Sky and Sea
A short tale about a whale god and a bird goddess.
2,000 words
Long ago, it happened that Gryssos the god of the sea fell in love with Aelyria the goddess of the sky. In those days Aelyria took the form of a great white bird, and Gryssos that of a sleek black whale.
Gryssos was infatuated with Aelyria from the first moment he saw her. She had spotless white feathers and a majestic curved beak that sliced cleanly through the air. Her wide wings rode the winds so effortlessly that she could fly ten thousand miles without flapping them once if she so minded. He resolved at once never to let her out of his sight. From that day forwards, wherever she flew he would swim after her, safely out of sight - or so he hoped - within the dark ocean depths.
He was quite wrong about being out of sight. Aelyria's keen golden eyes could pierce even the dark ocean murk, and she was well aware of Gryssos' constant presence. It didn't concern her to be so trailed. Quite the opposite, for she was a vain goddess, and her feathers fluffed up in pleasure to be so admired, especially by such a handsome sea god. For Gryssos was a very handsome sea god to her eye, with fine speckled flanks, twinkling black eyes, and a smooth streamlined body that could slip through the water just as easily as she could slip through the air.
"But I wish he wouldn't lurk in the deep dark so," she said to herself. "How can I draw him out? I know. I shall sing."
And so she sang. And the song that trilled from her beak was to her surprise a love song - one of the bright and airy love songs of the sky - by which she first knew that she was in love with Gryssos.
Gryssos heard the love song shimmering through the watery depths, and it touched something deep in his heart. He could not help but sing as well, and the song that boomed from his mouth was also a love song - one of the slow, longing love songs of the sea - by which both of them knew that they were in love with each other.
Gryssos swam higher into the brighter waters, and Aelyria flew lower over the ocean, singing to one another all the while. Eventually Gryssos swam so high that his dorsal fin sliced through the surface, and Aelyria flew so low that her wingtips brushed the ocean's waves. By this time they had stopped singing, and instead murmured sweet nothings to one another.
After a few pleasant aeons of this, both deities knew that it was time to express their love physically. It was Gryssos who first voiced the great quandary: "your place or mine?"
"I certainly cannot go into you ocean," Aelyria replied at once. "It is far too wet, and I cannot swim. You shall have to come into my sky."
"Well I certainly cannot go into your sky," Gryssos responded. "It is far too dry, and I cannot fly. You shall have to come into my ocean."
They bickered back and forth for another aeon, and eventually it was agreed that they would make love in the ocean. Aelyria gazed down uncertainly at the rolling waves. They looked terribly cold and terribly wet, and she struggled for the courage to dive into them.
"Come," said the sea god, "enter my domain, and I shall make sweet love to you, as gentle as the lapping of waves and as eternal as the tides." And to tempt her further he leapt up clean out of the water in a majestic arc, twisting in mid-air to give her a splendid view of his underside with the tapered tip of his penis peeking just teasingly out of his slit, before landing with a mighty splash that filled the air with white spray. Aelyria's lust for him burned brightly, and she folded her wings and dived into the sea.
She floundered at once in the cold water, but Gryssos placed a fin on her wing and guided her down, down into the deep ocean depths where he made his home. There in that dark, quiet place amongst waving weeds and shoals of luminescent fish, he at last embraced his lover. But she squirmed uncomfortably.
"What's wrong, my love?" he asked.
"This place is wrong. It's too cold and too wet, and I cannot hold my breath like you can."
"But we're together at last. Do you not like it when I hold you tight to me like this? Or when I ruffle the feathers of your neck like this? Or when I nuzzle under your tail like this?"
"All those things are wonderful, my love, but I cannot enjoy them properly in this ocean. And I simply must go back to my sky to breathe."
And so Gryssos took her back to the surface, where she took to her wings and had to fly three times round the world before she felt warm and dry once more.
"If you cannot come to my sea," Gryssos said, "then I shall have to come to your sky".
Aelyria led him to a small, remote island where she made her nest on the high clifftops overlooking the sea. Gryssos looked at it uncertainly, his resolve faltering. It looked terribly high and terribly dry.
"Come," said the sky goddess, "enter my domain, and I shall make sweet love to you, as gentle as the whisper of clouds and as eternal as the stars." And to tempt him further she wheeled flirtatiously through the air, before landing gracefully on her rocky perch with a little twist and lift of her tail feathers that gave him a brief but splendid glimpse of what lay beneath. Gryssos' lust for her burned brightly, and he hauled himself out of the sea.
At once he felt enormously heavy and cumbersome, but Aelyria shouted encouragement and direction and he heaved himself slowly onto the little beach and up, up until he reached her clifftop nest. There in that high, beautiful place with a view of half the world spread before them, she at last embraced her lover. But he squirmed uncomfortably.
"What's wrong, my love?" she asked.
"This place is wrong. It's too dry and I feel too heavy. I cannot move freely in this place like you can."
"But we're together again at last. Do you not like it when I snuggle up to your flank like this? Or when I stroke your belly with my wings like this? Or when I nose my beak into your slit like this?"
