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The wind roared under my wings, supporting me. With a powerful downward beat I thrust myself forwards through the warm air, feeling the sky surge faster over my streamlined form. There was the turbulent gale where my head penetrated the oncoming wall of air, then the caressing rush as it slipped smoothly around my long neck and body, under my two tucked-in legs, and the gentle tickle as the air rejoined seamlessly just past the tip of my outstretched tail.

As I flew, I clicked my tongue, aiming short sharp projectiles of sound at the ground below me. Click-click-click-click-click. My ears strained to pick up the faint and distorted debris of their echoes as they bounced back up to me, letting me gauge my height; and with a skilled and well-practised ear I could tell not only the distance but even the shape of the land below, by which means I kept track of where I was flying. So long as I kept low over known terrain, my voice and ears could paint me a picture of my surroundings just good enough for me to get by, despite my blindness.

There were other sounds to filter out first. Not only was there the constant rushing of air past my ears, but there was also the Song. Other hyeloki shared the skies with me, and most of them liked to sing. The Song was a fluctuating, ever-evolving thing; a complex harmony of voices joining and leaving and trying to blend with one other. Motifs and rhythms and counter-rhythms came and went unpredictably. Beautiful, in its way. Sometimes, when I wasn't trying to navigate, I'd lie back and relax, letting its melodies and counter-melodies seep through me, soothing me. But I never joined in. It was their Song, and I wasn't one of them. They'd made that quite clear.

From below, my ears picked up the harsh split echoes which suggested the hard, square geometry of buildings and streets. The town's main street was long, straight and broad, and I wheeled left to meet it end-on, letting the streaming wind slow me down, losing height. Click-click-click-click-click. Echoes from walls left and right. I used them to align myself straight and central as I dropped below the level of the rooftops.

It was morning, and the street would be busy. Fortunately, my clicking sonar also acted as an early warning system: get out of the street, it said, Echobright's coming. She'll make sure you regret it if you don't. Sure enough, I recognised the bustling chaos of an emptying road as I dropped lower, the mixed voices of a dozen races braying in confusion and irritation as they pressed to either side to make way.

I let myself drop until my claws grated against concrete, my wings stretched rigidly to either side. I was still moving too fast when suddenly there was an echo that shouldn't have been there, bouncing back from a figure standing right in front of me, in the middle of the road, too close for me to stop...

"Out of the way, you idiot!"

My warning apparently worked, as at the last moment the figure dove to one side and down, my right wing passing straight over it. Gradually, deliberately taking my time, I slowed to a halt and folded my wings. A rather routine landing, I reflected, apart from that one idiot.

Behind me I heard the crowds closing in again, and only a couple of people took the time to throw me colourful abuse in languages they imagined I didn't understand. Weaving through the bustle, I noticed a patter of clawed footsteps heading straight for me. Hyeloki footsteps. Something told me it was the same idiot who'd been gawking in the middle of the road, and to my intense irritation he now seemed intent on engaging me in conversation.

"Excuse me, but might your name be Echobright? Are you... are you echolocating? It's incredible! Extraordinary! How did you ever learn to..."

"Go stick your head up your own arsehole and practice it, if you're so interested."

I'd long ago decided that I didn't have to humour them. Everything I'd ever achieved I'd done on my own; all my life I'd been given almost nothing but mockery and condescension. I certainly didn't have to stand back and listen to sighted people deliver a patronising little lecture on how talented I was, for learning a poor substitute for what they could do perfectly naturally. As I turned my back on the male and walked away, laughter erupted from the rooftops above me.

"Hey there Echobright! Don't be so rude to the little guy! He just fancies you, that's all!"

I froze at the sound of the familiar, crooning voice. Cloud-Splitter, and her two cronies with her. She of all hyeloki just wouldn't learn her lesson about keeping a civil tongue in her head. And I'd bitten her hard last time. Well I'd bite her even harder next time I got the chance. I grit my teeth before spinning round to shout up in defiance.

"Cloud-Splitter! Fly down here and insult me face-to-face, why don't you, instead of lurking at a safe distance like a month-old chick?"

I hadn't expected her to but she did, swooping down with a few wingbeats to land just a single span away from me. Just far enough to be out of range of my claws and jaws. My chief tormentor wasn't learning the fear of me I worked so hard to instil.

"Hey now Echobright, I'm not here to insult you. I'm actually trying to help you. I feel so sorry for you, you know, living up in that dreary little cave, all on your own."

"I don't need your sympathy, worm."

"Now Echobright, darling, there's no need to be so rude. Not when I've just found you the perfect little mate. After just one taste of your graceful landing and charming personality, why, he's clearly absolutely smitten. If only you could see him, Echobright, this one's quite a catch! He's so... strong and fierce!"

Two voices shouted down their contributions from the rooftops.

"An acrobat in the air!"

"And he's absolutely gorgeous!"

Cloud-Splitter's tone when she resumed was insidious and wheedling.

"It's such a shame he has his heart so set on you, or I'd have him as my own in a heartbeat."

I thought back to the stranger who'd approached me. What wretched or wizened thing had they found, they were taking such delight in trying to set up with the blind girl? I wanted to scream obscenity at her, or rip out her evil throat, anything to show that I could not be made a fool of. But I knew by long experience that right then and there it would only make a greater fool out of me. So I simply turned my tail on her and walked away. She shouted after me.

"That's it? You're turning your back on him? Breaking his heart? But just imagine what beautiful children you two could... ayyaarrrgh!"

What? What happened? Why did she scream? I heard her spin around on the spot, and when her voice returned, it carried the answer.

"Did you just bite me, you pathetic little cripple? If you weren't such a pitiful scrap of a thing I'd give you a few more scars to go with your collection!"

Something warmed within me when I realised that I wasn't the only one to dislike Cloud-Splitter intensely enough to sink teeth into her. And my heart leapt when I realised that when she'd turned to face him, she'd made the mistake of turning her back on me.

I couldn't see her, and I didn't want to alert her by echolocating. But I'd heard her move, and I carried a mental picture of just how she must be standing, with her wings raised aggressively like so, and her long tail draped undefended across the concrete just so...

"Get out of here before I... AYYYAAARRRRGH!"

I let my fangs sink deep into the soft flesh, blood squirting hot into my mouth as I bit down hard, only stopping when I judged that if I bit any harder I might bite it clean off. As I let go I relished the taste of her blood in my mouth, relished her gasping shrieks of pain, relished the mocking laughter from the rooftops, which was directed not at me any more, but at her. When she spoke again her voice was weak and trembling.

"Psychopaths, the pair of you! You deserve each other!"

And with that she was gone, escaping into the air, her two companions flying after her, still laughing. Leaving me alone with the male who I apparently deserved.

Part of me wanted nothing to do with him, whoever he was. He was nothing to do with me. But then, he had bitten Cloud-Splitter for me, so perhaps I owed him at least a few moments. And besides, I was curious.

Who was he, this male? I showered him with careful sonar bursts. It didn't tell me much, except that he was smaller than me. It wasn't that he was unusually small, but that I was unusually big, even for a female. Everyone was smaller than me.

As he walked towards me I stopped clicking and sat patiently, waiting to see what it was he wanted.

"I don't know how well you can see me like that, but I'm afraid I don't live up to their description."

Obviously. He must realise I knew that. Or did he think me stupid? I let him carry on, mostly because he had a pleasant voice, lyrical and colourful, but gentle.

"They did get one thing right though. I... this is going to sound absurd, but... I actually am a little smitten."

I didn't reply. What game was he playing with me? Was I going to have to bite him too?

"I know that seems ridiculous, since I've never met you before, but it's true. You've made quite a first impression on my silly impressionable heart. You're beautiful, you're forceful, and you're very... well, you're very graceful."

Graceful? I gave him a long hard silence, to let it sink in just how ridiculous a thing he'd just said.

