Stormfeather Ch. 14

She had all night now.

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He was trying to bore a hole in the wall of the mountain.

With his eyes.

It wasn't working, but there was nothing else to do here in the night.

He was about to give it up and to try to get some sleep when he felt it. He lifted his great head up and glared at the rock face once more as he thought.

He felt it. There was no mistaking her call.

He knew that she was there inside that mountain somehow, the small female who'd taught him all over again how to love, the one who was different and so much brighter than he was, and who never made him feel badly for it, and never tired of helping him.

He jumped to his feet and roared. He had to make her hear him. He took a deep breath and roared again for all that he was worth before he heard her soft voice in his mind.

"Quiet, mighty one. I want to get to you just as much as you wish to be with me. Have a little patience. This wall was sealed by a master - a mighty mage of my kind. You can't expect me to get through it like you can get through the neck of a bison, can you? Lie down and keep watch. I am coming for you."

It calmed him and he sank to his stomach again and went back to boring through rock with his eyes, wishing that he had the ability to.

Thirty minutes later, he saw the last of the mages approach the wall and rose silently to deal with what he now perceived as a threat to her.

While he lived, he swore in his mind, nothing, no one, ...

It took a long while, but after a time, he was a little certain that he could see the line of the seam as a slightly brighter line on the dark stone. The two men stepped forward cautiously. They knew that there was a large cat nearby, but they were desperate to get back.

They also hadn't thought that there might be a connection that the one who had roared in the darkness was more than willing to kill them over.

The first of them died as he raised some short stick that he held to point at the wall. The other one wouldn't have seen his own peril, but for the way that his companion's head had crashed into his side from the murderous cat's first strike. He reeled in horror when he'd seen the gory projectile in the thin moonlight and then he'd turned, but it was too late by then.

Far, far too late.

He began his desperate incantation just before the life was almost crushed out of him by the weight of the paws on his chest as he was driven down. The huge teeth that he saw coming to him took him the rest of the way as his throat left him.

The large cat spat several times, licked his lips, and trotted a little closer to the wall. He looked around, trying to remember how many of them there had been. He decided that he'd killed them all and felt a little proud of that, but he felt a lot more pride when he realized that he'd been able to keep the count of them as well as that of the days.

Another gift from his female.

The line there grew brighter, and then he saw the surfaces part slowly. Inside the space of that, he could see a bright light, and inside of that, ...

He saw her walking slowly toward him, those lovely slim hips of hers swaying in the way that could make him pant for her. The apparition stopped to stand in the opening, her long bushy tail moving slowly from side to side.

He'd know that feminine shape anywhere. His female stood there as a silhouette, beckoning to him.

"Hurry, love," her thought rang through his head stridently, "I cannot hold this for long."

He didn't remember even beginning to run to her. The next thing that he knew, he was with her, but she wasn't hugging him – she was pulling him, straining, her words just barely sliding past her long teeth with her effort, "Your, ... tail, pull it, ... through. Move it, ... out,... of the-"

He spun around, and the motion caused his short tail to slip inside just as the seamed surfaces slammed back together with a bang. She'd gone along for the ride, hanging onto his ruff the way that she'd been. It made her laugh until she noticed the blood.

She asked and he told her it was nothing. She believed him. She'd always believe him, though this time, she moved her hands in a strange way and he felt water on his face as she held up her overflowing hands until he was clean.

THEN she was hugging him, laughing and gasping as she did. She was all over him a moment after that.

The way that female could kiss, ...

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He sat on his haunches in the dark cave. She'd surprised him at how she could make a small fire – it was something that he had a natural fear of, and it had taken her a long minute of careful explanation after he'd noticed it to ease his nerves.

"I did not want to show this to you before," her thoughts came to him, "unless we needed it to keep something away from us in the dark, but we never needed it, so,..."

She positioned herself so that she sat on the ground with her knees drawn up, her head and shoulders resting against the lower part of his massive chest. He was quiet out of respect for what she was trying to do, though he didn't understand it. But if she said they needed something, it was enough for him, so he sat, happy to have her against him again.

"I am trying," she thought, "to make this seam just as it was before. It looks the same, but I know that it has weakened because of what I did."

"Why does it have to be the same?" he asked in her mind, "It looks closed to me."

