Let There Be Light: Sc.20


                                            “Do you ever get tired?”

                                            >Noire looks back at you when you stop to catch your breath.

                                            >As good as you’ve been feeling about your increasing fitness, the only mountain – mountain complex? - on the island, in its new center, is taking its toll on you.

                                            >She cocks her head. “At times.”

                                            “At times? This isn’t one of them?”

                                            >She dips her head as you try to steady your breathing, then starts gingerly picking her way back down the terrain.

                                            >Somehow, coming down is slower than going up, for her.

                                            >Must be her anatomy.

                                            >She looks at you with some concern when she reaches your side. “Are you alright?”

                                            “Yeah, just… climbing the side of this… is a lot harder than… the hills back there, you know?”

                                            >She extends and wraps a wing around you as you lean over wheezing, hands planted on your knees. “We wont get there until tomorrow. We can stop now if you want.”

                                            >You wave a hand at your rocky surroundings. “This isn’t the most… comfortable place to stay.”

                                            >She follows your gesture, surveying the area. “No, I suppose not.”

                                            “Do we have to go much further to find somewhere nice?”

                                            >She considers the question for a moment, then instead of answering, takes flight.

                                            >If you weren’t already bracing yourself, her powerful downstrokes may have blown you over, tired as you were.

                                            >You watch her depart.

                                            >You rarely get the chance to see her fly; often she’s by your side, accompanying you wherever the two of you need to go, and she’s always stayed ground-bound.

                                            >Out of courtesy to you, you guess.

                                            >Watching her now, you feel a pang of…

                                            >Regret?

                                            >Longing?

                                            >In the air she’s so graceful, you wish you’d seen so much more of it.

                                            >Even departing, shrinking into the distance, there’s a dignity she carries herself with aloft, the way she holds her body, the image of her wings, her billowing mane and tail.

                                            >You should ask her to fly around you more often.

                                            >A little performance, just for you.

                                            >Oh stop it; she’s more than just a show pony.

                                            >But couples would dance for each other, right?

                                            >That was a thing back home?

                                            >You think it was.

                                            >Maybe it’ll be a good enough excuse.

                                            >There’s so much about her physical mannerisms that fascinates you.

                                            >Maybe some of it was just seeing through the species barrier; impossible to be overly familiar with the habits of basically aliens.

                                            >You see her spin a graceful circle in the air, holding her wings out and dipping sharply to one side as she scans the ground.

                                            >At the furthest point of her arc, her wings are almost top-on to you, her entire wingspan spread across your vision, waves of orange light glittering off her largest feathers and trailing behind her.

                                            >How did your lanky monkey ass manage to impress a creature of such majesty?

                                            >Maybe you’re a “she loves you for your personality” case.

                                            >All this working out was supposed to fix that.

                                            >And you have been making progress!

                                            >Look, you’ve already caught your breath again!

                                            >But compared to that, you have a long way to go.

                                            >She’s flying back now, just as graceful, head bobbing in time with her wing-beats.

                                            >Her weird always-behind-her-head-from-your-POV halo only looks right to you when she’s at least somewhat looking at you.

                                            >When she lands, you want to hold out a hand, touch her, but you realize you look kind of like a dork.

                                            >”Just a little more; there is a wonderful meadow up ahead you should see.”

                                            “Watching you fly has given me enough strength.”

                                            >She dips her head and smiles. “You flatter me.”

                                            “It’s true! I was just feeling bad about how little I get to see you fly.”

                                            >She gives you a mock bow, wings spread low. “I shall endeavor to grace you with the sight more often.”

                                            >You reach out to lift her head up, looking into her black eyes, broken by orange-ring irises, matching her smile with your own.

                                            “I feel silly just asking, but I’d love that.”

                                            >You gather her up into a hug, and she responds in kind with her wings around you.

                                            >Then, with a pat on her back, you turn to continue your ascent.

                                            >It doesn’t take much longer to get where she flew, at least now that you’d recovered.

                                            >Once you pass the final ridge – you know it’s the last one because she’s standing at the top, waiting for you to join her – your breath is taken away yet again.

                                            >She wasn’t lying; it’s a beautiful, even if small, expanse of grass and flowers.

                                            >You can smell it as soon as you can see it, a wonderful blend of aromas.

                                            >It’s relatively flat, compared to the surrounding topography; an excellent place to set up a tent.

                                            >But once you get to the middle, you feel like flopping into the grass; the tent can wait.

                                            >Considering it still gets cool at night, and you’re already feeling the elevation, it can’t wait too long.

                                            >But it can wait a little.

                                            >A strange plant catches your attention

                                            >A white flower, clinging to the ‘inner’ edges, where the ascent would continue tomorrow.