"You are graceful! That landing. Very impressive. The fact that you can fly and land without eyesight... wow! I wouldn't have thought it even possible! But it wasn't just impressive. It was graceful. You've heard the old saying that a truly graceful flyer can land atop a finely balanced pole with only a single sweep of the wings? Well I think that's twaddle. A truly graceful flyer doesn't mess about performing ridiculous stunts on poles. Grace is something that sets its own course and leaves others to work around it. A whole street full of people erupted into chaos just to make way for the grace of your landing."

Well. He certainly knew how to talk pretty. But me, graceful? For a moment I toyed with the concept, then threw it out as nonsense. The only reason people got out of my way was because if they didn't I'd fly into them.

"I'm sorry, I never even introduced myself. My name's Grey-Eye."

"Why?"

"On account of my unusual grey eyes. I was born with them. But then I lost the one on the right, so Grey-Eyes became Grey-Eye."

Colours. Grey, yellow, green, blue. All just words to me.

"Echobright, if you don't mind me being somewhat bold, I'd like to have a chance to get to know you a little better. Perhaps we could find something to eat to wash the awful taste of Cloud-Splitter's tail out of both our mouths?"

Was he... asking me for a date? Something long dormant within me fluttered. Yes, I wanted to. I wanted to get to know this Grey-Eye, this mysterious pretty voice who had made me believe, just for a moment, that I might actually be graceful.

But... didn't it all seem a bit too good to be true? Then probably it was. Most likely a big joke at my expense: get big crazy Echobright's hopes up, then how funny it will be to break her heart! Or maybe he made the offer out of pity? That was somehow even worse. I stood up and addressed him coolly.

"Thank you for biting Cloud-Splitter. But, no."

I turned and walked away, feeling proud of myself for not losing my head. I'd only gone a few steps when I decided I'd just made a huge mistake. I stopped. I spoke without turning round.

"Actually... yes. I'll be hunting on the low mire at second noon. Come."

* * *

I reached the mire a little before the time. It irritated me that I hadn't been able to stop thinking about this all internoon, and it irritated me more that I was so nervous. Damn Grey-Eye and his pretty voice. Probably he wouldn't even show up.

Just in case he did, I found a prominent spot where he'd be able to find me and waited. The mire stretched out for miles: a damp, flat, stinking expanse that I struggled to navigate by sonar and was forced to rely on sounds and smells, of which there was an overabundance. I could hear the marsh-lopers yawn as they wallowed in the mud and the chittirakes whistle as they squabbled over flowers. I could smell the spicy scent of fire reeds wafting their pollen into the air, and the rich foulness of stagnant mud. And most importantly of all, I could hear Grey-Eye if he flew towards me.

To pass the time, since I felt a song rising in my heart, I sang. I didn't sing the Song. I never sang the Song. I just sang out to the sky, not caring if I discorded with every other voice in the world. But I didn't sing so loud that I didn't hear his footsteps as they squelched through the mire towards me, and I didn't change my tune at all when I heard him sit quietly beside me, listening.

I'd thought, or perhaps hoped, that he might sing with me. He didn't. He didn't move, and didn't speak, until I let my voice fall silent.

"You sing as beautifully as you fly. Entirely to your own tune."

Grey-Eye. His words made me smile inside. I'd never met anyone else who could do that to me.

"You walked here. Can't you fly?"

"Not any more, my right wing doesn't do what it's told. I can glide a little, but I can't push myself through the air like I used to be able to."

I surveyed him with sonar, but it told me nothing new. What had Cloud-Splitter called him? A "pathetic little cripple". Possibly he was a poor thing to the eyes. To me, that didn't matter. I only needed his voice, the words he used and the gentle but self-assured way he said them. But I was curious.

"I want to have a look at you."

"A look at me?"

He found out what I meant quickly enough. I reached forwards to touch him, and we bumped snout to snout. Then I nuzzled my snout around the left side of his head, down the line of his jaw and then up to trace the line of his brow. His left ear twitched as I passed it, the I worked down the long curve of his neck until I met his left wing. He unfolded it for me, and I felt its joints and delicate folds with care. It all felt... fine. He was a slender thing, but well proportioned. His skin was flat, warm, firm, perfect.

"You're probably wondering by now if there's anything really wrong with me. Well so far you've only seen my left side. Try my right, it's quite a difference."

I returned my muzzle to where it had started - touching his - and repeated the exact same motions again, this time moving down his right side. The difference was immediate. No smooth flawless skin here, but a tracery of scars etched into the surface, and the rough texture of burns. They must have been old, because there was no twitch of discomfort when I touched them.

"Once you've counted all those scars you'll probably be glad you don't have to look at me all the time."

No, I'd never be glad of that. But he wasn't displeasing to the touch, just... unusual. When I reached his right wing I found the reason for his flightlessness: a bend that simply shouldn't have been there, an old wound improperly healed. What had happened to him?

"You know I've never had someone look at me in this way before? Maybe its just your talented nose, but I'm quite enjoying the experience."

"Pfah!"

I snorted in mock disdain and gave him a short rap on the nose with my muzzle. There was a moment of silence then with our snouts a mere inch apart, our breath warm against each other's lips. I wondered if he'd kiss me. I wondered if I should kiss him. Then I realised I was being silly and soppy with a male I didn't even know, and pulled my head sharply away. We were there to hunt.

"I hear marsh-lopers over that way. Can you see them?"

"Yes, I see them. Half a dozen grazing, about a hundred spans away."

"Let's catch one."

"How?"

"Lunge and lurk."

There was a pause while he thought about it.

"Yes... that could work, I think. You lurk and I lunge? I can see a good spot for it."

I sniffed the air.

"I can smell a muddy pool behind me. Is it deep?"

"Um... yes, I'd say so. But why...?"

"Camouflage."

"Oh."

Lunge and lurk. One of the classic old strategies, and one of the few viable to a pair who were individually sightless and flightless. But to be the lurker, I needed to be invisible. I needed to become part of the mire. Taking a few cautious steps backwards, I felt my feet sink into a thick, sticky, stinking mud. When I was up to my knees, I dropped down and rolled, rubbing the vile stuff all over me, letting it coat every patch of skin.

As I wallowed back and forth, I felt Grey-Eye watching me keenly. Only when I stood up, believing the job done, did he speak.

"You missed a spot under your neck. And there, just on the inside of your left thigh. Perfect! And can I say you are quite the most alluring swamp monster I've ever set eye upon."

I couldn't help smiling at that, and hoped he wouldn't notice under all the mud. Still, I chided myself for having my first promising date in years leading so quickly to me coating myself in noxious mud. I wasn't exactly showing myself to best advantage. Then again, if he was going to be put off by something as shallow as a little coat of mud, perhaps it was better to shake him off sooner than later.

"Shut your cheeky mouth! Let's go."

I was ashamed to admit it, but it was a difficult journey for me as we drew nearer to the marsh-lopers. We had to keep low and quiet, which prevented me from using sonar to see where I was going, and I had to feel my way forwards step by step. Grey-Eye, ahead, seemed to notice.

"Would you like to hold my tail?"

I managed to swallow the angry rejection which automatically bubbled up in response to such a demeaning offer, because in truth I did want to hold his tail. So without complaint I took the tip in my mouth and let him guide me, trusting him not to lead me awry, and we moved much faster than before.

Grey-Eye led me true, and I released his tail when he announced in a whisper that we'd arrived.

"Here. Loper run. Only easy way through for a dozen spans either side. If I were a loper this is where I'd go."

I felt the ground with my feet, sniffed the soil, felt the wind on my tongue. It was a narrow path with a scent of loper dung. A good site. Selecting a spot just downwind of the run, I lay down low in the cool mud, folding back my mud-coated wings to try and look as much as possible like a part of the landscape. Grey-Eye fussed about with bits of foliage, arranging them gently over me, his muzzle lingering slightly longer than necessary when it touched my mud-caked skin.

