By the Lake (Brave New World Book 3)

Chapter 3

For the first several seconds of the first flight in my life, I was mostly blind. My eyes had to adapt to the disappearance of the mountain crystals' light at the meeting point.

Then, when we left the forest below us and started flying under the stars towards our destination, my vision finally adjusted.

I realized the big shadows I had noticed in my partial blindness were actually gargoyles. So many gargoyles guarding from above the same perimeter Tisvali and his team were. It was the area around the spot where the gargoyle king and his human queen would be greeted by Karim and Jasmine. Afterwards, the guests would go underground to negotiate an alliance with my Queen, while my friends would remain on the surface as honorable hostages.

The extra muscle should be a good thing, ensuring that any trespassers capable of bypassing us, the border guards, wouldn't reach the meeting point. On the other hand, if the negotiations went sideways underground, we would have a full-blown battle out here. As much as I enjoyed a good fight, I was so not in the mood for one after this endless day of unfortunate events.

The view from the sky was cool, though. Had I been allowed to go to bed as planned, I would have never seen our territory from above and the stars from up close. While my partner was flying us through the warm summer night, his hold on me more than secure, I dared to lift one arm from the weapons in my lap and reach out. My fingers ending in well-trimmed claws formed an 'o' in the air.

I had done this several times, smiling in the process, when a surprised grunt sounded from the chest I was pressed against.

"What, tiger? I'm trying to catch a star or two while I have the chance–Look, it's the moon!"

An amused grunt followed, but then Ris started descending.

I groaned. So much for catching myself a moon.

"Apologies. We have arrived."

"Already?" I sounded disappointed, which surprised me.

Several minutes ago, I couldn't wait for the mission to start so that I could be done with this punishment sooner. And now I wished I could stay in the sky longer. Go figure.

Reminding myself I wasn't here to enjoy myself, I quickly added, "Fine, fine. Land between those two trees, will you?"

He flew us down to where I'd directed him. "Will fly higher when returning. To catch the moon."

After a momentary surprise, I smiled broadly. "Ain't you sweet, tiger?"

I shamelessly explored his face during our descent between the three branches. There should be enough distance between the trees here for us to pass through, but those wings of his took up a lot of space. A lot. He didn't look concerned, however, simply focused on the task. There was a slight bunching of skin over the bridge of his nose and a barely noticeable curl of his upper lip that revealed more of his extra-long fangs. Those looked quite impressive, especially in the dark in their whiteness. Their tips appeared rather sharp.

I was suddenly tempted to check just how sharp with the tip of my index finger, despite knowing what he did with his fangs. What all gargoyles did with their fangs.

One of the crimes for which pure-blooded elves despised humans was they fed on animals. Took precious lives for the sole purpose of enjoying a delicacy. Mother Nature had not created intelligent beings for them to devour any living creature created before them. We had been given intellect to protect Nature's work, not destroy it by munching on what we didn't need for our bodies' survival. Plants offered us all the necessary nutrients. Yes, they were Nature's creations, too, but they reincarnated fast through their seeds, so we didn't end their existence by relying on them for food and medicine.