                                            >You bend over to examine it.

                                            >It’s covered in a strange fur.

                                            >Well, perfect for your befurred lover, no?

                                            >You carefully pluck it from the rock, then take it back to Noire, who’s already laying down with her wings spread out, as if sunning herself.

                                            “Here.”

                                            >You hold the flower out to her.

                                            “I don’t know if I ever picked flowers in my past life, but I suspect this is the first.”

                                            >Something silly about the gesture, almost childish, prevents you from saying more.

                                            >But you’re sure there’s enough surrounding the idea for her to pick up on with her weird sense for spoken stuff to understand.

                                            >She lifts it out of your hand, regards the flower for along moment, then gives you a warm smile. “Thank you. We made so many plants from your world, I am not sure even you know the significance of them all.”

                                            >You rub the back of your head.

                                            “Well, I don’t know a ton about all the romance stuff…”

                                            >Her smile turns to a grin, and she pulls her wings back against her sides. “A symbol of devotion and dedication.”

                                            “Well yeah, of course I’m dedicated. I’m damn near obsessed.”

                                            >She laughs as you take the flower back from her magical grasp, threading it behind one of her ears.

                                            >It would be easier if her mane was made of actual hair, but it does settle in nicely enough, the faux smoke drifting around its weird hairy petals.

                                            >Your hand falls to her cheek, stroking it as she nuzzles your palm.  “I am surprised.”

                                            ”That I’m obsessed with you?”

                                            >“No, in retrospect that was obvious, as obvious as the true depth of my fascination with you. I am surprised you found these blooming; they should not be out for a couple months still.”

                                            “Well, we are out here to check on your creations, aren’t we? Maybe the whole accelerated development thing screws with plants.”

                                            >”I will have to keep an eye out for such abnormalities, and check on them remotely after we return.”

                                            “Probably a good idea.”

                                            >You finally settle yourself down in the grass next to Noire, getting comfy as you look out the way you came.

                                            >Maybe you’re not in so bad shape after all; you realize you’re quite high up, enough so the elevation alone was probably doing a number on you.

                                            >These ridges and their intervening meadows extend away to either side, while the broad mountain rises behind.

                                            >If you didn’t already have one, you might like to place a cabin on an area like this.

                                            >Visions of mountain castles drift through your mind.

                                            >Would one not be fit for your Empress?

                                            >You wrap an arm around Noire and give her a little squeeze.

                                            “Beautiful up here.”

                                            >”Mmm.”

                                            >As nice as the scenery was, it’s better for her warmth, as she again drapes a wing over your shoulders, and you pull her body into yours.

                                            “Not as beautiful as you.”

                                            >She looks over and gives you another smile.

                                            >Her charcoal-colored body and various orange highlights clashes quite terribly with the landscape in broad daylight, really, but something about the light of the setting sun takes the edge off the greenery, fading it, while softening the edge of her dark coat’s color.

                                            >In this light, she looks quite at home among the brown rocks edging the ridges, the yellow and orange flowers nearby, and even the grass doesn’t set itself off too badly.

                                            >From the air, you might be the odd one; nobody would be able to tell her awesome power, looking as she does at home in the area with the sun low on the horizon.

                                            >All for you to know, then.

                                            >You look down at her shoulder.

                                            >Her gash there is mostly healed already.

                                            >Does she have some sort of special healing factor to go with her body?

                                            >How much of that body is really natural, still?

                                            “So, uh, we found out you bleed, but that looks closed up pretty well, and we didn’t even stitch it or anything.”

                                            >She looks down where the injury was, and tenses her muscles there. “To be honest, I had forgotten about it. It does not bother me any longer.”

                                            “What else is special about your body, besides the healing, and-”

                                            >You wave your hand through her intangible horn.

                                            “-that thing?”

                                            >”Nothing.”

                                            “Nothing special? Really? I mean besides the obvious stuff like the halo and crap. If that’s even a part of your body at all.”

                                            >”Nothing special. Just an ordinary body. Though it probably doesn’t age.”

                                            “…Probably?”

                                            >”We will find out in time.”

                                            >She rearranges herself slightly, putting her head against your chest.

                                            >She seemed to like it there.

                                            >Close to your heart literally, as well as figuratively.

                                            “So you’ve got a heart in there too obviously, pumping that totally normal blood through your totally normal body.”

                                            >”Mhmm.”

                                            “Normal except all the weird bits.”

                                            >”We have covered those already.”

                                            “No other surprises?”

                                            >”You seem surprised at its normalcy.”

                                            “That’s true, yeah. You just, uh, command it so well. Your movements are so graceful and fluid. I could watch you for hours.”

                                            >”I have you under no spell, that is just the way I move.”