"Are you good and comfortable? There's plenty of nice soft moss here for a pillow if you need one. Nothing prickling your bottom? No itches that need scratching? Actually, you look so snug down there I'm more than half tempted to lie down next to you and..."

"Grey-Eye, shut up! I'm a deadly killing machine and I do not need you fussing about me! Get out there and send me a loper, and save your pretty talk for later!"

Only when he was safely out of easy spying distance did I pull over the moss he'd found me and rest my head on it. It was a lot more comfortable. I let myself imagine him lying down next to me, let myself pretend that warm gust of air was his breath on my neck, and that branch pressing against my foot was his foot, and that...

I stopped myself. You're getting emotional, the hard part of me warned. You don't know this Grey-Eye. If you let him into your heart so easily, then he will just as easily break it.

I nodded in reluctant agreement. Take it slow, I told myself. Don't let yourself fall in love with him. Not until he's earned your trust.

A shout brought me back to the real world. Grey-Eye had worked his way round to the far side of the marsh-lopers and lunged. I heard the splashes as he ran wildly towards them, shouting exuberantly.

"Run! Run, loper, run for your life! I'm Grey-Eye the Fierce, a savage and terrible killer, come to devour you! Rrrrawrrrrr!"

I wanted to laugh. I could picture the scarred little male careering through the mud, doing his best to look ferocious, as clearly as if I could see it. But I couldn't laugh. I couldn't move or make a sound. I had to stay a part of the landscape.

Footsteps splashed towards me, moving fast. Loper. Just as they were upon me I flung myself at the creature, latching onto the terrified beast with teeth and both sets of talons and squeezing, squeezing, until it stopped struggling and lay dead. I had no remorse about it. I'd done it hundreds of times before, and would do it a thousand times more to keep myself fed.

The kill had commandeered my full mind, pushing everything else out. But as I heard Grey-Eye wading slowly towards me, limping slightly off his scarred leg after the exertion, it all came rushing back.

"Grey-Eye the Fierce?"

"Echobright the Enticing."

I smiled at that. I didn't even try to hide it from him. We'd hunted and killed together. Somehow we were closer.

"Shut up and eat."

I lay the beast on the ground between us. My stomach growled, and my mouth moistened at the thought of warm, fresh meat, but we took a moment anyway, to nod our respect to the life we'd taken so that we might eat.

Marsh-loper tasted good. They were fast and flighty things, and not something I could usually catch on my own. I was accustomed to live on smaller, slower beasts, most of whom were not overly appetising. Sometimes I even had to eat - shame of shames - bought, preserved food. But this marsh-loper had rich and succulent meat, and between us we rapidly ripped it from the bones, reducing the beast to no more than skeleton and gristle. As we both leaned in to finish off the last part, we let our noses touch, then our snouts slid in side-by-side, and I could feel him tear, chew and swallow the meat with just as much relish as myself.

The meal over, he expressed my own sentiments perfectly.

"I'd almost forgotten how good it feels to have a belly stuffed full of fresh meat. Did your half taste as good as mine did?"

In place of an answer I ran my tongue over my lips, licking up blood but unfortunately also a good deal of dried mud. I'd quite forgotten about my camouflage. Grey-Eye made a suggestion.

"There's a pool just up the slope if you want to clean up a bit? Just to remind me there's a beautiful female somewhere under all that mud."

Could I be beautiful? Maybe just to him. Maybe something like the way he was beautiful, in my mind's eye.

We walked together up to the pool, me leading the way with occasional course corrections from Grey-Eye. I splashed eagerly into the refreshingly cool, wing-high water.

The mud wasn't hard to remove. I could feel the water soaking most of it off as I dipped myself under the surface, but just to be thorough I started rubbing my skin with tongue and feet, working off the more stubborn residues.

"Say, Echobright, how would you feel about me slipping in there with you and, well, helping you out with that?"

A flash of irritation shot through me. If I was to spend more time with this Grey-Eye, I needed to let him know that I didn't like to be treated like an invalid.

"I'm not completely incapable, you know! I can wash myself without needing you to rub yourself all over me like I'm... oh."

The sentence trailed off as it dawned on me that I would quite like an excuse to have him touch me all over, and that that had been rather the point of the offer.

"I see. Alright then. If you feel you must."

He slipped smoothly in beside me, barely raising a ripple. I stretched out a wing and he started there, brushing the mud off easily in precise, delicate sweeps of his wings. When he'd finished I turned to let him clean the other one in the same way, enjoying his gentle but self-assured touch.

He could have cleaned all of me in the same efficient, rapid way. But as he leant over me to clean my back he switched from his wings to his talons. This was slower, less efficient, but more enjoyable. His talons massaged my flesh in firm lines, his sharp claws kept skilfully away from my skin, in a way I felt I could lie down and appreciate all day.

And he talked as his talons did their thing, as his attention moved forward over my shoulders and up the back of my long neck. I didn't really listen to what he was saying - I don't think it was anything important - but I appreciated the agreeable background purr of his voice.

One cannot clean another hyeloki's face with wings, or with talons. One has to use one's tongue. And Grey-Eye did. His slender tongue shot out when he reached my head and began to dart nimbly hither and thither, working every trace of mud loose from around my eyes and ears. I hadn't been cleaned this way since my mother had cleaned me as I child, and it felt wonderful. His tongue felt so warm, so wet, so reassuring. As he finished the job by licking clean the sensitive skin of my throat I arched back my neck and let out a quiet moan. Let him know that he was doing good.

I was breathing deeply but slowly as I turned myself over in the water, floating with my underside towards him. At what point had the simple pleasure of contact turned into deep sexual arousal? Grey-Eye cleaned my chest in intimate circling motions that couldn't have been designed better to stimulate me. As he moved gradually towards the place between my legs, I wondered if he'd carry on all the way. I found myself hoping that he would. But I didn't give him any sign that he was invited, any more than I gave him any sign that he wasn't. A chance to test what kind of person he was.

My belly clean, he stopped and moved onto my legs, then my tail, working from the tip down. Was he not going to touch me, or was he just leaving the best till last? Surely he must be able to see that I was aroused?

At last, with only one area left to clean, and the one I most wanted him to, he stopped, patting me on the hip to let me know he was done. Disappointed, I flipped back onto my feet and cleaned it myself, using my tongue to lap around my needy slit. So, Grey-Eye, I thought, you're a gentleman. Or a coward. Or you just don't really like me that much.

"Alright. Your turn."

"But I didn't get muddy. Or, only my feet did."

"Then I'll clean your feet. Left leg up."

He held up a foot and I scrubbed it down vigorously. Of course, by now the water had soaked all the mud off anyway, but I wasn't about to let that stop me.

"And the right."

I cleaned his other foot, noticing a few scars even this far down.

"You must have splattered your belly, too. Turn over."

"But..."

"Over. Now."

I scrubbed at his chest and belly with my talons, pleased to find the skin down here smooth, unscarred and pleasant to the touch. Like he had, I took my time about the job, but had none of his gentleness, stroking him roughly in a way that seemed not to displease him.

I reached a point, approaching the space between his legs, where it might have been polite to stop. Fortunately, I had worse manners than his. I reached down and was immensely relieved to feel the solid shaft of his cock, standing hard and proud outside its slit. He grunted at my touch, and somehow I managed to affect a casual manner and continue cleaning him with my tongue, licking around the base of his shaft without releasing my grip.

"And there was me worrying you didn't really like me. Just shy, are you?"

It was too much to resist. I ran my talons along its length, feeling it from base to tip, measuring it. It was long and slender, with a tapering shape and a satisfying solidity. And it was standing up all for me. Only with reluctance did I let it go.

"Alright, you're all clean. Back on your feet."

He righted himself tremblingly and addressed me.

