by Lena Austin
“I’ve come to apologize and talk with you, Teema,” rumbled a feminine voice with a Gryphonic accent.
Teema looked up into the dinner-plate sized eye of Nin-Kaa. “Why do you want to talk to me? Why do you wish to apologize? You weren’t the brainless oaf I turned into an ass.”
Nin-Kaa chuckled in the trilling way of Gryphons. “The brainless oaf is my son, and Kella has explained to us what you found offensive. I’m sorry, my dear, that we seemed heartless. Especially since that bundle of catnip in your hands tells me you do love the brainless oaf.” Nin-Kaa sat down beside Teema, her one visible eye winking.
Teema looked down at the catnip in her hands. There was no sense hiding it now. “Yes’m. I do love him,” she sighed. “I’ve been hopelessly in love with him for years. That is why I repeatedly refused to rejoin the pack. Aahz is a fine pack leader, but I’m…” She shrugged. “Uninterested is perhaps the best word.” Teema looked down at the pack lands, easily visible from the cliff. It was so dark and peaceful there among the trees. Why wasn’t it home to her?
“Let me see if I understand. You can correct me if I am wrong, no?” Nin-Kaa put her beak into the wind and breathed deeply. “First and foremost, you want the emotion of love, if you can get it. Passion, if you can’t. Correct?”
Teema nodded. “Yes, I do. Mama Kella has taught me love matters most. Moreover, I am a Werewolf. At a minimum I expect desire before I lift my tail for a male, but I’d rather get love.” It was so strange to have a conversation on this subject with Nin-Kaa. It was so clinical and orderly, it was as if they discussed not emotions but response patterns in prey animals.
“Ah! That can happen, I think. There is more than this, no?”
“Lionel wants kittens, doesn’t he?” Teema put her chin back on her knees.
“Cubs, yes, he wants those. I think he is wanting fatherhood very much.” Nin-Kaa turned her head and caressed Teema’s cheek with the tip of her beak. “Your solution is simple. If you are not objecting to cubs and wish to attract Lionel, you must become a Gryphoness. You will have his passion at minimum, possibly his love, and his cubs, if you desire them.”
Teema jumped to her feet still clutching the catnip. “I want him to love me for myself, not a form I can become!”
Nin-Kaa didn’t move, but she gryph-grinned and her eyes gleamed. “Ah, but he is male. He thinks first with his groin. You attract him first, win his lust, and his heart will follow. Why do you think Gryphon males are called cocks, hmm?”
Teema stood there in shock. Such a word never passed Kella’s lips, yet the truth was there. The humor of it bubbled up until she laughed. “Is that how you wedded Ayshen?” she giggled.
“Ours was an arranged marriage. Our population is too small for love matches. Nevertheless, I was determined that Ayshen would care for me. I snuck away from my parents’ nest and flew aerobatics. He did not resist me,” she purred. “He strutted, and displayed while I pretended disinterest. When he could stand it no more, I allowed him the privilege of my body.” Nin-Kaa chuckled and they shared a look of feminine mystery. “You must do something similar. Lionel already favors you, since you were his sole choice, and spoken without thought. Now we must see to it you win his lust. You must become a Gryphon and fly.”
“I’ve never mastered an avian form,” Teema sighed.
“We are not truly avian, my dear,” Nin-Kaa pointed out, and stood. “Take a good look. Four feet and fur, like a feline, begin it all. Your natural form has four feet and fur. Start there. We must work on wings and a proper Gryphon face once you become feline. Gradually is the way.”
Teema studied Nin-Kaa’s form from chest to tail. “Feline, I may manage. Let me try.” She relaxed into her usual gray lupine form, with tail wagging. “What have I got to lose?” she mind-spoke. After but one failure, a gray-brown lioness stood where a wolf once stalked.
“You are an unusual color, but that is to the good. Do not change that,” Nin-Kaa said with satisfaction. “Walk around for a moment, and feel the grace of movement.”
Teema walked carefully away from the edge, and then with more surety. “Oh, my! Everything flows from one movement to the next. Oh, this feels so good!” When she stopped and returned to Nin-Kaa’s side, her purr rumbled and matched Nin-Kaa’s own purr. The bundle of catnip tempted her nose, but Nin-Kaa swatted gently at the catnip, and put it between her paws.
