendra met her eyes with reassuring confidence. “Well then, I
guess I’d better start going over a few things before we make
the attempt.” The flame-haired gargoyle began, “Gargoyles are
gliders; we don’t have enough muscular strength in our wings to
provide the downward force to fly as birds do for any
appreciable distance. There are two main ways to get airborne
and to remain airborne, if there is enough air current or wind
you simply adjusting the angle of your wings so you have lift on
the underside of the wing as you glide into the wind, the second
way is to find rising air currents to provide lift. There are
three sources of lift, slope lift where the air currents flowing
along the ground rise to go over an obstruction such as a steep
hill, thermal lift where heated air rises faster than the cooler
air around it, and lastly there is mountain wave lift which I’ll
leave till last since it’s frequently hard to find.”
Kendra listened closely as she served the
stew. In between mouthfuls, Demona described how to pay
attention to wind direction and scan the ground below for
terrain and objects that might cause the air currents to rise as
they passed over it. The gargoyle described how to look for the
cauliflower shaped cumulous clouds that often marked the
location of thermal lifts and lastly she discussed wave lift.
Mountain wave lift occurred when air currents literally bounced
along the ground after descending swiftly on the leeward side of
a mountain. The trick with them was to catch the upward bounce
and avoid the downdraft in the trough of the air current wave.
“This isn’t the most ideal time or place to
learn how to glide,” Demona said frowning at the snow on the
ground. “Ideally, we would start off a wall or cliff facing
into the wind and with lots of open ground in front. We’re
lacking either of those in this area, and its winter so I doubt
we will find any handy thermal lifts.” She trailed off
thinking, “It’s usually windy down by the stream that might
work, especially if we can find something to give you some
height.”
Kendra was surprised; she hadn’t thought it
would be as hard as Demona was indicating. After all, the
gargoyle hadn’t had any issues with getting airborne during
their hike down from the plane crash site. “You didn’t seem to
have any troubles getting airborne on our trip down here, will
it really be that hard?” she asked.
Demona smirked, “Oh, you’ll be surprised at
how little lift you need to get and stay airborne after you’ve
learned how to glide. That’s after you know what you’re doing
though, for your first attempts you will need some help.”
The black-haired woman’s face cleared, “Ok,
so clean up the dishes and store the stew and then down to the
stream?”
The flame-haired gargoyle nodded absently,
“That sounds good.” Her mind wasn’t on the dishes, it was on
their trip down here, searching for a good place for them to
practice, “Didn’t we pass some cliffs on the east side of the
stream just before we stopped here?”
Kendra’s eyes went unfocused as she
recalled their trip here, “I think so, maybe half a mile north?”
The location identified for the nights
gliding practice, the two hurried to finish dinner and tidy up
the camp before they started north to find the rocky cliffs they
remembered passing a few days ago.
The night was now very dark, the sun had
fully set and the new moon had been last night. Tonight, only
the merest sliver of it shown in the sky and it barely
brightened the darkness of the night. They picked their way
carefully through the pine forest headed for the stream. Demona
looked over curiously at Kendra, most humans would have problems
seeing tonight, but she didn’t seem to. “Can you see? It’s
very dark out tonight.”
“It’s a bit dark, but I can see well
enough,” Kendra answered glancing over at the blue gargoyle, “I
haven’t had any problems seeing in the dark since my first
transformation.”
Demona’s memory flashed back to that night
when Kendra had been talking to Detective Maza, the moment when
the car lights had reflected off her eyes, reflected greenly
instead of red like a human’s eyes. “Your eyes reflect light
greenly, like a cat’s eyes or a gargoyle’s,” she remarked
surprised that she hadn’t remembered that until now.
Kendra nodded, “It’s usually only on the
nights immediately before, during and following the full moon.
Otherwise, unless I’m concentrating on it, they’re just like any
other humans. Tonight I’m concentrating on it,” she said with a
small grin indicating the inky black darkness of the forest.
They stepped out of the forest into the
open area bordering the stream; it was a little lighter here.
The stream was a darker ribbon in the center, as usual the wind
picked up slightly near the cooler water. “Good there is a
better breeze here,” Demona commented, “I’ll scout ahead and
find the cliffs we saw, see if they will work for tonight.” She
extended her wings, “Now is as good a time as any to watch my
wings and see how I do this, pay attention to the angle of my
wing compared to the air currents.”