"I do like you, Echobright. Very much. You probably, ah, know that now. Sorry if I was prudish before. It's just... I was a little bit unsure how far you wanted things to go on our first date."

So he felt he needed to apologise for being a gentleman? There was something about that which I found endearing. But I hadn't finished playing with him yet.

"Date? You think this is a date?"

"It... isn't?"

He sounded uncertain, slightly crushed. Time to put him out of his misery.

"It can't be a date. We haven't even kissed."

"Oh! Well. I suppose we haven't. Shall we...?"

We moved to face each other in the water, his lips so close in front of mine that I could feel the warmth of his breath. And I let my long, thin tongue slip out until its tip touched that of Grey-Eye's doing the same thing. We let the tips play gently and sensuously against each other before extending further, curling our sensitive tongues one about the other in a full hyeloki kiss.

Our tongues moved playfully but intimately: entwining, looping, twisting. Every movement was an all-consuming delight, stroking me deep inside. When we broke apart I felt closer to him than ever, and together we sat side-by-side in the cool water, my wing draped possessively around him as we snuggled close.

He talked, quietly, about small things, as though not paying much attention to what he was saying. I half listened, letting his silvery voice seep into me, idly caressing his shoulder with my tongue.

"When I mentioned you to my friend, Lens-Of-Infamy... from the look on his face, I think he thought you might eat me alive."

Now there was an idea that tickled my fancy.

"Maybe later."

"Why do you have such an abhorrent reputation?"

"It comes from being abhorrent."

"But you're not abhorrent."

I was.

"Not to those who've earned my respect."

"But why be deliberately unpleasant to everyone else? Not everyone is a Cloud-Splitter."

This was the kind of question people usually didn't dare to ask me, with some reason. I liked that he didn't try to skirt around my sore spots.

"Don't tell me you don't understand? How do people look at you?"

He thought about it.

"Ah. Disdain, disgust and pity. And I'll bet they think you can't see it."

I didn't reply, but he had it. Disdain, disgust and pity. I got it from everyone. I preferred fear. At least fear made people respect you. Grey-Eye didn't see me with disdain, disgust or pity. Or fear. At least I hoped not. He spoke again.

"I ran away from it. A long, long way away to where no hyeloki sing through the skies and I was merely alien, not broken."

How tempting! I could see the appeal. But what had brought him back?

"I got lonely."

Loneliness. I'd spent nearly my whole life on my own. I licked his shoulder fondly.

"People warned me not to set my hopes too high on finding a mate. I was starting to think perhaps they were right. That I'd be rejected by everyone, that I was fated to a lifetime of solitude. That no-one would ever take a poor specimen like me."

What? What was he saying? Was he saying that rejection had made him drop his standards? Dropped them so far he was ready to settle for me? Was that it? I stopped licking his shoulder and let him talk.

"But then I met you!"

"Then you met me and what, exactly?"

I'd taken my wing away from him. There was a distance between us again, as I felt doubt reharden my heart. He seemed taken aback by my sudden coldness. Go on, Grey-Eye. Talk. Prove to me that you weren't trying to say what you seemed to be trying to say.

"I just have a feeling, Echobright. A good feeling. We just... fit each other. You make me feel like a person, not the pathetic little cripple I feel around other people."

The words thudded in my ears.

"You arrogant, patronising, presumptuous little scrape of turd!"

I stormed out of the pool, suddenly seething with anger.

"Is that all you think of me, Grey-Eye? Echobright the blind, Echobright the freak, Echobright the laughing stock, the only person you could find so low and contemptible that you could compare yourself to me and feel worthwhile?"

I felt stupid. Stupid for letting my defences down and letting someone close enough to hurt me. Stupid for being taken in by his pretty, lying voice. And when I felt stupid I let it out as anger.

"I... no! I didn't mean..."

"You really were desperate, weren't you? When you'd been rejected by every normal female available, was it finally time to resort to me? After all, I'm clearly swimming so low in the dating pool that I'd jump at any offer, even from a poor specimen like yourself. Was that how it was?"

"No! I..."

"Well let me tell you, Grey-Eye, I have standards, and you're just not up to them. If I take a mate, it'll be someone I respect, and who respects me, not a sad little worm who sees me as the only fruit hanging low enough to be within reach!"

There were tears in my eyes. I tried to hold them back but I couldn't.

"But I do resp-..."

"Shut up! Just shut up, and leave me alone in future!"

I ran and launched myself into the air, not even bothering to echolocate to see if anything was in my path. Beating my wings as hard as I could, I pushed myself up, up, into the sky, to where I knew Grey-Eye couldn't follow me, to where I was far enough away that I knew he couldn't hear me weep.

* * *

I sat deep in my cave, my back to the outside world. I'd run out of anger, and all that was left was sadness. Sadness that Grey-Eye, just like everyone else, had had so little regard for me. Sadness that I'd been so taken in. Sadness that I'd probably never see him again.

I was disturbed from the mire of my sorrow by the sound of wingbeats landing at the mouth of my cave. I had a visitor. I never got visitors. Just for a moment I caught myself hoping it was Grey-Eye and squashed the feeling ruthlessly. Besides, I remembered, he couldn't fly.

People stayed away from my cave, and I wanted it to stay that way. Indignant, I rushed to the entrance, teeth and talons bared, and snarled at my uninvited guest.

"Who are you? Get your worthless body off my territory before I do it piece by piece!"

An unfamiliar male voice answered, wavering and uncertain.

"Easy there, Echobright, you don't know me but I'm Lens-Of-Infamy, and I'm a friend of Grey-Eye."

"What, he sent someone else to try and do his apologising for him? Get out of here and tell him I'm not listening!"

He was clearly terrified. I could practically hear him trembling. But to my surprise he rallied, overruling his fear to shout at me.

"You will listen! He did not send me, he doesn't even know I'm here! But I know exactly where he is. He's on his way here. And when he gets here, you are going to listen to him. Now, he didn't tell me what happened, but between his loose tongue and your extreme prickliness it really isn't hard to guess the outline of it. For the life of me I can't see why, but Grey-Eye adores you. And I don't care for your sake if you're too stubborn and self-obsessed to see it, but for his sake, I'm telling you that if you break his heart, I shall rip out yours, do you understand me?"

I was stunned. The male was standing right in front of me, within easy range of my bared fangs, and yet had shouted and threatened me. There weren't many people who would do that. It made me respect him. It made me believe him.

"Are you finished?"

"Yes I am. Can I run away now please?"

"Not until you understand that my home is open to you from now on, Lens-Of-Infamy."

There was a pause while he seemed to digest the offer of friendship.

"Alright. Thank you, Echobright."

I turned away as he dropped into the sky. His words wheeled through my mind. Grey-Eye adores you. Could it be true? Had I been too quick to assume that he thought so little of me? Was I just habitually accustomed to assume that about everyone? The words stubborn, self-obsessed and prickliness all rankled. They rankled because they were, however I looked at it, true.

But five words echoed so strongly around my head they almost blocked out all the rest. He's on his way here. Grey-Eye was coming to me? Up here? Without flight? To my cave half-way up a mountain?

There was a scrabble of loose rocks from outside and the sound of weary panting. I ran to the entrance just as he hauled himself up onto the flat rock outside, limping badly.

"Grey-Eye! You climbed all the way up here, on that leg? Are you daft?"

He caught his wheezing breath long enough to deliver an impassioned speech, in bursts.

"Yes, probably, but I have something to say. No, don't interrupt me. You're unlike anyone I've ever met. You're not 'low in the dating pool'. You're flying so high above it that it's a tiny blue speck below you. You're beautiful, you're smart, you're really sexy. And you've got so much natural dignity and grace that the whole world seems faded and clumsy next to you. I don't care if I have to drag myself up a hundred mountains. I want to warm my heart under your wing. Yours, and no-one else's. Echobright, I want to curl up beside you and never leave. Maybe this is early for me to say this, but I honestly think that I... I'm falling in love with you."