"It only looks the same. Since I forced it, others may as well. I want to repair it," she thought. He looked down, seeing the soft glow and saw that she held a silver ball of liquid in her hand.

"I have been thinking," he thought to her, "I have never needed to know before, but how are you called? I cannot only call you 'you', can I?"

As hard as she was concentrating here, his thoughts made her smile. "I think that you must have been thinking quite a lot while I was gone."

"It's true," he smiled, "I have been thinking of you. I need a word for you that means you only."

"My large friend is growing wise," she grinned, "What you seek is called a name. Do you have a name for yourself?"

"I," he thought in answer.

"No," she laughed, "that does not work. You can't be I if I am I to myself. But I know of names for you. We are not in what you call the other world now. This is a place in a third world where all three come together. There are men here, smaller than you have seen, about my size. About thirty years ago, one of them found some bones of your kind."

"Only bones?" he asked, "None living?"

He felt her shake her head where it rested against his chest. "None living. Your kind has been gone from here for a long time. My kind is not even supposed to exist at all. Not enough big things to eat here anymore. But we can live here. Together, we can find enough to eat, though you, my huge lover, will need to learn to eat other things besides only meat. I have also learned that your kind was given names by that one man. The names are in a dead language, used by wise men to prove that they are wise."

She saw his huge maxillary canine teeth first and then the rest of his large face as he looked down at hers. He looked funny to her upside down like that.

"If it is a dead language, then they cannot be very wise," he said in her thoughts, "It makes no sense. Unless,... unless they use it because the dead will never challenge what they say."

It made her laugh as she pet his cheek for a moment. "You are becoming wiser than most if you think like that. There have been the bones of two kinds found so far, and they are different from each other. Your kind is the larger of them, and the name for you is Smilodon Populator. Smilodon means 'chisel tooth', and the whole things means 'Smilodon the Devastator'.

He thought about it for a moment. "What does that mean?"

"It means that you are a destroyer, "she smiled up at him.

"Ah," he said, as though he understood it, though he didn't yet, and before he could ask, she just said, "It means that you are a killer."

"But I get hungry," he said a little petulantly and she smiled as she stroked his cheek a little more. "I know," she said, "It is only a name for the kind of Smilodon that you are."

"I do not even like that name," he grumbled in her mind as he raised his head to look at the wall again, "I wish for a better one."

She tossed the ball of liquid at the seam. It landed and flowed, filling the crack instantly. "Come," she smiled, "It is done. I have finally had enough time to think of what we must do tonight."

She took him nearer to the fire and they sat down together. "You know that I can change what I am," she began.

He nodded, "I have seen it."

"To be what I am, a human male or female must be bitten by one of my kind, or born into it as a whelp. If they are bitten, they get sick for a time, and then, if they live, they become like me."

"You wish to bite me?" he asked, a little seriously.

"No, mighty one," she grinned, "I doubt that you would get much more than sniffles from my bite, as big and strong as you are. There is another way, and it needs a lot of magic. There is a lot right here, in the ground, everywhere, all around us here. I think that I can do it in this place. You would be able to walk like me on two legs, and if I am able, you would be able to talk like me, outside of your mind, and use magic for yourself. You could change back at anytime. Would you want this?"

"I cannot see the need of it, but we are together," he said in her mind, "I trust you because I love you. If you say that it is needed, then it must be so."

"You would live long with me," she offered.

"What must I do?" he asked, and he loved to hear the sound of her soft laughter.

"Well I am happy that I have found a thought which interests you," she chuckled.

Not long after, the mouth of the cave flashed and fumed, and the forests around bounced the echoes of his cries back toward the cave. It lasted an hour or so until the flashes dimmed. There was no one around for miles in that direction and it was just as well. She hadn't hurt him, she'd just changed him, giving him what she felt that he needed for them both to live.

She'd begun all of this by seeking out one large saber-toothed cat in another land beyond the caves. It had been her intent to pair with that cat somehow. She never said it, and she'd never planned to admit it to anyone, but it was for selfish reasons. She'd had enough of the meddling and pain that the watchers and the mages caused her kind in one of the worlds beyond the caves. She'd wanted something of a mating of convenience where she planned to give herself to a large male who was strong enough to protect her.