The black-haired woman watched as the
gargoyle climbed up a nearby tree and then launched herself from
it. She noted how the gargoyle’s wings cupped the air as they
moved down in a powerful sweep and then rotated back and around,
always maintaining a twenty to thirty degree angle against the
wind. Only two strokes were needed for Demona to gain the
height she wanted, and then the gargoyle started gliding north
her wing at ten to fifteen degree angle to the wind. Kendra
started running north along the stream, splitting her attention
between watching the ground for obstacles and the gargoyle in
the air drawing further away from her.
The gargoyle was almost out of sight when
Kendra saw her winged form start circling. She picked up her
pace guessing that Demona had found the cliffs. As she drew
closer, the flame-haired gargoyle landed waiting for her, now
she could see the rocky cliff they had passed just over four
days ago. She judged the shear rough limestone cliff to be
around forty foot tall.
“This is almost perfect,” Demona said as
Kendra jogged up, “You will have to angle so that you fly up the
stream, but there’s defiantly enough of a lift at the top of the
cliff for this to work.” The gargoyle eyed the windproof outer
jacket and pants and fleece her lover was wearing, “I guess
you’ll have to go without clothes until we get home and I can
make you something.”
Kendra nodded, “Yea, I knew I would when I
made the form larger.” She smiled at the flame-haired gargoyle,
“I’m glad you’re offering to make something for me, I barely
know enough to thread the needle and mend holes.”
Demona smirked, “Somehow that doesn’t
surprise me,” she commented. The gargoyle turned her attention
back to the cliff, “Now seems as good a time as any to see if
your claws are sharp enough to dig into stone.” She turned back
to Kendra, “If they’re not then they will need to be, there’s
too many places in the city that you will need to climb up the
side of a building to get enough airspace to get airborne.”
Kendra looked first at the stone of the
cliff and then down at her hands considering, “I don’t know, I
didn’t think about it.” She started unzipping the windbreaker,
“I guess we will have to see if I can won’t we.”
The gargoyle didn’t miss how Kendra was
staring at the cliff as she undressed almost as if it were a foe
to be overcome. As more and more of her lover was bared to the
night air, Demona watched the muscles flex underneath the dusky
skin of Kendra’s arms and shoulders, the tensing of the
quadriceps in her thighs, and the play of muscles in her back.
The flame-haired gargoyle sighed; she wanted to touch her lover
so badly she ached with it. As much as she wanted to make love
to Kendra however, she also wanted to see how her lover looked
in the winged were-jaguar form. So she stood still, clenched
her taloned hands at her side and counseled herself to patience,
there was always later tonight and tomorrow. Besides out here
in the cold was definitely not the place to start anything.
Kendra hung the last of her clothing over a
convenient limb of a small scrubby looking pine at the base of
the cliff. She closed her eyes and drew in a deep breath,
calling up the image of the form she wanted. Both were humanoid
so it was easy to imagine her human form inside the form of the
were-jaguar. She felt her form begin to shift. Her legs and
feet shifted toward the cat end of the spectrum, her knee joint
shifted forward as her heel rose to form a hock joint and the
balls of her feet and toes changing into paws. From her back,
the feathered wings erupted at the same time as her skin
darkened and fur grew out. Lastly she felt her face and head
change shape. She opened her eyes, the world was slightly
brighter than it had been before, the slitted cat-like pupil of
this form’s eye was simply better suited to gathering and
focusing what little light there was than a human eye, no matter
how enhanced.
She looked down upon herself, one of the
first things she couldn’t help but notice was that this form was
relatively flat chested compared to her human form. Still it
made sense, since this form was a mixture of jaguar and human
characteristics. Her pelt was intentionally fully as thick as
that on her jaguar form, knowing that she was going to be flying
in all types of weather she had thought it best to have as much
protection from the elements as possible. She bent one wing
around staring at its structure and the glossy black feathers
that covered it in satisfaction; she flexed the three wing
claws, both together and separately, marveling at having a
second set of fingers. A flick of the tail, yes it was there.