I didn't know what to say. There was nothing to say. I raised a wing, a clear signal that he should come into its welcoming embrace.

He stepped towards me, and I heard his right leg cave under him, sending him toppling to one side. Lunging forwards, I caught him as he fell.

"Are you hurt?"

"I'm alright, it's just my dodgy leg. I just need to..."

"You need to lie down. Come on."

I guided him back into my cave, him limping along, leaning on me so heavily that I was almost carrying him. My home twisted into the solid rock until it reached my bed chamber, a small cosy space deep enough into the hill to be sheltered from the weather, the seasons, even from the sounds of the outside world. Within this chamber there was only me and him; the rest of the world we could forget about.

A carefully tended mound of earth and mosses formed my bed. I lay Grey-Eye down unresistingly, lying him on his good side, somewhat curled so that his head rested close to the tip of his tail.

"Are you comfortable?"

"No. Not yet. I'm still missing a big sexy female wrapping her wing around me."

Even in extreme weariness he was still taking time to charm me. I lay myself down beside him (I'd never intended to do anything else) with my belly pressed against the curve of his back and my head close behind his own. I let a wing and one leg drape over him, and moved my tail to twist around his.

It was a moment of perfection, with Grey-Eye lying warm and tender in my embrace, on my bed, his breath rising and falling slowly, peacefully. My tongue lapped his side, feeling the confusion of old scars that marred it. I'd intended to let him fall asleep under my wing immediately, but curiosity got the better of me.

"Grey-Eye, what happened to you?"

There was a long pause, and I thought for a moment that he wouldn't answer, but then he let it out, reluctantly, as though it hurt to talk about it.

"I was a pilot."

"Really? As in, aeroplanes?"

"Big shiny silver ones."

"I've never met a pilot before."

"Well you rarely even see aeroplanes around these parts. It's one of the reasons I came here. But in noisier parts of the world, we hyeloki are quite in demand as pilots. It's our natural flying instincts."

"It sounds exciting."

"Oh, it was! I was quite full of myself back then. I was young, I was pretty, and I flew aeroplanes all over three continents. And I had a mate. She was young and pretty too, and she was also a pilot."

So he'd been someone's mate, long back in his past? That was interesting. I felt a silly surge of jealousy.

"So what happened?"

"Remember the six days war?"

"Vaguely."

"Well, we got caught in the middle of it."

"Wait, were you a military pilot? I can't imagine you as a warrior."

"I wasn't. We flew passengers. But we got commandeered to fly an emergency evacuation flight. Half-way to safety, with a plane overcrowded with passengers, and we got shot down. Took a blow to the cockpit, right-wing side. That's what gave me all these exciting scars."

I felt his damaged wing cringe under mine, as though from remembered pain.

"And the passengers...?"

"Landed safely. By some miracle, both me and the plane had just - just - enough function left after the impact to perform a crash landing. Quite a few injuries but only one fatality. To be honest I can't even remember doing it. I think I was barely conscious. Anyway, that was the last time I ever flew. In an aeroplane or otherwise."

"And your mate? Didn't she support you?"

"She was the one fatality."

Oh, Grey-Eye! I felt sorry for her death, sorry that he'd had to lose someone he loved in such dreadful circumstances. I caught another part of me feeling glad that she had died, freeing him up for me. I stamped on the thought. It was callous.

Realising that a response was needed to a revelation like this, and not knowing what to say, I kissed him, our tongues entwining languidly but sensuously.

Minutes passed by in stillness and silence. The only motion was the gentle rhythm of our breathing and my tongue still intermittently stroking his side. I wished he wasn't so tired, because I wanted him to make love with me. But he'd just climbed a mountain to see me, and I needed to let him sleep. And that's what I would have done, had I not been feeling exceptionally selfish.

"I know you're tired, but I want to keep you awake just a little longer."

I licked the back of his neck with my tongue, slowly and intimately enough to let him know the kind of thing I had in mind.

"You can keep me up as long as you like, so long as you keep doing that."

Happy to have his permission for keeping him from his sleep, I ran a series of long, lavish licks up the back of his neck, letting the mild taste and texture of his skin saturate my mind. As he twisted his neck to face me I moved to licking his more sensitive throat, knowing from a rumbling sigh that I was doing good. But as he moved to lick me in return I pushed him back down firmly. I didn't expect anything from him in his current state of exhaustion. He was to lie back and let me enjoy pleasuring him.

And I certainly did enjoy it. I enjoyed it as I licked his neck, as I eased my talons against his beating chest, as I rubbed my leg slowly against his side, as I let my tail loop lovingly around his. I took immense and deep satisfaction whenever he let out a small moan of tired pleasure. And my own flame of arousal burned within me as I pleasured his body.

After a few luxurious minutes of this, curiosity drove me to reach my talons down to his penis. I was relieved and gratified to find it every bit as solid and erect as it had been earlier in the pool. All my other ministrations fell to a standstill as I riveted my attention to that slender shaft, letting my talons squeeze round its pleasing length.

"You're not so tired that I can't play with this, are you?"

I felt him shake his head and I began stimulating him slowly, relishing the smooth sliding sensation as my talons slipped up and down his shaft. As I worked him we shared a kiss, unreserved and urgent.

My talons paused in their stroking in order to carefully explore the tip of his cock. It was firm and pointed, and liquid seeped copiously from the end. I spread some of this about the whole head with the back of a claw, making it slick.

"Is this good?"

"Yes... yes..."

It had been my desire to carry on until I felt him come in my talons, but then I had an even better idea. I leant over his recumbent form and lowered my snout to just shy of his penis. Flicking out my tongue, I got a stimulating taste of precum, making him whimper.

"How about this?"

"Oh, Echobright..."

Pleased by the first taste, I licked the head again, wiping it clean of liquid. My tongue flashed out again, only to find that more liquid had already seeped out to replace it. Grey-Eye wriggled under me.

Of course, licking wasn't enough. I meant to consume him. I moved to close my jaws over just the head, relishing the solid feel of it held between my tongue and the roof of my mouth. For a while I toyed with it, letting my tongue flow around it, careful not to let my sharp teeth touch it. He whimpered in an endearing way and I let my muzzle slide forwards around him. I felt his shaft slip deeper and deeper inside me, wondering if I could take the whole length, until my lips reached the base just before the tapered tip reached my throat.

He was inside my mouth! For a moment I simply held him there, excited by the throbbing size of him, wondering what I should do with him now he was in there. I tried sliding my tongue up and down his length but keeping my head still. This raised a few interesting noises of pleasure from Grey-Eye, but didn't satisfy me. So I started drawing my whole muzzle back and forwards around him, which was better for me, and by the way he quivered and shook under me, better for him too. I wondered hungrily what it would feel like, when he let loose inside me.

I was surprised at first when he joined in, thrusting his hips to make his cock slide even faster back and forth within my mouth. But when I realised how much I enjoyed this, and how much he enjoyed it, I stopped my own movements entirely and simply let him thrust himself into me, his maleness pumping deeply into my welcoming mouth, faster and faster as he summoned strength even in his exhaustion.

I felt it as he came. First there was the convulsive shudder that passed through his body, then the hot flood of his orgasm filling my mouth with burst after salty burst. I held him as he came down trembling from the heights of ecstasy, my own sex screaming at me for its own release, and drew my mouth away from his cock, licking it clean as I did. The mouthful of his seed I kept there, savouring the strange taste, until he reached over to lick my throat tenderly; just at that moment I swallowed, knowing that he'd feel me doing it, that he'd know I hadn't spat his gift to me away.

I yearned for him to attend to my own ravenous needs, but knew that in his current state I could ask nothing more of him. Instead I lay his head down on the bed and draped my wing over his body, feeling him fall softly into a deep, deep sleep.