“It would make you drunk right now, my dear. We’ve too much to do to indulge. We will celebrate with it after you have wings and a beak to resist it. Now let us start with the wings. Try on your own first. It is better if you do it without me transforming you.”
“It is no wonder Lionel likes it. I can even smell it from here. Yes, let me try first.”
The first attempt wasn’t a good one, or the second. The third was very close indeed -- enough that they decided a small bit of Nin-Kaa’s magic would finish the job. “My little bit of help will see to it you experience and know the shape of a Gryphon. You will be able to do it again thereafter.”
A small flash of magic passed between them. Teema immediately felt the difference. Her wings, once heavy, were lighter, though they remained the gray and brown that matched her fur. Her eyesight sharpened, and elicited a gasp from the Gryphonic beak. “Every blade of grass is in sharp focus!” she cried, and ran to the cliff edge. “Oh, look how far I can see! There’s a rabbit in the meadow! It looks tasty! There’s Mama Kella in her garden. Oh, her red dress looks so bright!”
“Yes, Teema. You see with a Gryphon’s sight now. Your instincts are that of a Gryphon fledgling that has not yet flown, though your wings are fully feathered. It is time to learn to fly. Are you ready for your first lesson?”
Teema’s young Gryphoness beak gaped with a smile. “Oh, yes, ma’am!”
Nin-Kaa chuckle-trilled, and Teema for the first time heard the true range of Gryphon speech, well above what even she heard as a lupine. “Then let us hope I can get you in the air in an hour or two. Look by the lake and tell me what you see.”
Teema did as commanded, and beheld Lionel enjoying a splashing Gryphon bath near the lakeshore. She’d watched him from the shore many times throughout their childhood, and knew the fountain of water a bathing Gryphon created. His favorite sunning rock for drying his feathers was nearby, and if he followed his usual pattern, he’d sun for the next several hours. Her purr and swishing tail were all the answer Nin-Kaa needed.
“We will make my son lust for a flying Gryphoness soon enough. One he does not know, and can’t have. He has made his choice, and for honor must abide by his decision. You will arouse him, and then you will…” Nin-Kaa whispered the plan to her future daughter-in-law. “You can do this, yes?”
Teema trilled her laughter. “Oh, yes! I can do that.”
“Then let us begin your lesson! Open your wings. I will not let you take to the air until I am assured you will not fall. We have much to do in the space of an hour or two!”
* * *
Lionel rolled over onto his back, so the underside of his wings caught the late afternoon sun. He took a nap on his sunning rock, and the sun baked the last of the tiredness from his body. He knew he looked silly with his belly to the sky. Teema used to tell him that often enough while she sunbathed naked beside him in her human form, with a blanket beneath her. His tail flopped in agitation.
Her shadowy brown hair was lighter then, when they were innocent adolescents who used the lake and rock often. The sun bleached the brown to a dark gold, and her gray eyes turned to silver in the light.
Lionel remembered his adolescent lust for Teema. Even before he’d finished maturing, he’d gone to great lengths to prevent her from seeing it. Even now, he felt the familiar tightening. She’d teased him often enough about staying exclusively in Gryphon form, and didn’t know it was for her own protection that he used his human form so rarely. Humans were always in season, and his cock would often rise without warning. At least in Gryphon form such things were hidden from view merely by sit
ting.
“And now you’ve bungled it, old bird,” he said to himself. “You’ve insulted the one female in the valley who might be queen to your cock. Moreover, I don’t know how to make amends.”
He was perversely both glad and sorry Brolly and Shadow had a birthing to attend in the Herd. He wouldn’t see them until tomorrow at the earliest. Unicorn births were notoriously difficult and slow. Shadow would laugh at his folly and Brolly would suggest hunting up another female.
A shadow and movement caught his eye, flashing in and out of the sun behind him. It was too small to be a Dragon, and too large to be a Harpy. Perhaps one of his family flew around. Even Nin-Kaa’s interfering nosiness was welcome. She’d at least understand he hadn’t meant to insult Teema. She, as a queen, might have a suggestion or two! He leapt to his feet.