A flicker of ears, yes they were there as well. She examined
her hands, and extended her claws and then relaxed them so that
they withdrew back into their sheaths. “I think I’m ready,” she
announced looking up at Demona.
The gargoyle was staring at her, and Kendra
had no trouble deciphering the aroused look in her lover’s green
eyes. Discontentedly, she wondered if Demona found this form
more attractive, after all she now looked more like a gargoyle.
She took a quick inventory of her emotions, was she even
interested in sex in this form? She hadn’t really considered
the idea before; she was used to not having any sexual feelings
as a cat except for a short period during the summer when her
jaguar form came into season. To her surprise, she realized
there was a slight sexual interest, enough to find Demona’s
stare interesting, but she wasn’t certain if she could get
aroused enough to allow her gratification.
“Kendra?” Demona’s concerned voice drew
Kendra out of her frowning introspection.
“I guess you like this form then,” Kendra
responded with forced lightness, she was surprised when her
wings twitched and caped around her responding automatically to
her unease.
They weren’t very good at hiding their
uncertainties from each other were they, Demona mused, of
course, perhaps that was a good thing. “Kendra I was staring at
you before you changed, watching you disrobe it was all I could
do not to reach out and touch you,” she said, meeting the
blue-eyed gaze with complete honesty.
The were-jaguar was surprised, “You were?”
She stared searchingly into the gargoyle’s green eyes,
remembering their passionate kisses back in the camp just before
dinner. She did know that Demona found her human form
attractive, but that didn’t mean that the gargoyle didn’t find
this form slightly more attractive.
“Yes I was. Am I wrong in thinking that
you find both my gargoyle and human forms attractive in
different ways?” Demona inquired.
Kendra shook her head, “No, you aren’t. I
find you very attractive in either form.”
“Then why does it surprise you that I find
both your human and this new form equally attractive?” the
gargoyle asked softly, emphasizing the equally.
Kendra dipped her head, breaking the eye
contact between them briefly before lifting her head and seeking
out the gargoyle’s green eyes once again. “I just thought it
might be easier for you to find this form attractive because I
look more like what your used to, more gargoyle like.”
“Do you find my human form more attractive
than this,” Demona indicated herself. “Is that why we make love
more often when I’m human?” She knew that wasn’t the case,
after all, it hadn’t been her human form that Kendra had been
fantasizing about in the cave that first night.
“No!” protested Kendra immediately.
“That’s only because we are in the spirit realm every night and
then tired afterward. We’ve been making love during the day
because that’s the only time were both rested and have the
time. Trust me, I find you just as attractive now as when
you’re human,” red color bloomed on Kendra’s cheeks, “actually,
maybe a little more,” she admitted, “the differences between us
when you’re a gargoyle intrigue me.”
Demona smirked, her suspicions confirmed,
“And you don’t think I’m finding the differences between us just
as intriguing? Yes, you are a very beautiful and attractive
were-jaguar, but you’re no less beautiful and attractive to me
as a human. And I find the differences between us intriguing as
well.”
A pleased smile formed on Kendra’s face as
Demona’s sincere tone registered. It faltered however as she
grimaced, “That does bring up a complication.”
Demona frowned, “complication?” she
repeated questioningly.
Kendra shifted from foot to foot uneasily
as she explained, “The jaguar doesn’t normally feel any sexual
desire except for a few days during the summer.”
The flame-haired gargoyle stared at the
woman before her in dismay, “You mean you don’t feel anything
for me right now?” a frown formed on her face that just didn’t
seem right. Demona looked into the feline looking face; into
the sapphire blue eyes with their cat-like pupils so noticeable
framed as they were by the midnight black of Kendra’s fur. She
knew she wasn’t imagining the affection and warmth in Kendra’s
eyes.
“No, no,” Kendra hurried to explain, “My
emotions for you haven’t changed any; it’s just that I don’t
feel as aroused as I would if I were human. I mean, I’m more
interested right now as a were-jaguar than I would be as a full
jaguar, but still not nearly as much as if I were human.”