Only when I was certain he was well past the point of waking did I tend to myself. It was with huge relief that I at last let my tongue slip between the lips of my sex. I lapped in and out in well-practised motion, bringing me efficiently towards a climax. I kept a wing drooped over Grey-Eye's sleeping form the whole time, synchronising my lapping rhythm to the rise and fall of his steady breath. And as I came I suppressed the shrieking cry that tried to escape me, in case I woke him.

The job done, I lay down entwined with my slumbering lover, holding him tightly to me, and joined him in sleep.

* * *

I must have slept for a long time, but when I awoke, Grey-Eye was still asleep. Sleeping off his climb up here to be with me, I thought, as I felt his chest rise and fall under my wing. And our hunting trip. And the lovemaking I practically inflicted on him.

Gently, ever so gently so as not to wake him, I stroked my tongue across his skin. I noticed what seemed like a contented sigh in amongst his breaths, as though my touch were penetrating through into his dreams. Did he dream of me? When I felt his wing twitch, was he dreaming of wrapping it around me? When I felt his tail curl, was he dreaming of entwining it with my own?

Awake, I dreamed of him. Not just of sex, although that was never far from my mind. There were also dreams of waking in each other's embrace, of singing together into the endless sky, of soaring together through the air, chasing and diving, the whole world below us. It didn't matter, in a dream, that he could not fly.

As I carried on with my gentle caress I realised, without quite knowing how, that he'd woken up. Perhaps it was just a change in his breathing. He didn't give any obvious outward sign; in fact, I was sure he was pretending to still be asleep. Perhaps he imagined I'd stop stroking him if I knew otherwise.

"It's a shame you're still asleep, right when I want to give you the first kiss of the morning."

I'd spoken in the slightest whisper, but immediately he came to life and we locked tongues tenderly.

"Mmm, that's a great thing to wake up to. When do I get the second kiss of the morning?"

"When you get your lazy carcass off my bed and out of my cave, of course."

I gave him a playful lick on the nose, stood up, and left him; climbing through the narrow passage of my cave until I felt the cool morning breeze whisper over my skin. As I'd expected, I didn't have to wait long for Grey-Eye to appear at my side, and we each wrapped a wing around the other before I gave him the promised second kiss.

"Sing with me, Grey-Eye."

There was a pause, as though he were embarrassed.

"I haven't joined in the Song since my first mate died."

"Then forget the Song. Just sing with me."

I didn't wait for an answer but began to sing. I sang a wild and leaping melody that carried all my recent joy, excitement and hope. After a few solo passages I heard Grey-Eye join his voice with mine, cautiously at first, just an echo of my own song, but then gaining in confidence and volume. He harmonised with me, elaborating on my motifs and handing them back to me sweeter than before. Oh, and he was good! Such a lyrical and inventive voice; he was just possibly almost as good a singer as I was. The Song had lost much from his long silence.

Together we sang and sang, as loud as our lungs could bear, our notes a tangled and sensuous kiss of sound, our songs entwining tighter and tighter until they almost seemed to merge into one brilliant soaring melody.

Quite suddenly and simultaneously, we stopped. But our music didn't stop. To my surprise I heard our final melody still echoing vibrantly in the complex weave of the Song. We had sung so well that the Song had had to join in with us. Together we listened to our music as it mutated and evolved and finally dispersed into the wider ecosystem of sound.

"Your leg feeling better after all that sleep?"

"Not just my leg, Echobright. All of me feels marvellous! Is your cave blessed with healing powers? Or is it just that you know exactly how to hold me to soothe all my aches and strains? Either way, a few more nights' sleep like that and I feel I could regain even my long-lost power of flight."

"And your pretty talk might just help cure my dead eyes. Describe for me what you can see right now."

I didn't know what it looked like, the view from my mountainside home. I knew what was in each direction, and how far, but all I had in my mind was a map. I couldn't imagine being able to see it all stretched out in front of me.

"Oh Echobright, if only you could see it, it's exquisite. The curve of your back, the sweep of your neck, the beauty of your jaw leading to the tantalising..."

"Grey-Eye! You know full well I didn't mean me. You have a devilish mind and a tongue that spits out the most trite, syrupy nonsense I've ever heard. Never, ever change."

His next question took me by surprise.

"Have you always been blind?"

He'd given me his story. For me, there was less to tell.

"No. When I was very young my eyes were fine, but then I got sick, and the disease took my sight. I can't remember what it was like to see."

"That may be the best way. I can still remember flying vividly and it pains me. It was always just a part of life I took for granted until I lost it, and now I yearn for the feel of wind rushing under my wings."

I remembered my waking dream of us soaring through the air together. A dream never to be. Unless...

"But you can still glide?"

"Yes, if I climb up somewhere high I can glide back down to the ground. But it means a lot of climbing for very little time in the air."

"Could you glide from here?"

From the edge where we stood, the ground dropped away almost vertically.

"Yes, easily. With a few good thermals I might even make it all the way into town."

"Off you go then."

And before he had time to react I pushed him bodily over the edge.

I heard him yelp in astonishment as he fell, followed by the soft whoosh of spread wings hitting the air as he sorted himself out into a glide. Immediately I jumped off after him, unfurling my wings as I fell into a controlled dive.

I could hear him in the air ahead of me. Awkwardly, on imperfect and unbalanced wings, I heard him whoop and shriek as he turned and dived and soared chaotically in the air, with all the unbound enthusiasm of a child dropped into the sky for the very first time. And all the time he was losing height, drawing inevitably closer to the ground.

Click-click-click-click-click. I showered him with sonar as I homed in to intercept, but I hardly needed to, because he screamed out to me through the howling wind.

"Echobright! You crazy, unpredictable, outrageous, sexy thing! I'd be really angry if I wasn't having so much fun right now!"

"Shut up and watch out, I'm coming in on top of you."

It was an awkward manoeuvre. I had to line myself up directly over him, matching position and speed, and then drop down carefully.

"What? What are you doing? Hey..."

I grabbed him. My legs found a purchase just behind his wings and held on tight, my feet gripping his belly, binding us into a single unit. I beat my wings, pushing us both forwards. And upwards.

"Oh! This can't possibly work! But it is! We're flying! Higher! Faster!"

I could give Grey-Eye back the flight he yearned for. I just had to carry him. He screamed in exultation as I strained myself to fly just as fast and high as we could.

"Keep your wings out! I can't do this if you're dead weight."

"Sorry! Wheeee! Hey, you've stopped echolocating, how do you know where you're going?"

I didn't. This kind of high flying was something I usually could never do; I had long ago lost all track of where we were or which direction we were going in.

"I don't. You do. Pilot me, pilot."

"Oh! Right. Sorry. Left a bit. Bit more. Fine. Angle down just slightly. Let's do a flyover of the town."

Grey-Eye's one working eye between the two of us was more than compensation for the extra weight. Flying blind was, perhaps surprisingly to most people, easier than walking blind. There were simply less things to hit in the air, although when you hit them you hit them a lot faster. The main problem was navigation. Echolocation only worked to recognise landmarks at very low altitude, and flying into unknown territory was always an unnerving ordeal. But as long as I had Grey-Eye with me, he could always guide me home.

We dropped down until we were approaching the little town. I could hear its noisome bustle, could smell its diverse stink.

"Here we go, level off, keep it straight. Wheeee! There's my home!"

He whistled a greeting to someone below, and I wondered if it could be his stout-hearted friend, Lens-Of-Infamy.

"This is amazing, I'd forgotten flying was so much... up, up, pull up! NOW!"

Sensing the emergency in his voice, I veered upwards as hard as I could - not as hard as I'd have liked with Grey-Eye weighing me down - and felt my feet brush the topmost leaves of trees where they gripped onto his belly. I snapped at him for his inattention.

"Pay attention or you'll kill us both!"

"Sorry! Oh, damn it. Three old friends on intercept course."

