Chapter 19
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'.
Continued...