Demona stared at her lover, took in the
taller, more muscular form, the deep blackness of her fur, the
glossy darkness of her wings. She cloaked her wings behind her
and stepped up to Kendra, slipping her arms inside the feathered
wings and around her lover’s waist. As Demona had hoped, Kendra
immediately uncapped her wings from about herself to wrap them
around the gargoyle. “Are you sure?” the flame-haired gargoyle
asked, staring into her lover’s face. She hoped that Kendra
wasn’t certain, because the feathered wings now wrapped around
her felt just as good as she had thought they would.
Kendra stared musingly down into the
beautiful face of her lover, was she certain? She closed the
short distance between them and pressed her lips against
Demona’s dark red ones. Their lips brushed and pressed against
each other. Kendra felt the first tentative touch of her
lover’s tongue as the gargoyle sought to deepen the kiss and
opened her lips allowing it entry as she tightened her wings
around Demona’s body. The gargoyles hands moved up her back and
began gently stroking along her wing joints. It certainly
wasn’t unpleasant, like any joint, where her wings joined her
back the skin was slightly more sensitive just as the bend of
her elbows or knees were more sensitive. However, she suspected
she wasn’t as sensitive as Demona was there given how the
gargoyle had warned her away from the area the night before.
Kendra could sense that Demona was getting more and more aroused
as they continued kissing, however, as she had suspected it
would, her own arousal level had already plateaued.
With a frustrated groan, Demona pulled away
from Kendra’s lips, she could sense that her lover wasn’t
reacting as she had hoped. She looked up into the blue eyes,
saw the regret and worry there, “So sometime in the summer,” the
gargoyle forced herself to say lightly, pushing down the
disappointment she felt.
“I’m sorry that I didn’t consider this
earlier,” Kendra apologized. “I didn’t think beyond the fact
that I would like to wrap my wings around you and glide with
you,” she said guiltily, “and I really should have.”
“Kendra,” Demona broke into her lover’s
self-recriminations sternly, “it’s alright, after all it’s not
like I can’t make love to you. I just can’t when you’re in this
form. Having you hold me like this and be able to glide with me
is so much more than I thought we would be able to do together
before now. Don’t start regretting making that possible,
because I don’t, not in any way.”
Kendra didn’t believe her, oh, she believed
her about not regretting the gliding and the winged embrace, but
she had already seen the disappointment in Demona’s green eyes
about the lovemaking. She did appreciate, however, the effort
Demona was making to make her feel better about the situation.
“I don’t regret it,” she assured the flame-haired gargoyle. She
had seen how much Demona was a creature of the air during their
trip here; being able to share that part of the gargoyle’s life
was worth this one unanticipated disappointment to her.
Besides, there was no reason why she couldn’t make love to
Demona, and there were certain things about this form that were
designed with that in just that in mind. She just hadn’t
considered that Demona would like to reciprocate. It was
something that in hindsight she knew she really should have
definitely considered even though there was nothing she could do
to rectify the problem, but it simply hadn’t crossed her mind.
She just didn’t think of herself as a sexual creature when she
was in her jaguar form and that had carried over in her mind to
the were-jaguar form.
Unaware of the thoughts in her lover’s
mind, Demona placed one last kiss on Kendra’s lips before
pulling away and turning back to the cliff that was their reason
for being here. “Let’s see if you can climb to the top of
this,” she said briskly.
Kendra, after a quick intense look at the
gargoyles back as she remembered how Demona had stroked up and
down her wing joints, filed that information away for later
usage. She turned her attention to the cliff in front of them,
and stepped up to it staring up at the rough limestone. Tucking
her wings behind her, she jumped and extended her claws reaching
out for the stone of the cliff, at first they scrapped along the
stone, only slowing her descent. She dug her claws in deeper
and was relieved when they cut narrow gouges in the stone until
they finally caught and brought her to a halt. She stared at
her hands, the claws biting into the stone, “Dang, they are that
sharp,” she commented in astonishment. Amused laughter from
next to her had her turning her head to the left, Demona was
there hanging from her taloned hands beside her.
“They do seem to be,” the flame-haired
gargoyle said smiling, “Now try to climb with them like this.”
Digging her talons into the stone, the gargoyle began climbing
hand over hand up the cliff.