                                            “Another wonderful thing about you.”

                                            >You give her a peck on her forehead, about over her horn.

                                            >She giggles. “When you deliberately focus on the strange parts, it is a little funny.”

                                            >You rub the back of her neck, through her smoky mane.

                                            “Being honest, I kinda want to see more. I want to be less afraid of that stuff behind the body.”

                                            >”You see through to my connection beyond. You were not comfortable with that, at first.”

                                            “Yeah, well, I want to love all of you, not just what I can see. And I do. I just… need to get used to it.”

                                            >”All of me?”

                                            “Yeah. I love YOU, Noire, not just any piece or part of you that you took on for my convenience. We’ve spent enough time together I know that this isn’t just a facade. This is you. So many fleeting things, how you move, how you speak, your gestures and reactions and emotions. And sometimes when I close my eyes, I still see it. Visions of you like-”

                                            >She pushes against your chest with her head hard enough to put you on your back.

                                            >Then, pushing herself up from a half-roll with a wing, she’s standing over you.

                                            >No, she’s kneeling, those equine legs only giving her enough clearance to put her on top of your chest; you’re still taking a good bit of her weight.

                                            >Then she leans down and kisses you deeply.

                                            >Behind your closed eyes you can see it all again, the strange threads of the cosmos through her silhouette, the golden spans and spars criss-crossing the once-surface-now-void of her skin, a fiery inferno of stellar creation arcing away down what should be her neck, the supermassive singularity between her hips, only visible as a flat depiction atop them in reality.

                                            >Reality.

                                            >What a funny word, considering this.

                                            >Is this more real than her body?

                                            >Looking through a connection, she said; as long as she is incarnated, is her body in fact more real, and this an illusion? A glimpse of something else behind it, what-was and what-will-be but not what currently is?

                                            >It’s beautiful all the same, in its own way.

                                            >She breaks contact, and you open your eyes, golden frame obscured by charcoal-grey hide, stars born in her mane resolving to little sparks from hidden flame, that black hole once again flat and impotent on her flanks.

                                            >But a fire still burned in those orange irises, suspended between black sclera and blacker pupils, a depth within the latter still reminiscent of gazing across the vast expanses of the void.

                                            “Yeah. Visions of you like that.”

                                            >You hope what you can see can make it across that bridge of ideas when you speak.

                                            >She leans down again, but this time nuzzling your cheek with hers.

                                            >You close your eyes anyway, relishing the sensation of her fur on your skin.

                                            >Her body pressing down against yours.

                                            >These things, too, are real.

                                            >And, inescapably embodied as you are, much more familiar comforts.

                                            >You love the visions of grand cosmos in an abstract way, you suppose, but this is very concrete, literally tangible.

                                            >You wrap your arms around her and squeeze, pulling her down against you harder.

                                            >All this warmth, this pressure, the one you love…

                                            >Your thoughts drift back to her hips.

                                            >If this body is as normal as she says…

                                            >Well, maybe this body has something interesting between those hips too.

                                            >With one hand you pull her head back up, planting your lips on hers again.

                                            >Closing your eyes again, but willing away the heady visions

                                            >You’re operating with a different head right now.

                                            >Even as one hand is keeping her lips engaged with yours, your other hand wanders down her back with a light touch, a finger tracing this way and that in its way to her rear.

                                            >You can feel her muscles underneath tense and relax as that finger passes over.

                                            >Ticklish, maybe?

                                            >She’s not giving you any indication.

                                            >Not stopping you, either.

                                            >Your hand passes over her flank, keeps going, and still no sign.

                                            >You wrap it around her hindquarters, grasp firmly, and pull; hiking her body up and against yours a little more.

                                            >She breaks your kiss, but only for a moment – just enough for you to see her grin – then dives back into another, shifting her forehooves above either of your shoulders, not far enough out to impede your arms.

                                            >You lay your index finger on the base of her tail, more as a navigational aid than anything, and do a little bit of exploring.

                                            >Her breathing changes through your kiss, after you probe what you find.

                                            >You break that kiss with a laugh as you withdraw your hand.

                                            “You know, I’ve accidentally grazed some stuff-”

                                            >You punctuate it by slipping that hand – a bit slick now – underneath her, grasping what you find between her hindlegs and your body.

                                            “-down here, but I didn’t think to confirm what you had lurking back there.”

                                            >She’s still wearing that grin. “As I said; a normal body in all respects.”

                                            >With that hand between her hips and yours, you start unfastening your pants.

                                            “How about you let me explore your fascinating form some more, by doing what normal bodies do?”

                                            >

                                            >The two of you do a lot of exploring.

                                            >A very in-depth and in-depth investigation

                                            >And whenever you close your eyes, you see stars.