Azalea
The anticipation was killing me.
The winter storms had finally quieted, leaving behind a sky the color of pale grey and a world still blanketed in white. Snow crunched underfoot with every step, and my breath curled in light clouds, visible in the frigid cold air, but it wasn't the frost that made my fingers tremble.
It was today.
The gryphon we'd purchased over a week ago, and my very not clearly thought out idea, my bold moment of delusional bravery, was finally deemed ready to fly. Which meant I was expected to climb onto its back and take to the skies like I hadn't spent my entire life loathing open heights and silently panicking through every airborne second.
Today was my first flight.
Nervous didn't even begin to cover it. I was downright shitting myself.
I'd conveniently ignored the part where I have a very specific, very personal terror of falling to my death when insisting we get the beast to Zaydon. It wasn't the flying or the height that terrified me.
It was the plummet. That gut-freezing drop. The split-second knowledge that something had gone wrong, and there was nothing but air and fate between me and the ground.
While I'd gotten grudgingly used to flying with Zaydon, wrapped in the steel cage of his arms and pressed against the steady rise and fall of his chest, this was different. There wouldn't be anyone holding me this time, and anything could go wrong.
As we walked, his fingers brushed against mine. A casual touch, warm even without the use of gloves. Then he laced his fingers through mine, his grip firm but not overbearing.
I didn't question it, plus I was too distracted by the possibility of falling.. His hand in mine was grounding, an anchor in a storm surge of nerves. My heart was hammering against my ribs, the icy wind biting at my cheeks, but his touch kept me tethered, just enough not to unravel and give in to the wave of anxiety coursing through me right now.
"Your hand is so sweaty right now," Zaydon said, that maddeningly smug grin already spreading across his stupidly handsome face.
I turned my head to glare at him.
"Feels like I'm trying to hold onto a slug," he added with exaggerated disgust, lifting our joined hands slightly as if to inspect the offensive moisture.
With a fierce blush, I immediately tried to yank my hand away. But he refused to let go, his grip tight and unyielding.
"Jerk," I hissed, gritting my teeth as I pulled harder, but his grip was unrelenting but still playful.
He chuckled, deep, rich, and entirely too pleased with himself. "Would it help if I said it's like trying to hold onto a beautiful slug?"
My jaw dropped. The audacity. The absolute audacity.
Without thinking, I started swatting him with my free hand. Palm, fingers, whatever I could smack him with. Not hard, but enough to make him flinch and try to deflect with poorly aimed swats of his own.
The ridiculousness of it caught me off guard, and laughter slipped out before I could stop it. I squeaked when he caught me off guard and crouched low, strong arms looping around my waist, and in one smooth, arrogant- and weirdly sexymotion, he hoisted me over his shoulders like I weighed nothing.
"Zaydon!" I yelped, gripping the back of his jacket as my stomach dropped.
A deep rumble of laughter vibrated through his chest, into mine, warm and impossible to ignore. He gave a dramatic, theatrical sigh, as if I were the world's greatest burden.
"Much better," he said, adjusting his hold like I weighed nothing, which to be fare I probably did weigh nothing to him, "now it's like holding a wiggling puppy with zero coordination. Puppies are an upgrade from slugs, right?"
His tone was breezy, exaggeratedly casual, but I wasn't fooled. Every word was designed to needle me, to distract me from the rising tide of fear threatening to consume me.
I sighed and draped my elbow across his shoulder, propping my chin on my palm like he was my personal mode of transport and not an infuriating, smug dragon-man-person-thing in human skin.
I narrowed my eyes speculatively and glared at him.
"You're not slick," I muttered, expression flat despite the twitch tugging at the corner of my lips. "I know what you're doing."
His mouth curved. Not a smirk this time round. A knowing smile, patient and persistent. He shot me a brief glance from the corner of his eye, then refocused on the path ahead, his brow twitching in mock caution.
"Oh yeah?" he said, tone syrupy with false innocence. "I'm going to plead... innocence."
I scoffed before he even finished the word. "There's not a single bone in your body that qualifies for that word. Not one. And don't act like this isn't you trying to distract me."
I leaned forward and poked the small dimple on his cheek, the one I pretended I didn't secretly love and hadn't seen in too damn long.
He immediately snapped at my finger like a wild animal, deliberately missing by a breath.
"Hey!" I squeaked, jerking my hand away with a laugh I didn't even try to hold back.
He adjusted me higher on his shoulder, and for a terrifying half second, I was weightless, suspended in mid-air before gravity snatched me back down against him with a jolt. I let out a sharp squeak that only made his smugness worse.
"No idea what you're talking about," he said, casually, like he wasn't manhandling me through the snow. "But if you find me distracting, I won't complain."
Smug bastard, annoyingly, sweet Bastard.
"Ow! And you do know what you're doing," I snapped, thumping my fist lightly against his back. "You're trying to distract me so I don't anxiety-think my way out of riding the gryphon."
He said nothing.
Didn't admit it. Didn't deny it either.
And that silence was enough.
We rounded a bend in the path, and the low wooden fence of the beast tamer's stables came into view, half-covered in frost and backlit by the pale light of midmorning.
And that's when it hit me.
He was still carrying me. Like a prize. Like a sack of potatoes. Like a godsdamn deer he'd just hunted down and slung over his shoulder for bragging rights.
Oh no. Nope. Absolutely not.
"Hey!" I smacked his back again, more indignant now. "Jerk, put me down! What do you think you're doing, carrying me around like some wild game you just dragged out of the woods?"