Lionel sat down hard when he got a good look at the Gryphoness flying in and out of the clouds and sun. It wasn’t Nin-Kaa, or his sister. Whoever this was, he didn’t know her. By all the gods, this queen was stunning! She was gray and brown in the most unusual patterns he’d ever seen! It wasn’t goshawk patterns marked in the feathers of her wings, or any of the great predator birds, but a beauty so unique there were no words for it. His beak gaped open and his tongue lolled out. He shut his beak with a snap, but didn’t bother to try to control his tail, which flopped around like a fish.
Whoever this queen was, she flew for the sheer joy of being in the air. Often she didn’t bother to tuck her legs for more aerodynamic flight, but rather ran in the air as if it were solid ground. It wasn’t the most efficient way to fly but it was more artistic.
Lionel couldn’t control his physical reaction any more than he could control his instinctive need to go into full display. This queen aroused his lust as well as his interest in a way that defied description. His wings snapped open, his feathers fluffed, and he found himself poised to leap into the sky before he shook himself to awareness.
“Hold on, old bird. You made your choice,” he muttered regretfully to himself. “No graceful queen with pretty feathers will make you lose your honor.” Lionel paced back and forth on his rock and fought the desire to meet a beautiful Gryphoness in the air. “Teema is worth ten times a momentary flirtation.” He repeated that like a mantra, until she landed in the grass before his rock.
The Gryphoness put her head to one side and studied Lionel as he paced and tried not to display. “My, what a handsome cock you are!” she purred.
Lionel backed up as she walked closer and put her front paws up on his rock. This strange Gryphoness was oddly forward in her interest. She even crossed her paws, as a human might cross their arms on the table. This wasn’t correct at all! Wasn’t he the one who was supposed to interest a lady? “I… I… um… Hello,” he stammered.
“Hello yourself,” she gryph-grinned. “Well, if you won’t invite me up, I shall invite myself.” With that bold statement, she leapt up upon the rock and sidled up to rub her body along the entire length of Lionel’s body.
Lionel backed up so hard and so fast, he nearly fell off the rock, but scrambled at the last minute to save himself from an ignominious landing. He thought fast and made the sound that was the equivalent of a human clearing their throat. “I’m done with this rock now. You are welcome to sunbathe upon it if you wish. I’ll… I’ll just go now.”
“Don’t you find me attractive?” The Gryphoness sprawled full-length out on the rock and gave a stretch that made Lionel damn his honor while he vowed desperately to keep it intact.
Lionel decided he needed to be honest. Surely, this Gryphoness understood a vow and wouldn’t defile it. “Yes, lovely queen, I do find you attractive. However, I’m vowed to another. Please don’t tempt me further, I beg.”
The Gryphoness sat up and was serious. “You must love her very much then, do you not?” She tilted her magnificent eagle head to one side, just as a human might.
However improper the question was, Lionel felt it only honest to answer “Yes,” and he felt his feathers slick down. “But she doesn’t love me.” His head hung for a moment, and then he snapped, “Oh, leave me to my misery!” He was in the sky and flying home before he realized it.
* * *
Teema chuckled to herself as she stretched out on the rock. “So, your mother knows you well after all. Most encouraging. Since her plan works, I’ll prepare myself for phase two.” She spread her wings and flew off to where Nin-Kaa waited.
Chapter 3
Lionel lay down in his nest with his feet propped on the edge, and his arms under his head. Under normal circumstances, he enjoyed the special bed Kella made for him out of linked pillows filled with his own feathers from previous molts. It was the shape of a nest, but was infinitely more comfortable than sticks poking him in soft spots of his anatomy. However, this afternoon his temper was so foul, no creature comfort softened his mood.
“Lionel!” came a shout from the entrance. Brolly and Shadow stood silhouetted in the late afternoon light. They didn’t wait for Lionel’s permission, but as usual stepped right on in. Once Brolly got a good look at Lionel, he remarked, “It’s worse than we thought it’d be, Shadow. Well, what brothers would we be if we didn’t try to cheer you up?”
“Alive brothers?” Lionel growled.
Brolly laughed and dumped his basket on the floor. The tantalizing smell of roasted meat made Lionel sit up and look much more interested in the basket. “You might continue breathing awhile longer. Is that Kella’s roast boar I smell?”
“And honey cakes baked by her own hands. She threw our sisters out of the kitchen when she realized you’ve not tasted home cooking in the many months since you left.”
