It was also a fortunate thing for her since she was apparently too disoriented by the accident to realize she was not on the ground.
He could take her to the ancient city, to therookehe had taken for shelter—eventually. Not right away—because he was fairly certain thezorphhad seen him make off with the prize and they would be waiting and watching for him to settle with her somewhere so that they could steal her back.
At least he had enough of his wits about him to think about that!
Although he was definitely rattled and distracted, his instincts had guided him to move as far from thezorphas possible, to evade their keen, watchful gazes before he even took a moment to collect himself.
This was difficult since the female fought him every time she came around from a swoon and nearly got loose from him again.
Unnerved by the realization that she was going to fall to her death if she succeeded in her aim, he settled finally and pulled some strips of leather from his pouch to bind her wrists together. He checked her quickly for bleeding wounds while he was perched on a broad limb with her and then, when he found nothing particularly alarming, settled to think of a more convenient way to carry her.
She was surprisingly heavy considering how small she was. Every muscle in his body was already screaming from the strain of trying to hold onto her and fly, but he thought at least part of it was having toalsofight her to retain his grip.
He kept a wary eye out forzorphs, hostilekerriesandparticularly theconkerries,while he caught his breath and considered the situation. The woman’s eyes fluttered open several times, but he was not sure if she was truly conscious. If she was, then she was surprisingly composed for she did not give any sign of alarm—did not scream, thankfully! Or try to fall off of their perch to evade him.
She was shivering—so much that her teeth chattered.
He thought it might be shock, but he was no physician and, even if he had been, she was not as he was.
There was little to nothing he could do about any of her problems, however, until he could get her to safety.
He finally took the rope he kept coiled at his waist and fashioned a harness of sorts. Even to him it did not look comfortable, but he thought it would hold her securely and prevent her efforts to get away from him and/or to make him unable to maintain the height and speed he needed to stay in the air.
Finally, he looped her arms around his neck and shifted her to his back, settling her between his wings. Hoisting her legs to his waist, he slipped a loop beneath her thighs to hold her in that position and then looped the end of the rope around the two of them and tied it. When he’d finished, he tested his wings to make sure he could move them in the full range and easily.
Satisfied, he launched himself into the air again, easily catching an updraft since they were near the top of the canopy.
His captive came around at some point and tested his knots, trying to break free of him.
Unfortunately, he did not deduce that immediately. The bindings prevented her from doing anything but hunching his back and for many moments he was simply unable to get his mind past the instant certainty that she was trying to mate with him.
Possibly because he had had very little else on his mind since he discovered a female had literally fallen from the sky into his arms.
The area she was grinding into his back, however, was clearly a cavity—not a phallus—thankfully!—from which he deduced that she either was not trying to have sex or that the males of her species had their penises on their backs.
Despite the state of his body in reaction to her movements and his heated thoughts, and the gooey consistency of his brain in response, he decided that seemed unlikely.
It still took all he could do to focus on the danger they were both facing.
Fortunately, as keen as the eyesight of thezorphswas, they could not see particularly well at night, so although he spent several fairly miserable hours evading the determined bastards and only managed brief periods of rest, he finally managed to return to hisrookewith her.
To his relief, he managed to evade the watchful eyes of the other kerries he occasionally spotted in the area and slip inside without incident. As soon as he had loosened the bindings and eased the woman from his back, he moved to the opening, rolled the heavy timber door into place, and secured it.
In the thick darkness, he moved from the entrance with the surefootedness of one completely familiar with his surroundings, found the primitive lantern he used for lighting the room when necessary and a flamer and set fire to the oil inside to illuminate the main room.
Therookehe’d lain claim to was surprisingly comfortable and elaborate given it was built in the time of the ancients—far more comfortable than anything he had had use of in a very, very long time, at any rate. It boasted several rooms beyond the main gathering room at the entrance and a fully functioning, if uncomfortably primitive, latrine and bathing facility utilizing the water that had been piped from the river above to flush the latrine and provide a bath with running water.
At least he assumed the water had been piped from the river. It wasn’t actually as frigid as the river water—although it was damned close.
He stood still when he’d lit the lantern, allowing his eyes time to adjust to the sudden glare, staring at the woman assessingly.
She was shivering again.
Residual shock? Or was it just that she was not accustomed to the temperature?
To him it seemed perfectly comfortable, but he was accustomed to the cooler temperatures high in the atmosphere. It was warmer near the ground where the air currents were restricted by the trees and brush and, although her clothing seemed pretty much intact as far as he could see, she was clearly a creature accustomed to living at lower elevations, regardless of the craft she had arrived in.
Shaking his preoccupation after a moment, he left the main room, taking the lantern with him, and went into the room he used as his sleeping chamber—because as miserably uncomfortable as his bed was, it was the only bed!