I squirmed for emphasis. "Put me down right now."
He stifled a laugh, but his shoulders trembled with it.
With exaggerated slowness, he crouched and let me slide down his back until my boots touched the snow-dusted earth again. My legs were wobbly and indignant.
"And here I thought you were enjoying it," he said, brushing imaginary dust off his sleeve as if this had all been very dignified for him. "Almost made it all the way there without a single complaint."
I huffed and swatted at the creases in my coat, trying to restore some semblance of grace, even as the heat of embarrassment prickled at the back of my neck.
"You are such a smug—urg— you make it very difficult to be nice sometimes."
The words barely left my mouth before I regretted them.
Because his expression shifted slowly into a grin that stretched too wide, one brow lifted. His eyes gleamed like green fire, brimming with mischief and just enough restraint to make it worse.
He was enjoying this. Thoroughly.
"Nice, huh?" he echoed, tone positively gleeful. "You want to be nice to me? Huh. Well, then your 'nice' needs work, Princess."
I didn't dignify that with a response. I just turned and stomped toward the stables, boots crunching in the packed snow, ignoring the smug laughter I could hear echoing behind me. If I looked back at him now, I might throw something. Like a snowball. Or a branch. Or myself onto his- NOPE.
That was uncalled for, ovaries. I thought dryly and decided to focus on what was ahead, because my body clearly wasn't on board with the program, especially if a little bit of contact from Zaydon got it all worked up.
The stables came into view, wooden beams dark with frost, the ground outside churned by hooves and talons. The air smelled like hay, leather, and wild musk.
And standing there, tethered loosely by the reins, was the gryphon.
My breath caught.
The last of the downy feathers I'd seen a week ago had shed, leaving behind sleek, powerful wings dusted with pale silver and charcoal. It stood tall and alert, feathers ruffling slightly in the breeze, its eagle eyes sharper than I remembered. The saddle already in place looked new, black leather with thick padding where it met the creature's spine. Extra cushioning, likely for comfort or a similar purpose.
Straps ran around the beast's torso and chest in a web of loops and buckles that made no visual sense. I couldn't even tell where one strap ended and the next began. But what I could tell was that I'd fall off long before that saddle ever would.
And gods… it had gotten bigger. Broader across the shoulders. Taller. Its talons were massive now, curved like scythes and gleaming faintly under the morning light.
A metal headpiece crowned its skull and a portion of its beak, etched with intricate markings, ancient and almost ceremonial. Attached to it was a bridle made from fine leather, worn but strong, meant to help steer the creature mid-flight.
Beside it stood the beast keeper, just as I remembered him, though less haggard. His peppered beard had been brushed and trimmed, his wild hair still tousled but a little more orderly. He looked rested, even proud, holding the reins loosely in his meaty hands like he was presenting a rare treasure instead of wrangling a half-wild predator.
"Ah, it's a bonnie sight seein' ye again, Miss." the beast keeper called out, his voice carrying a warm rasp as I approached. "Hope ye like the reins, I made 'em meself just for ye. Figured, seein' as ye paid double and yer lad over there helped a fair bit with taming this wee beauty, it was the least I could do."
The gryphon ruffled its feathers with a low krhhrrk, a rasping sound that made the hair on my arms rise. Its talons scraped against the frozen ground, wings flexing once, slow and careful, as if it were listening. Watching and assessing its new rider.
I offered the man a small smile and stepped closer, snow shifted under my shoes as I did.
"I have a hard time imagining that Zaydon helped with anything that didn't involve a smart mouth comment or his fighting capabilities."
The keeper chuckled awkwardly and shifted his weight, his eyes darting between me and Zaydon like he wasn't sure if I was joking or if he needed to defuse a fight.
Zaydon, of course, looked utterly unbothered. He wore an expression of perfect, smug aloofness, then reached up to flick imaginary dust from his shoulder like he was posing for a dramatic painting.
I rolled my eyes and shot him a playful glare. "That isn't cute. The whole flicking-dirt-off-your-shoulder thing? Makes you look like an even bigger ass than you already are."
He responded with a faux blank stare, widening his eyes just enough to feign wounded innocence. "Me too dumb to know different," he said, with the most unconvincing deadpan I'd ever heard.
I huffed and turned back toward the beast keeper, who now looked like he wanted the ground to crack open and swallow him whole.
The gryphon let out a low trill and sidestepped slightly, tail flicking once across the snow. Its sharp gaze snapped to Zaydon, then back to me, continuing to judge us both from a distance.
I gave the poor man a more reassuring smile.
"Don't worry," I said, softening my tone. "We're like this all the time. This is us playing nice."
The gryphon gave a short snort, almost like it disagreed.
The beast keeper cleared his throat, clearly eager to shift away from the whirlwind of our dynamic.
"If ye say so..." he muttered, then straightened, his expression tightening with something more serious. "Right then, this first flight's no a thing tae take lightly."
The gryphon let out a low, gravelly click, beak snapping once as its wings gave a subtle, restless stretch. It was ready to fly…I sure as hell wasn't.
I swallowed.
"Alright," I said, forcing my voice not to shake, "talk me through it."
…An hour later, I was in the sky.
And falling.
Possibly to my death.
The wind roared past my ears, freezing the scream that clawed its way up my throat.
My stomach was somewhere far above me.
My heart? I was pretty sure it had already hit the ground.
So yeah.
First flight day.
Going great.