CHAPTER 4: AIR STONE
Kimber and Jonath hiked along the path leading up along the mountainside. It had been a long journey already, they were deep into the mountain range and quite a distance up. Jonath was glad that Kimber had forced him to leave his armor behind temporarily at a village in the foothills, even though he was accustomed to the weight it would not have been pleasant hauling the extra load up the steep route. "Shit! Do you see that, the path up ahead is gone!" Jonath proclaimed.
"That just means we're in the right place," Kimber replied. "It's all part of the legend."
"Another legend is it? So what's the story this time?" Jonath asked.
"There is a tower stronghold up in these mountains. It is told that it was originally inhabited by a wizard, a secluded place to work his experiments. But it became better known for a different purpose. The princess of the kingdom nearby was approaching marrying age when a seer foretold that she would bear a son who would one day slay her parents and bring the kingdom to ruin. The king and queen were devastated and imprisoned her in the old, abandoned tower, to be safe from any suitors that could give her a child," Kimber said.
"I suppose sending her to the tower led to a peculiar series of events ending in the prophesy coming true," said Jonath.
"Not at all, in fact," Kimber said. "The queen and many others died of an illness that swept over the land, and the king was later deposed by a conspiracy of traitorous knights, who were themselves set upon by the loyal knights, and they killed each other to the last man. When somebody finally remembered they needed to send another batch of provisions to the tower for the princess, or perhaps to just release her, the only path up the mountain had been completely destroyed by a rockslide."
"That's a sad story. But if they couldn't reach the tower, how do you propose that we do so?" Jonath asked.
"You should know by now, I have a few advantages that others do not," Kimber said, touching the bird symbol on her medallion. The familiar glow enveloped her body. The most striking feature revealed when it receded was the pair of large, majestic brown feathered wings that had sprouted from her body along the entire length of her back. They resembled the broad slotted shape of hawks and eagles, and from tip to tip spanned nearly three times her own height. She gave them a few gentle flaps, then they folded up neatly onto her back and sides, nearly reaching the ground and almost completely covering her arms as well. Another cluster of feathers spouted from the back of each leg at her calves, put together they resembled a bird's tail feathers. These, too, folded down into a rest state along her legs, above her bare feet. Brown feathers also covered her head, in place of hair, but resembling a shoulder-length hair style. Her garment was of a backless maillot design, supported by a strap around her neck in order to not interfere with her wings. It too was covered in brown feathers, the softer body type rather than the long wing variety. The neckline plunged low enough to show a fair amount of cleavage. Her breasts were smaller than her normal ones but larger than those of the serpent girl form.
"Oh, my!" Jonath exclaimed, while stepping closer to her. "I'd been wondering if that bird icon meant you could grow wings, but these are beyond amazing." He reached out and ran his hand down a wing, feeling the feathers.
"I know that look," Kimber teased, with a mischievous look in her own brown eyes. "I promise you can fuck me like this later. I want to do what we came here for first, though."
"Fair enough," Jonath said, trying to hide his eagerness. The cliffside wasn't a good place for dalliances anyway.
"I'm going to scout ahead, then I'll come back and pick you up," Kimber said, unfurling her wings. "Even without your armor, you're more weight than these wings are meant to carry, so this isn't going to be easy, but it's the only way across." She leapt into the air as her powerful wings flapped downward. She leveled off into a stable glide, arms at her sides and her legs flat out behind her with calf feathers spread wide, and flew off in the direction that the ruined mountain path must have taken.
After a brief wait, she returned, and called out, "Hold your arms up!" before circling around. Jonath did so, and as she swooped down they grabbed hold of each other's wrists. In an instant he was off the ground, his feet dangling free beneath him. He resisted the urge to cry out, whether in fear or excitement, he wasn't sure. Kimber beat her wings repeatedly and grunted with effort as she struggled to keep them both aloft. "By the Gods, this is even more difficult than I expected," she said as her breaths became heavy and rapid.
Jonath could see the intact path picking up again ahead of them. He could also tell they were not going to land upon it, Kimber was losing too much altitude. Her wings flapped quickly as she futilely tried to regain some height, then began to panic, crying out, "Shit, shit, shit!" As the cliff wall approached, Jonath pulled his knees up to his chest, thrusting his feet forward, and bent his arms down towards his back. His boots impacted against the rock, and only his boots, as he had forced Kimber to collide with his backside. He released her left arm, freeing his own to grab hold of a small ledge, and let his boots slide downward until they found purchase.
Kimber put her left arm around his neck, then her right, holding onto him as she panted for air, her tired wings collapsing to her sides. "Are you alright?" Jonath asked with concern once her breaths started to slow.
"I'm getting there," she replied. "That was quick thinking. Thanks to you, only my pride has suffered." She opened his pack and retrieved his rope. "Give me a few moments and I will yet still see you safely up this mountain." Her wings spread once more, and she released Jonath as they carried her up to the path. Soon after, the rope came tumbling down to him. "You climb, I'll pull," Kimber called down.
Jonath wound the rope around his right arm before grabbing hold of it, then took hold with his left hand as well. "I'm ready!" he shouted upwards. Despite that claim, he was caught off guard by the rate of his ascent, his feet could barely keep up with the speed Kimber was pulling the rope. When he reached the path and hauled himself up over the edge, he could see why. Up the trail, at the far end of the rope, he could see a horse's backside topped by Kimber's backside. She looked back over her shoulder to make sure he was all the way up, then used her medallion to return from centaur to human form. She walked back towards him, coiling the rope as she went.
"Perhaps a bit of a rest here before continuing on?" Jonath suggested.
"Most definitely," Kimber replied.
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