It took a few tries for Kendra to determine
how to duplicate what the gargoyle was doing. It ended up that
the best way was for her to partially extend her claws first,
and then force them into the stone using the strength of her
hand and forearm while fully extending her claws at the same
time until they were fully unsheathed and embedded into the
stone.
When they arrived at the top of the cliff,
Kendra pulled herself over the edge, rose and looked down upon
the stream below. She could feel a constant slight breeze up
here and extended her wings to get the feel of it. With her
wings extended, Kendra was rather surprised at the amount of
force the wind was exerting upon them, and it was suddenly
easier to believe that such a slight air current would be enough
to keep her airborne.
“Now,” Demona began, “Ideally I would have
you start off gliding straight down from the cliff, but there
isn’t quite enough open area for you to do that, so instead we
will start off at an angle facing northward. The idea is for
you to glide as long as you can up the stream. I’ll go first so
you can get the idea of how to launch yourself to get airborne.
Now watch and stay here, I’ll circle around and come back,” she
instructed as she extended her wings, cupped them slightly
against the air. She paused a moment to let Kendra take a good
look at how she was angling her wings and then sprang up and
forward into the air.
Kendra watched, trying to take in every
detail as Demona glided a short distance and then dipped her
wing to make a tight turn and head back to the top of the
cliff. The gargoyle extended her legs, swept her wings down to
slow herself and came to a neat landing a few feet away.
“Don’t try turning and coming back for now,
just glide as far as you can north up the stream,” Demona
instructed her, “I’ll be right behind you, or did you need me to
demonstrate again?”
“No, I think I’ve got it,” Kendra said
absently as she lined up angling northward, extending her wings
to feel the air currents.
“Just try and land on your feet,” Demona
added before she could take off, “and if you end up rolling grab
your shoulders with your wing claws.”
Kendra turned her head to shoot her an
offended look, “I am a cat you know.”
Demona smirked, “Which is why you should
try and land on your feet.”
“Humph,” Kendra made a little dismissive
sound before extending her wings as the gargoyle had done and
leaping out into the air. She knew better, from both gymnastics
and ice-skating, than to think too much about what she was
doing, in many ways her body knew better than she did what it
was doing. Instead of thinking about what her wings were doing,
she paid attention to how the air felt on them, how much
pressure there was from the wind on the underside of her wings
and how high in the air she was rising. The forest began to
look smaller and smaller as she glided north along the stream,
she frowned, she might be rising slightly too much.
“Flatten out the angle some, your gaining
too much altitude for right now,” Demona’s voice came from
slightly behind and above her, confirming her suspicion.
Carefully Kendra changed the angle of her
wings until she could see that she was no longer rising. She
took note of how the wind felt against them, telling herself to
equate this feeling with maintaining altitude. She took a few
moments to appreciate the sheer joy of what she was doing; she
was airborne, gliding along with almost no effort at all. “Did
you want me to descend some?” she finally thought to ask.
“Very slowly, I’ll be ready to catch you if
something goes wrong,” Demona instructed, and though Kendra
didn’t dare look back she could imagine the concerned and
protective look on the gargoyle’s face.
Incrementally flattening out her wing
relative to the wind, Kendra watched closely as the forest below
began to get closer. A sudden downdraft had her flaring her
wings in surprise as she abruptly lost altitude, too late she
realized her mistake as the move cost her most of her forward
momentum, “shit,” she muttered. “Let me try,” she called as she
flattened her wings and began diving to regain momentum. She
kept a wary eye on the ground now rapidly approaching as she
picked up speed.
“Kendra,” Demona tense voice warned just
before she altered her wing angle to regain altitude now that
she had enough forward momentum once again. She fought to hold
her wings steady as the strain on them suddenly increased,
pulling at the muscles in her back. Either she had the muscles
right, in which case they would hold, or she didn’t, in which
case they wouldn’t. Kendra exhaled in relief as the muscles in
her back easily withstood the strain and the ground began to
recede beneath her once again. She thought she heard a relieved
sigh from behind her as she did so, “Am I giving you grey
hairs?” she called back brightly.
“I’d prefer not to see you take a header
into the ground,” Demona sounded upset and slightly angry,
“pulling your dead body from that cage was once enough for me.”