"All those things are wonderful, my love, but I cannot enjoy them properly in this sky. And I simply must go back to my ocean to swim."
And so Gryssos rolled off the high cliff and landed in the water with a mighty splash, where he had to swim three times round the world before his muscles stopped aching and his throat stopped feeling dry.
"If you cannot come to my sky," said Aelyria...
"And if you cannot come to my sea," said Gryssos...
"...then we must meet on the border of our realms," Aelyria concluded.
Gryssos embraced this idea eagerly, and rose to the surface, where he floated with his back and dorsal fin clean out of the water. Aelyria immediately descended to land precisely on his back with a great flap of her wings.
"Are you quite comfortable, my love?" she enquired. "My talons are not hurting you?"
"Not at all. And you, my love? You are not getting wet?"
"Not at all." For the pair of them - being sea god and sky goddess - had let the waves and wind fall quite calm, and the sea's surface was as clear and still as a placid pool, except where Gryssos' fins caused ripples to spread out in slow circles.
"Only," Aelyria said, "I would ask one thing of you."
"Anything."
"I'd ask you to turn over. If we're to make love, your equipment can't be underwater."
Gryssos laughed and spun about in the water so that his underside was pointing upwards; Aelyria jumping aloft for a few moments before landing back on her lover, her talons planted either side of his genital slit.
Their foreplay lasted for seven days and seven nights. Aelyria touched Gryssos in every way that a goddess can touch a god. Her beak nipped and nuzzled at his fins and flanks. Her wings tickled his throat. And her talons took firm hold of his long tapered phallus, which stood proud out of his slit, curving like a breaking wave. She stroked and squeezed that great shaft until it seeped a fluid as salty as the sea, and Gryssos let out deep whines and whistles of pleasure that echoed through the whole ocean.
He for his part pleasured Aelyria in every way he was able, although the need to float inverted and still at the waterline stopped him from doing as much as he would have liked. But his voice whispered sweet compliments. And his fins preened gently through her soft white feathers. And the pointed tip of one fin quested under her tail feathers and found the warm softness of her vent, which opened gladly to welcome him. He probed and pampered that holy orifice until it was damp and warm and twitching in readiness, and Aelyria let out squawks and warbles of pleasure that echoed through the whole sky.
Finally it was time for their true coupling to begin, and Aelyria positioned herself in front of her lover's member, tail feathers raised, her legs spread wide. Gryssos twitched his phallus and angled its tip to rest against the heat of her vent. The two gazed passionately into each other's eyes - her golden ones and his black ones - as she eased her weight backwards, letting the narrow tip part and penetrate her feathered rear.
Aelyria was larger than any mortal bird, but she was still much smaller than Gryssos, who was after all a whale, and a very large and well-endowed one at that. But neither doubted her capacity to take his phallus, for despite her relative size she was also a goddess. And so as she pushed her weight backwards, Gryssos' slick shaft disappeared inch by inch into the luxurious tightness of her egg passage, until all of it was inside and her feathered loins pushed against his blubbery ones.
The sky goddess spread her great wings wide, and began to beat them slowly up and down. As her wings moved, so did she, lifting her partly off and then back down onto the sea god's phallus with every beat. Gryssos moaned in ecstasy at the heavenly sensation of the goddess' passages sliding over his godhood and began to pulse his midsection up and down in rhythm with her wingbeats. Aelyria trilled in bliss at the divine sensation of the god's shaft spearing deep within her goddesshood and beat her wings a little harder and faster.
Their coupling lasted for a full turn of the moon, without pause. As the days passed by Aelyria's shrieking cries grew louder and louder, as did Gryssos' booming whistles. The sea and sky whipped up into a whirling tempest. The place where they mated - in the eye of the storm - remained calm, but Aelyria's beating wings and Gryssos' thrashing tail swirled the rest of the sea and sky into greater and greater agitation. By the time they reached their climax it had built into the mightiest maelstrom the world had ever seen.
They arrived at exactly the same moment. The sky goddess shuddered, her insides clenching around the sky god's shaft, just as that shaft twitched and spewed. Gryssos and Aelyria fell quiet and still - too overcome with pleasure to squawk or thrash - and stared into each other's eyes as he let loose his load inside her in hot spurts of holy seed. Again and again he spurted, fountaining into her, filling her, overflowing, seeping through her feathers and over his flanks to lie in white streaks across the ocean.
Their lovemaking complete, Gryssos and Aelyria fell into a deep and satisfied sleep that lasted a year. They slept just as they were, with the bird goddess lying on the soft belly of the upturned whale god. As they slept, the seas fell still and the winds fell quiet. And when they awoke at last, they started their lovemaking all over again.
This all happened a long time ago. But Gryssos and Aelyria are still very much in love. You'll never see them, for they do not let themselves be seen by mortal eyes. But if you are ever at sea, and have the misfortune to find yourself in a particularly fierce storm - the kind where the sea and sky are so churned up you can hardly tell one from the other, and strange voices seem to scream through the air and water - you can be sure that they're at the heart of it. Somewhere nearby, in the eye of the storm, the sea god Gryssos and the sky goddess Aelyria are making love.