"Who?"

"Disdain, disgust and pity."

I grimaced as I realised who he meant even before I recognised the wingbeats of Cloud-Splitter and her coven falling into formation behind us.

"Oh now what is this? The cripple leading the blind and the blind carrying the cripple? This is just adorable!"

I snarled at her, not wanting her ruining my first flight with my new mate.

"Go find another patch of sky, Cloud-Splitter, or I'll have my mate steer us right at you. We've both got quite a bite, remember?"

"Hey, if you two are going to perform this circus act in broad daylight, don't complain if you get an audience."

I was about to reply with a more explicit and painful threat when Grey-Eye unexpectedly intervened, shouting out in his pleasant, amiable voice.

"Come on Echobright, we don't mind people watching us, do we? In fact, Cloud-Splitter, why don't you go fetch your mate and he can watch as well?"

Ha! So he really did have some vinegar in him when it was needed. I didn't need sight to picture the look on Cloud-Splitter's face before I heard her wheel away without another word. Her two companions lingered just long enough to address us.

"Hey, sorry about her."

"And congratulations. I think you're kind of cute together."

I snapped my head in irritation, but without any real malice.

"Piss off the pair of you."

When they were safely out of earshot I congratulated Grey-Eye for his indiscretion.

"You really hit a sore spot. How did you know she's never been able to find a mate?"

"I just guessed. I can't really imagine anyone being that desperate."

Slowly I was learning to read his directions from slight movements of his body and wings, letting him guide me without shouting up awkward commands.

"Where are we?"

"Right over the low mire, where we caught that loper, a few hundred spans up. I can see it shimmering in the light, looking like a great field of burning gold. We're heading just north of east, toward a big, broad, inviting swathe of bright green grasslands, dotted with trees, rising to our left and merging into the rich forests which bask in the sunlight all over the hills. The town's under us to our right, looking small and sort of lost amongst all the green; little white buildings which sparkle where a sun glances off a chance window. On the far side of that I can see the fields and pastures and roads, a kind of patchwork of neat little lines and squares, all slightly different colours, and beyond them are the higher hills where you live, all bleak and scarred moorland, rising up into the sky, blocking out the red sun and casting a half-shadow over the valley. I really wish you could see it."

"When you describe it so clearly, I think I can. You make it sound beautiful."

"What's below me isn't half as beautiful in my eye as what's above me."

I grunted in pretended displeasure, and bent my neck round for a tender mid-air kiss. Suddenly I was highly conscious of the supple warmth of his body pressed against my underside.

"Alright, find a place to land."

"Down already? Are you getting tired?"

I was, but I could have kept going for a good while longer.

"No. But I need to make love to you and we can't do that in the air."

The disappointment in his voice at the prospect of going down instantly turned into eagerness.

"Down it is then. I see a good spot. Very slightly to the left, and not far ahead..."

To the left, and not far... I thought back to Grey-Eye's description of the view and my own knowledge of the valley. That would put us in the grasslands? As he guided us down the heady scent of pollen confirmed my guess. Now for the tricky part.

"That's it, nothing ahead of you but grass. Just remember I'm underneath you as you land."

I solved the problem of landing by dropping him to glide down on his own, and then landing myself slightly further along, my feet brushing through long grass, slowing me down until I could drop into a run, and then slow to a halt.

My wings furled, I sat down in the grass, facing back to where Grey-Eye must have landed, and waited for him eagerly. A cool breeze caressed the field of long grasses and wild flowers, filling the air with perfume and a gentle rustling whisper. At last I heard footsteps above the whisper, walking - no, running - towards me, crunching and rustling through the vegetation. I sat as still as I could, listening as the footsteps bore down on me without slowing. Just as it seemed he was about to leap into me I pounced, fast, slamming hard into him and knocking him head-over-tail onto his back. Jumping playfully on top of him I ravished his face and neck with kisses, making him laugh and squirm under me.

Soon he took the offensive, trying to lick me right back. I allowed it, feeling his tongue rasp and slide rapidly all over my chin and nose in short, tickling little bursts. I pretended helplessness as he rolled me over onto my back and leapt on top of me, reversing our positions. I even let out a pathetic little mewl as he scoured my throat with his tongue in a particularly wonderful way.

After a little of that, I'd had enough of being submissive. I threw him to one side and we tumbled together, now me on top, now him, each trying to smother the other in kisses, each making half-hearted shows at blocking the other's intentions. We grappled playfully with talons and teeth, grabbing and pulling at whatever part of the other's body came in easy reach, the grass tickling our wings as we rolled through it.

I threw him off me one more time but when I tried to roll on top of him he wasn't there. He whistled teasingly from behind me, and I launched myself after him, pelting through the long grass after the sound of his voice. Certainly I could have caught him quick enough if I'd wanted to, but I let the chase take its time. He led me in playful circles while I crashed cumbersomely after him, grabbing at him when he dashed past me and pretending to lose my grip, feeling his lithe body slip fluidly away from me.

Enough! I wanted him badly, and the next time I felt my talons close around the tip of his tail I held on tight and didn't let go. Grey-Eye tried to flee, but his tail went taut, then there was a short yelp and he flopped down into the grass.

I bent to examine my prize. The tip of his tail was slender and smooth, and it twitched when I licked it.

"What's that you've found there, Echobright?"

"Not sure. It's long and thin and twitchy. It could be a snake?"

"I think you might have caught a tail."

"And is there a horny little male attached to this tail?"

"There most certainly is."

"Good. I need one of those right now. Whoever he is."

I pulled on the tail, and Grey-Eye slid a little towards me. Shifting my grip I pulled again, and he came closer still. I carried on hauling him in, bit by bit, until I ran out of tail and I pounced, leaping onto his back. I licked his face triumphantly and whispered in his ear.

"It seems I've caught myself a Grey-Eye."

"There's not much good eating on me. I'm a scrawny little thing."

"I think you're delicious. But what else could I do with you, apart from eating you?"

"I have an idea, but we need to swap positions."

"But I like this one. It's very comfortable."

He swung his head round to face me and met my tongue with his own. The kiss was perfect: intimate, tantalising, and leaving me hungry for more.

As we kissed I humped myself back and forwards, rubbing my belly across his back. I slid my outstretched wings over his, letting the sensitive leading edges rub one against the other. Our tails twisted and coiled together. One chance loop of his tail rubbed against my needy slit and I leant back into it, yearning for stimulation. He coiled and uncoiled his tail a few times, the warm skin pulsing divinely over that sensitive spot. But it wasn't enough. It wasn't his tail I needed there.

I reached down a talon to find his cock, but I was frustrated. The way he was sat, it was trapped between him and the ground. So I stepped off him and rolled him bodily over, onto his back. Eagerly I lowered my body back down to rest on his, with his wings coming around to embrace me, and now with his cock pressed flat against my belly, long and rigid and sticky.

We shared another urgent kiss, his wingtips massaging my back, before I spoke.

"Touch me."

I knew I didn't have to tell him where. The talons of one foot began moving, tracing gentle patterns over my hip, lingering around the base of my tail before dropping down. As hard as I tried to remain impassive, dignified, I couldn't stop myself from shivering as he traced diminishing ellipses around my genital slit, his claws slipping electrically over my swollen, parted lips.

While his talons were engaged so pleasingly behind me, I let my own slip into the narrow gap between us and grasp his penis. I groped hungrily up and down the shaft, squeezing and stroking the head, picking up so much precum that I could spread it over not just the head but the whole shaft, making it slick and slippery and agreeable to the touch. As my talons touched him, I could feel his own tremble in response as they touched me. But they never stopped in their devotions. Gradually they slid more and more intimately over my responsive flesh until his claws were tracing the very edges of my lips. And then slowly, cautiously, he slipped one inside.