Kendra sobered quickly, “I’m sorry,” she
risked turning her head to look around for the gargoyle. The
flame-haired gargoyle did look upset; Kendra turned her
attention back to watching where she was gliding. “I am sorry,”
she repeated, “but this isn’t exactly the safest thing I could
be doing. I need to learn how to get myself out of trouble if
at all possible,” she said it gently, but also firmly.
Demona didn’t immediately respond, and when
she did, it wasn’t on that subject, “Since we’ve come so far
let’s see if you can do a wide turn and head back toward the
camp.” The flame-haired gargoyle came into Kendra’s sight as
she took the lead. “Watch and do what I do, it’s essentially a
gradual lean, we will be going to the right.” Kendra followed
Demona, gradually leaning her body to the right as they did a
large circle over the forest back to the stream and straightened
back out to follow it. “We’re now flying south and flying with
the wind instead of against it,” the gargoyle called back, “it’s
not much different from flying against the wind except you
usually pick up more speed going with the wind, if you look down
you will notice we’re going faster than before.”
The were-jaguar looked down, the trees of
the forest and the ground did seem to be moving past faster than
they had before when they were flying northward against the
wind. “Do you know how fast we’re gliding?” she asked.
Kendra could see Demona look down, after a
few seconds the gargoyle called back, “No idea really, but
faster than a horse can gallop. At this rate we will be back to
the camp in a few minutes.” Noticing the cliffs she had jumped
off of to begin this little adventure pass by underneath them,
Kendra did not doubt it. “The trick will be,” Demona began
speaking again, “to decrease altitude and slow down in
preparation for landing.”
Kendra noticed that she was now slightly
above the gargoyle and gaining on her, apparently Demona had
begun doing both as soon as she mentioned it. She flattened her
wings slightly and started decreasing altitude, but she was
still moving faster than Demona.
“Curl the back edge of your wing down
slightly,” the gargoyle called out from behind her, “but not too
much or you’ll slow down too fast.”
Like the flaps on an airplane wing, Kendra
realized, as she followed Demona’s suggestion. She noticed the
rate of the ground flowing by underneath her decreasing she was
slowing down. The flame-haired gargoyle came up beside her and
slipped back out in front again.
“Straighten out your wing again, and try
and maintain your distance behind me as we come in for a
landing,” the gargoyle called back. “I’m going to move to the
left, don’t follow behind me I want you to have space in front
of you when we land so we aren’t on top of one another.”
As instructed, Kendra didn’t follow when
Demona slid to the left slightly. She focused on maintaining
her distance behind the gargoyle, decreasing her altitude and
speed as soon as she noticed Demona was either lower or closer
than she had been. They were currently gliding perhaps fifteen
to twenty feet above the ground, and looking around at the
stream and forest, Kendra thought they were almost at the camp.
Almost as if responding to her thoughts,
Demona called back, “We’re almost to the camp, watch me land and
when you’re ready do the same.” A few seconds afterward, she
dropped in altitude several more feet, then bending at the waist
she flared her wings, brought her legs forward and neatly
landed.
Kendra saw the gargoyle turn and watch her
as she followed, descending until the ground was about ten feet
away. She flared her wings and brought her legs down and around
reaching out for the ground. This felt so much like landing
from the high bars in gymnastics that she instinctively rotated
her arms against her forward momentum, and bent her legs when
they touched the ground taking a hop forward to kill the
remaining momentum, but sticking the landing. Of course, as
soon as Kendra straightened and realized what she had done she
felt rather silly; she turned and looked back at Demona. The
gargoyle was staring at her with a puzzled frown. “I landed on
my feet,” Kendra observed brightly, hoping against hope that the
gargoyle hadn’t ever watched a gymnastics competition and thus
wouldn’t recognize what she had done.
Demona nodded, “Yes you did,” she agreed,
sounding distracted “That was...” the gargoyle stared at her,
“a…” she stopped again and gazed at the were-jaguar, “was that
from your gymnastics training?” she finally asked in a
completely puzzled tone.
Kendra ducked her head, ran her fingers
though her hair and rubbed the back of her neck in
embarrassment, “yea,” she responded monosyllabically. She
glanced up through her eyelashes at the gargoyle; a slow grin
was forming on Demona’s red lips.
