As a creature of fire, Kes didn't need sleep the way humans and other creatures of earth do, but she still required rest all the same. Instead, she spent most nights curled against Opailikiita. Sometimes she was with Jos when she felt the urge, or if Kairaithin had whisked Opailikiita away for starlight lessons in magecraft. But tonight was like most nights and Kes was lying on the ground with warm sand beneath her and Opailikiita's great wing blanketing her with heat. Kes had her head pillowed against the slim brown griffin's foreleg, the slightly gold barring of Opailikiita's feathers a dull wheat without the harsh desert sun.
Grey-blue eyes fixed on the eastern horizon, Kes silently waited for the morning to arrive. She liked the peace and quite of night, the way it cleared her mind, but the rising sun would forever be her favorite part of the day. She doubted there was a single griffin—few creatures of fire, even—that felt otherwise.
Opailikiita shifted against her, breaking Kes from her trance when the griffin bent her head around to brush her beak against Kes' cheek. Kes turned her face into the caress, reaching up to trace her fingers along the small golden feathers above Opailikiita's eyes.
I would show you something, Opailikiita's voice slid delicately against the edges of Kes' mind, and stone strong muscles ripples where Kes was pressed against her.
"Yes," Kes whispered softly, instinctively.
The world shifted around them, red sand and rock and the very sky blurring as Opailikiita used magecraft to move them through desert. When space and air became solid again, the eastern mountains were nothing but a tiny line on the horizon. Kes looked up the glimmering stars blocked by a massive circle of rust colored stone, held strong and even by pillars that were twice the height of Opailikiita. The structure sheltered the mouth of a shallow cave, and though shaded from waning evening light, it was completely open to the dawn.
Kes smiled, standing as Opailikiita stood on all fours. "You've brought me here."
Here was the young griffin's place of solitude, where could escape when she wished to be alone. If Opailikiita didn't have a change of heart, this cliff cave might become her place of nesting when she took a mate. Though many griffins created their nests together, mostly for safety and protection, Opailikiita would not need to, her magic as a griffin mage allowing her to know if anyone or any creature trespassed into her sanctuary, so made from her very essence. The location was no secret from other griffins for they knew every inch of the desert, every grain of sand, but pride and honor dictated that none would ever stir the sand unless by invitation or great need.
It was not the way of griffins to say, "This is just for you," but that Opailikiita brought only Kes said as much.
Opailikiita walked toward the cliff edge. Kes moved to follow but stopped when Opailikiita gave her a fierce look over a feathered shoulder. she was content to wait while Opailikiita sat on her leonine haunches, as still as a statue with the tip of her tail flicking back and forth, belying the griffin's excitement. Beyond, the sky began to lighten from inky black to indigo, faster and faster tendrils of morning light appeared, ever so much brighter to all the creatures of fire. The sun continued to rise and Opailikiita became a hard silhouette against its roaring intensity. The fire of the sun was never as powerful as it was when it first awoke. It filled Kes until it seemed that her body could barely contain the light, moving under her skin, and flowing through her hair until the strands glowed. Her eyes became alight, but she not watching the sun.
Opailikiita shined a molten bronze, the slight barring of gold looked like liquied sunlight. The air around the griffin shimmered metallic, and the shape of Opailikiita's silhouette became smaller. It only took a moment, and Opailikiita no longer held the form of a griffin. In place stood the stature of a young woman, but Kes couldn't see the details of her features in the harsh sunlight.
"Opailikiita!" Kes gasped, smiling and joyful as any creature of fire could express.
The griffin, now in human form, turned at her named, watched with the same familiar golden brown eyes as Kes walked up to her. One might say the griffin mage's skin was a deep earthen color, but where the light hit, it took on a metallic sheen. Her face was at once delicate and sharp, a tall, thin nose with curving cheekbones that flowed toward an angled jawline. Deep brunette hair fell in long loose waves around her shoulders, and down her back. Her eyes brows were dark too, thhough there was a scattering of gold in them. she wore no cloak as Kairaithin did, but her body was encased in tight fighting leather a few shades darker than her skin. It looked soft and supple, unaffected by the dry desert air that strived to suck the moisture from everything it touched. Her attire displayed her touch of gold: the buckle at her waist, clasps on her fold-over knee-high boots, buttons, snaps, and edged emboidery. She had an unhuman beauty, though no creature of earth could explain exactly what made it so.
Kes took in every detail, soaking Opailikiita in like sunlight. She reached up to trace Opailikiita's face, heat burning against the pads of her fingers wherever she touched. "When?" she asked.
"Yesterday," Opailikiita answered in a smooth, smoky voice. "Kairaithin says I have yet to master the easy of shifting. Only with dawn's light have I succeeded."
Changing one's form was no small feat. It took many years for a griffin mage to learn the intricacies of creating a different appearance that was both coherent and consistent. Many more years were dedicated to mastering the ability until it felt like a second nature. With kes nearing her twentieth summer, Opailikiita had managed in a little over five years; she had barely come into her own powers when the griffins had been driven from their desert.
"You're beautiful, my iskarianere," Kes said, her hand trailing along Opailikiita's neck.
The griffin mage was rigid, an unnatural stillness that no true human could manage. Opailikiita was taller than Kes by a few inches, and with striking swiftness she leaned foward so quick that if she was still in her griffin form it would have been a deadly slash of her beak, and pressed her lips against Kes'.
Taken by surprise, Kes was wide-eyed and staring at Opailikiita but she didn't pull away—she closed her eyes, leaning into the kiss, her hands pulling Opailikiita closer. The caress of lips was short and caste, but it had burned hotter than the sun itself.
Opailikiita pulled back, head canting to the side with a bird-like tilt. "You did not expect that," she stated firmly though Kes could hear the question behind it.
"No." Kes, quiet by nature, couldn't think of anything else to say.
"Is that not how you show affection?" Opailikiita asked.
"It is, but..." Kes trailed off as memories of when she was an earthen human surfaced, vague and hazy. Differences between mere friends, lovers, and courtship rituals filtered through her mind, yet she could not grasp the importance of the memories.
Opailikiita was neither upset or angry by the reluctance she perceived in Kes. "You always touch me so."
Kes realized that Opailikiita was right. Though she had taken Jos as her mate, the fire in her heart always belonged to Opailikiita first. They had been drawn to each other, loved each other before Kes had fully become a creature of fire. Opailikiita was the one whom Kes bestowed her unthinking affection: kisses against Opailikiita's deadly beak, hands stroking through the feathers at her neck, the whom Kes sought in the night. Opailikiita was just as affectionate. The griffin, a fierce and might being, would gently press her beak against Kes' cheek, nudge her head under the curve of Kes' arm, or rest her head in Kes' lap when they rested. They had always been achingly intimate.
Opailikiita turned her gaze east. "I do not have much time left. The sun is a short gift." She did not yet have the power to keep her form once the peaking magic of dawn faded.
"Then we should not waste it." Kes pulled Opailikiita down for another kiss.