I let out a sigh of blissful contentment as I felt him reach into me, his claw probing just slightly into my drenched sex: not far enough to risk scratching me, but just far enough to work wonders. He ran the blunt edge all the way from the bottom of my slit to the top, pressing against the tender lip to the left. Then, after pausing for a brief moment, he pushed the claw back down from top to bottom, this time pressing against the lip to the right. The slight pressure sent pulses of fiery excitement coursing through me. As he worked I stopped working his cock, mindful not to interrupt him in this delicate task where the slightest jerk could send his claw stabbing into a very tender place in a very painful way. But his claw didn't jerk, and all I felt was pleasure. A slight trickle of my juice escaped from my slit and ran all the way down to my belly, feeling cool and delicious as he rubbed me again in the tenderest way imaginable.

It was with some reluctance that we finally removed our feet from one another's most sensitive areas, our talons both drenched in the other's juices. I offered mine to Grey-Eye to lick clean, and he offered me his in return. And so as he licked his own precum from my claws, I lapped up my own juices from his. The familiar taste somehow more appetising when licked from his talons rather than my own.

We kissed again; did I taste his juice on his tongue or was that my imagination? I pondered, and there was a moment of stillness and quiet between us. Grey-Eye was still pinned beneath me. We lay there, listening to the buzz of insects and remembering the taste of each other's juices on our tongues.

It was time.

"Are you ready to mount me, Grey-Eye?"

"I've never been more ready for anything."

I licked him, from chest to chin in one smooth movement. I felt his cock pulse against my belly.

"Are you ready to push that thing into me?"

"Over and over and over again, Echobright my love."

Again I licked him, even more fervently than before.

"Are you ready to fill me with your seed?"

"Until there's not a drop left in my loins."

Once more I rasped my tongue along his neck, and then I removed myself from his prostrate form, letting him rise shakily to his feet. As he moved to touch me tenderly but intentfully on the hips I leant down obligingly in the tickling grass, resting on my chest, my legs spread wide, my sex exposed to him in clear invitation to mount me, to fill me with his love.

I couldn't see him, of course, but I could feel his tongue playing over my hips, and could imagine him standing behind me, gazing lustfully at my weeping femininity, his cock firm and ready beneath him. I yearned for him to get on with it and climb on top of me, to sink deep inside me, to bring me relentlessly to the point of rapture and flood me with his fertility.

That wasn't what happened. At least, not immediately. Instead I felt a tongue flicker over my most tender flesh. The tongue flicked again, gliding around my slit, lapping up the juices which leaked from it. I moaned in pleasure, then I moaned even louder when I felt his tongue slip between my yearning lips.

The lapping motion of his tongue was cautious at first, but not for long. After the first few tentative motions I felt his his snout nudge against my lips, and now the tongue shot out - all the way - as deep inside me as it would go. I squealed in a most undignified way. Now the tongue seemed to be everywhere inside me, sliding maddeningly up and down, stimulating every sensitive spot I had. I wrapped my tail around his neck as he let his tongue flicker in and out of me, probing me, stimulating me, thrilling me.

It seemed a glorious eternity before he pulled himself away and let his wings rest on my hips. This was it. He folded himself around me slowly and deliberately, his legs wrapping themselves about my own, his chest and neck draping over my back, his penis resting potently between my legs. He licked me softly, right between my wings, and I turned my head to kiss him one last time before he entered me.

"Are you ready, Echobright?"

"No. I'm desperate. Get on with it and fuck me, Grey-Eye!"

"As you command."

He didn't torment me by putting it off any longer. I felt the head of his cock slide up until it nestled between my lips, and then he pushed forwards slowly but forcefully, penetrating me, sliding sumptuously inside me, in and in, until I felt the lips of his slit pressed soft against my own. He was fully inside me, and he felt so good.

My head found his, and rested softly against it, cheek to cheek. We stayed like that as he began to slide himself in and out of me, wonderfully slowly. I could hear his tender, gasping breaths as he pushed into me, as clearly as he must have heard mine.

I thought he'd speed up, was desperate for him to speed up, to fuck me fast and hard. But he didn't. He kept up the slow, slow, tortuously slow, but ever so gratifying pace, drawing out the sensation. He flapped his wings, ever so gently, in perfect rhythm with his penetrations. The slow pace was maddening, but deeply rewarding. It made what could have been a very short if thrilling trip to a climax into a much longer, deeper and immensely more satisfying experience. In and out. In, and out. In... and out. In... and... out.

He seemed even to slow down further as I approached fruition, each thrust slower and more sensuous that the last, each thrust pushing deeper into me, each thrust making me cry out a little louder, each thrust dissolving a little more pleasure into my already supersaturated body. I could hear from his ragged gasping, getting louder and louder, that he was nearing his own release. I yearned that each ponderous thrust might tip me over into orgasm.

Thrust. I felt the pleasure build within me, unbearable, surely bound to overflow at the very next...

Thrust. Even slower, and somehow I held on, my sex on fire with burning sexual pleasure as I yearned for him to...

Thrust. I could feel his trembling, exultant breath, delirious in his rapture, slowing down even further to draw out every possible drop of pleasure from each...

Thrust. I gasped, thinking it had happened, but the wave of ecstasy fell back just short of flooding into an orgasm. Again, I begged him, again, for I knew I would reach a climax at the very next...

Thrust.

I came. We both came, him pouring his plentiful seed deep into me as I exploded around him, as rapture screamed through my every bone. Him gasping his euphoria into the sky as I shrieked and shook uncontrollably. Him injecting himself into me again and again as I convulsed around him. His gasping fading into silence as my orgasm diminished, leaving behind it a warm, measureless fulfilment. His breath panting and weary, and mine much the same, as we shared a spent but satisfied kiss. His cock, its work done, still buried deep inside me.

Sleep called out to me irresistibly in the aftermath of orgasm. And for Grey-Eye as well, for as soon as we were separated he lay down next to me in the grass and curled up under my wing. Sated and sleepy, with my lover tight beside me, I let myself drift into easy unconsciousness.

* * *

I had no way of guessing how long we'd slept, but when I woke it was to find Grey-Eye already awake. He hadn't extracted himself from my close embrace, and we shared another affectionate kiss.

"Have you ever wanted to just fly away, see what's over the horizon? I mean, figuratively, in your case."

I thought about it. It was a big question to spring on someone just after they'd woken up.

"Grey-Eye, I've never even been out of this valley."

"What? Never?"

"Being blind and exploring don't go together well."

"Would it be better if I'm with you?"

"Everything's better when you're with me."

"Aww..."

He nuzzled his snout against my neck.

"Sell it to me, Grey-Eye."

"Just you, and me, flying through the sky together. When we get hungry, we eat whatever we can catch. When we get tired, we sleep wherever we find ourselves. When we get horny, we stop to make love. That... might be quite often. And we can always come back here if we find you... you know... need to settle down for a while."

I let my wingtips play over my belly. That was his subtle way of saying, if I was with egg? The thought of carrying an egg inside me - a child that was half me and half Grey-Eye - almost made me forget the main point of his question. I pondered it some more. Yes, there was an appeal in it. And why not?

"Let's do it."

"We could leave in the morning."

I was determined not to be outdone in romantic impulsiveness.

"We could leave right now."

"Right now? Just fly away?"

"Right now. Pick a horizon, and I'll carry you over it."

I got to my feet and so did he. He hesitated, as though making a difficult decision.

"That one. I mean, the one right behind me, from where you are."

"Good choice. Get ready."

Click-click-click-click-click. I scanned the area about us, finding flat ground stretching out in every direction for some distance. And I ran, faster and faster, leaping out of the grass onto my wings. As soon as I was airborne, and had built up a little speed, I circled back round for Grey-Eye, flying low and fast. He whistled to guide me to him, and as I reached him he was running as fast as he could in the same direction, his wings outstretched.

I grabbed him as he jumped upwards, and pulled him up into the sky with me.