“Should I find some paper and start giving
you marks,” asked the redhead slyly, her tail twitching lazily
behind her, “I believe that was termed sticking the landing?”
The were-jaguar was glad that her skin was
too dark to show how much she was flushing, “yea, it felt a lot
like coming off a high bar, it was instinctual, I wasn’t
thinking about it. Bit silly looking I guess.”
Demona eyed her, noticing how embarrassed
her lover was for the first time. She decided to drop the
teasing, at least for right now, “Well at least you didn’t end
up on your face or tumbling end over end,” she commented.
“Tomorrow night perhaps we can go back to the cliff and I’ll
demonstrate a few landings. While that one worked, it would
leave you vulnerable to an attack. There’s been a several times
I’ve been either attacked or gone into battle immediately upon
landing so I want you to learn to land the same way I do.”
Kendra stared at the gargoyle, seeing how
serious she was, “Alright, I’d like that. I’d say my training
in gymnastics and ice skating is helping me in the air, but I
obviously have some new skills to learn.”
“I hadn’t considered that,” Demona
responded thoughtfully, “that your training would help with
gliding that is,” she clarified in response to Kendra’s confused
expression. “You did much better than I thought you would.”
“Thanks,” Kendra said smiling briefly. She
grimaced, “I’ve still got a lot to learn though, that jerk back
response to that downdraft was exactly the wrong way to react in
the air.”
Demona nodded her face clouding as she
remembered what happened immediately afterward.
“I’m sorry I joked about it, I didn’t
realize that you were worried,” Kendra said quietly.
The fiery-haired gargoyle directed an angry
look toward her until she realized her lover was sincere. “You
said you weren’t certain about the muscles in your wings,
whether they were right or not. I didn’t know if they could
withstand the strain of pulling out of that dive and I wasn’t
certain there was enough distance between you and the ground for
me to get to you if they weren’t. I was afraid that I was about
to watch you die and be able to do nothing to stop it,” she said
feeling upset once again as she remembered the moment of intense
fear when she realized the strain pulling out of the dive would
put on the untested muscles of Kendra’s wings.
“Oh,” Kendra said feeling stupid and
insensitive. It wasn’t quite the same, but she imagined that it
wasn’t too different from the helplessness she had felt while
her mother was slowly dying and she could do nothing. She
crossed the distance between them and drew Demona into her arms,
wrapping her wings around the gargoyle, “I didn’t think about
that, I was just trying to get enough forward momentum going,”
she said stroking her fingers slowly through the fiery tresses.
Demona allowed herself to be drawn into
Kendra’s arms. She rested her head against her lover’s chest
and closed her eyes, listening to the strong steady beat of
Kendra’s heart and enjoying the affectionate stroking of her
hair. She knew that Kendra had been right when she said that
she needed to learn how to get herself out of trouble.
Nevertheless, that didn’t mean that the gargoyle’s heart hadn’t
been in her throat as she watched the ground get so close that
she wasn’t certain she could react in time if Kendra hadn’t been
able to pull out of the dive.
Demona didn’t know how long they stood
there quietly together. Kendra’s thick wings and warm body kept
the chill of the night away and the sound of her heart along
with the soothing rumbling purr and the slow stroking of her
hair made Demona want to just remain there with her lover’s
wings surrounding her. She couldn’t though, the Ancient One was
expecting her and she did want to learn how to heal. She sighed
reluctant to move even though she knew she had to, “We need to
go to the spirit realm,” she said rubbing the side of her face
against Kendra’s soft, thick pelt enjoying the feel of it
against her skin.
She felt the purring sound underneath her
ear break up as Kendra chuckled, “you sound so enthused,” her
lover observed.
The gargoyle grinned, “I am, I want to
learn how to heal,” she forced herself to lift her head away
from Kendra’s chest, “it’s just very nice being held like this.”
Kendra leaned forward and placed a brief
almost chaste kiss on the red lips, “This won’t be the only
time, I plan on doing holding you like this quite frequently you
know.”
“You do?” Demona asked, she heard the
wistfulness in her voice and felt embarrassed at being so needy.
“Definitely,” Kendra promised her warmly,
her blue eyes fixed upon Demona’s green ones’.
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