We share several breaths before he speaks. "Now I know what you mean by there being different kisses."
I lightly scratch him with my nails in response, the corners of my mouth twitching when I feel a shiver pass over him at the sensation it causes.
"I look forward to experiencing all of them," he tells me in a near whisper.
I give him a quick peck on his rough cheek to add another to his list and then hold him in my usual cowardly monkey pose.
He's purring as we make our way down.
We take a quick detour and I add more pockets to my suit and stuff the supplies he found in them.
Then we set off again. He runs at a more sedate pace, so I'm no longer in danger of having a heart attack each time he shifts and leaps.
Nevertheless, it's so dark I don't have a way of predicting how his body will shift next so I just have to keep my muscles clenched tight.
After the fifth jump in as many minutes, I risk speaking. "Has the terrain changed?"
He slows us to a fast walk. "We are on an escarpment. I can't see a mountain, so it might be the base of a plateau."
I take a breath to speak but he interrupts me. "I hear a hunter. I'm going to put you on a ledge you can get down from as needed."
My heart pounds. "Alright."
Now that we aren't running so fast, I can make out the vague shapes of a sheer rock face in the muted moonlight. Between the intermittent cloud cover and thick canopy of trees I was all but blind and so the reflective light-colored rocks are a relief.
The lichen and moss create beautiful contrasting patterns.
Thivoll comes to a stop at the base. "Lean forward and hold me around the neck."
I move to comply, likely strangling him in my dread.
I'm glad for the tight hold when he rears up onto his back legs and then leaps through the air. I nearly let out a screech, but we quickly land on a ledge I couldn't see from the base.
He crouches down and I get off him shakily. I push my back against the rock as far from the ledge as I can get.
I assume we can't be up all that high, but my body is still trembling at the mere thought of the drop.
Thivoll squeezes my shoulder, then disappears over the ledge.
37
Ree
I can't hear which way he goes and my heart is in my throat for many long minutes. I keep my breathing shallow to hear as much as possible.
I startle when I hear a scream. He must have envenomated the hunter.
It seems like it's at least a mile off and behind me, possibly on the back side of this rock face on the other end of a plateau. Then it sounds like the scream is rapidly moving farther away.
My brow is furrowed, trying to work it out and then it occurs to me.
The hunter must have fallen off a cliff.
I have a sudden image of Thivoll tumbling over the edge with them and then I shut down that line of thought. I know I can't get any farther away from the ledge, but I try anyway.
Long moments pass with me trying to think of anything else but cliffs and falling.
I'm still actively pressing my body against the rock behind me when a dark shape is suddenly flying at me.