Shadow retrieved his own dinner, a huge bowl of some nauseating looking salad. Lionel carefully didn’t look at him. Lionel was one of the few of the family who got sick when he ate most vegetables, though bread-like items were possible in small amounts.
He fell to eating, and used the plates and forks Brolly found in his tiny cabinet. He generously shared the meat with Brolly, and divided the honey cakes equally.
“Come join us in a glass of wine after you finish that, Lionel, won’t you?” Brolly muttered, trying to talk around a mouthful of succulent boar meat.
Soon enough all three brothers enjoyed the wine Shadow provided. The ebullient Brolly was the first to bring up the dreaded conversation topic Lionel feared.
“So! I understand you chose Teema to be your mate, is that correct?” Brolly asked, his voice rich with sympathy.
“Yes, she is my choice. I fear it is an unhappy one. She turned me into an ass. I’m sure you heard about that. Now I wonder at the wisdom of my choice.” He looked at Brolly and complained, “I don’t understand why you Werewolves have to put emotion into what is already a complicated situation. Teema is the most logical choice.” Lionel took another sip of his wine before continuing, “Emotion just clutters up the issue.”
“But that is the issue, isn’t it? We Werewolves are a passionate lot and you can’t change our nature. If Teema is the one you want, you’d better start thinking like a Werewolf and not like a Gryphon. A little passion wouldn’t kill you, you know!”
“But I haven’t the foggiest notion on how to act like a Werewolf! I’m a Gryphon.” Lionel crossed his legs and adjusted his trews. How did one change his nature that far? You were affected by the nature of your form only so far! The spirit within remained the same. He was a Gryphon, no matter what form he took!
Just then, Shadow snickered. “Then I guess you must give him a lesson in Werewolf sex, Furball.”
Lionel felt himself flush, and growled, “Fuck you, Horse Face.”
“You aren’t my type, however much I care for you.” Shadow popped the last leaf of his salad into his mouth and washed it down with a gulp of wine.
Brolly jumped up. “Actually that’s not bad idea. I’ll bet you’ve no idea how we choose our mates, do you, Lionel?”
“Of course not! I don’t do it in the woods like you do.”
>
“No, you do it on the wing in front of everybody who happens to look up! Do you want to hear or don’t you?” Brolly laughed when Lionel raised an eyebrow. “People do look up now and then, you know!”
“I suppose it can’t hurt to learn what Teema expects,” Lionel replied, chagrined. He fiddled with his empty wineglass. It couldn’t be that different. Sex was sex. It was the slippery friction between genitals. Technique was what separated a thinking creature from the beasts.
“First and foremost, it is we males who make the first move and do the choosing. Bitches have no say, though they may indicate interest in one male over another. The pack leader gets first pick of the bitches, and we take what is left for our choices. That is why I don’t run with the pack. I want first choice, not second best.” Brolly gave a snort worthy of Shadow.
“So Teema expects me to be the aggressor? She expects no choice? That doesn’t march with the Teema I know.” Lionel couldn’t reconcile this new information. He scratched his head.
“Ah, but therein lies the rub,” agreed Shadow. “Mother taught her to be more independent than that. Teema expects the right to say no, but wants a male to want her and show it. In some ways, her view is more like that of a Unicorn filly than a Werewolf.” Shadow laughed, and toasted his brothers before he sipped his wine.
“Exactly!” Brolly, who paced back and forth, turned and pointed to Shadow. “You’ve got the meat of it. She expects you to be the aggressor, Lionel, but reserves the right to say no.” That feral grin reminded Lionel that for all Brolly was a gentle and giving healer, he still was a predator just like himself.
“This is most difficult to understand!” Lionel complained. “I’m to be aggressive, but I must back off if she says no? Are these not direct opposites?” He shook his head.
“Females of all races are confusing!” Brolly and Shadow chimed simultaneously.
After his foster brothers left, Lionel pondered what they said. He got up from the chair, still in humanoid form, to pace as Brolly did. It helped to do something, even if it served no useful purpose. “However lovely the Gryphoness of the afternoon was, no matter how much I wanted to fly her, I have my honor. However, honor makes a cold and lonely nest to sleep in. Logic demands I approach Teema and apologize for insulting her. Our friendship earns that, at least.” He picked up a small crystal she made for him during their mage training, merely to hold a small part of her.