She'd never dreamed of what she'd find in his large heart. Oh, she'd made him love her alright, but she'd been swept away in it as well, loving everything about him. She'd found a quiet but deep mind there and once she'd begun to feed it through her will, he became as much a thinker as he'd always been a doer, and it had made her love him even more.

This magical work of hers was just what she'd seen that he'd need. She didn't know if he could help her kind or not. It would depend on him, and she'd accept his judgment in it. She was his female, after all. If he would help, fine. If not, she would go wherever he went. Her place was by his side, just as she knew that his was to protect her and go where she needed to go, if she made it clear that they had to be anywhere. She knew him enough for that.

She opened her eyes and found herself in her human form. She was tired, the feeling coming from deep within her. It made her think of the tiredness after birthing her whelps, though without the physical wear and tear. She just felt weary.

She lifted her head and looked at him. He was sprawled a little on top of her, but she didn't mind. She reached for his new white fur, already growing darker as she watched. When winter came, she knew that it would turn white once more. He smelled even better, she thought to herself. She'd always loved the way that he smelled as she brushed his ear with her thumb.

It caused him to wake and he lifted his head to regard her. He smiled and kissed one of her breasts for a moment. It caused her to inhale deeply and smile at him as he pulled himself forward to look down.

"Are you well?" she asked, "I can feel that at least one part of you is fine."

He nodded and spoke his first words to her with some difficulty. They caused her eyes to fill instantly when he told her that he loved her.

"Come then," she smiled softly, "Since we love each other so, please fill me. I am sure that we can fit together like this now."

He lifted himself up and she gasped as she felt that wonderful part of him at her soft gate. He paused then and began to slide into her very slowly. It felt so delicious to her and he fell in love with her all over again for only the way that she groaned quietly as she felt him fill her completely.

He stopped then and they smiled at each other. "I have missed looking at those eyes just as we fit together," she sighed, "and I have always wished to look at them if we could only do it in this way." She raised her legs to hold him and they began slowly. "Now I have my wish."

"I am still searching for a name for the one that I love," he said slowly, testing the feel of forming words, "Tell me of her, the most beautiful and finest female that I have ever known. Tell me of you."

"Elsbeth," she smiled, "I was a simple human girl named Elsbeth. I am far from where I was born and farther still from what I was then.

I am not young," she admitted," but I think that I still seem to have enough charms to hold your huge heart to mine. I have taken mates before and I have birthed four whelps." She drew a breath and plunged on.

"Only one of my children still lives. The mages and watchers took the rest. None of the males in my life were anything as fine and wondrous as you and not one of them could do to me the things which you can. I am Elsbeth and I am still so in love with you."

"Elsbeth," he said, liking it.

"I do not feel as though I am a devastator now," he said.

"That was what you were before," she said with a groan. She panted a little as they began to speed up.

"Then, who am I now?" he asked.

"You ... you make me, ... think of... a forest spirit, .... you, .... are, ... You are Vaesen," she sighed ,"my Vaesen."

He leaned down and she kissed him desperately, feeling the long teeth against her face as he felt hers, their tongues dancing to another rhythm completely separate from what the rest of their bodies were doing as they gasped and moaned.

When they'd finished, he'd felt his smile against her shoulder.

"Why do you smile?" she asked.

"Many things," he sighed, "I have the one that I love again, and I have a better name now."

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When he emerged from the mouth of the cave holding her hand, he was still a little unsteady on his feet, not being quite used to walking this way yet, though his coordination was coming to him quickly.

As he stepped outside, he stood up straight, towering over his mate at eight feet three inches of quickly darkening white fur.

Elsbeth had the beginnings of another plan in her mind, though she was purposely pushing it back. This was not the time or the place. She knew that Arn would return with Amy one day. If at that point, the two were ready to begin the war with the mages, she hoped that Vaesen would want to help as well, though she wouldn't ever push him that way. She thought that together, the two males could solve many troubles.

If they didn't try to kill each other.

"Do you wish to hunt?" she smiled up at him.

He nodded, "Yes, I could eat now."

"Remember what I said," she cautioned him, "for now, let me choose the game until you know what you may hunt. There are people around here who keep cattle. They ride horses and have sheep and goats. Let me choose first."

He nodded and they bounded up the slope and over the ridge together, long before the sun rose up over the ridge. Marie arrived home, a little tired, but feeling well-loved and happy. It was hours before she realized that her mother had gone.