6
JESSICA
I woke on grass, soft and warm in the noon sun.
It was like waking into a dream, because things didn't make sense. The grass, for one, and the surrounding terrain: hills that rolled like a Chinese dragon, dotted with herds of cows.
And the nude man in front of me.
Ethan sat cross-legged on the ground a short distance away, his hands folded in his lap to cover his privates. He was even more muscular than I'd thought, arms bulging like boulders on either side of his pecs, and abs glistening in the sun. He smiled with embarrassment.
"Um, hi."
I flinched. "You're naked! Why are you naked?"
He moved one hand strategically, and then held up the other palm. "I can explain."
Something in the corner of my eye grabbed my attention and wouldn't let go: I swung my head to see the corpse of a brown cow, its gut slashed open and the inside an empty cavity. There were no flies, so it must have been killed recently.
"What the fuck!"
"That... is gunna be harder to explain," Ethan said.
Memory began to come back to me, dreams which weren't dreams at all. I'd helped Ethan up into his apartment, then made soup so I could give him medicine. And as I wrapped him in blankets I'd found a smooth stone figurine in his pocket, a gryphon with an emerald set in the back of its neck.
A gryphon. Which Ethan had transformed into, leaping from the window and then taking wing gracefully. I could feel his talons tearing into my clothes and skin, and when I looked down at my shirt I saw the tears in the fabric, and the scratches on my chest. I ran my hands over my body and felt more scratches along my back. Marks that matched the gash in the dead cow's belly.
It wasn't a dream. It was all real.
"You turned into a monster!" I blurted.
A wave of a relief fell over Ethan's face. "Oh, good. So I don't need to explain after all."
Frenzied with fear, I scrambled to my feet and grabbed the closest stick next to me. I held it out in front of me like a sword, hands trembling with shock.
"Stay back!"
"I'm not exactly in a position to fight," Ethan said, gesturing at his nude body.
"You're... you're gunna turn into that thing." I knew I was stammering, on the edge of collapsing into a puddle on the ground, but fear drove me on. "You're gunna change into that gryphon!"
Ethan's mouth tightened into an embarrassed line. "See, you say that, but it was just as much of a surprise to me as it was to you."
I wanted to run. To throw my stick at Ethan and sprint in the opposite direction, away from the cow and the monster he claimed he wouldn't transform into. But my fight or flight instinct short-circuited, and instead I sat back down, feeling foolish the entire time.
"Talk," I said, the only word I could get out.
He nodded. "Well. I don't know much, but I've been sitting here for about an hour and I think I've figured some of it out."
Ethan took a deep breath.
"I was in Belize with some old college friends. We graduated together ten years ago, and wanted to celebrate the anniversary. I haven't seen these guys in years; we've drifted apart, we live in different cities. You know how it is."
I didn't; most of my college friends were still in the DFW area. But I nodded anyways.
"We were in a cave. Spelunking. It was Andy's stupid idea, he was so damn insistent we do it, and even though we were hungover and dehydrated we all agreed, because that's easier than fighting Andy. You'd know if you met him. So we're in this cave, being led by a tour guide. And when we stopped to rest, he had us turn off all our lights. To experience how complete the darkness is. No light anywhere, not even faint starlight. Just black all around, thick and terrifying.
"Except, somehow, I didn't just see black. I began to see a glow of green, somewhere distant in the cave. Through the walls, as impossible as that sounds, but I did. And while everyone else was resting up or taking a piss, I crawled through a tunnel until I found it."
"Found what?"
"I'm... not entirely sure," he said. "It was underneath a rock, in a small chamber that looked like it had been carved out with a shovel. It was a stone sculpture, a totem, he called it, of a mythical beast with an emerald in its back."
"The gryphon," I said, suddenly remembering. "I found it in your pocket!"
"Gryphon," Ethan said, tasting the word. It meant something different to him than to me, but then he continued. "Well, I didn't tell anyone about the totem. It seems stupid not to--these were some of my best friends, right? But something stopped me. Forced me to keep it to myself. And so I did, carrying it in my pocket for the rest of the trip, and for the flight home. And that's when the weird stuff started happening."
Trying to make a joke, I said, "Like transforming into a goddamn bird?"
But he shook his head. "No, not yet. I meant the fever, and the trembling. My body ached for two days while it was in my pocket--you saw how I looked when you picked me up from the airport. I gulped down an entire bottle of NyQuil and crashed on my couch at work, but it didn't seem to help."
He blinked, and looked down at the ground.
"And that's all I remember. Until... it happened."
There was a long, pregnant pause while I chewed over all of that.
"I took the... totem?" I waited for him to nod, then said, "I took the totem from your pocket, and while running my fingers over it the gem... depressed."
"Depressed?"
"Yeah," I said, "like a button. It sunk into the stone and made a click sound."
A deep frown spread on Ethan's face. "That can't be right. I spent my entire three hour plane ride touching that thing, fingering the gem. It wouldn't push in, or come out, or do anything else noteworthy."
"I'm just telling you what happened," I insisted. "Believe whatever you want."
"I'm still not sure if I believe any of this. It's... I don't know." He shivered, which made his muscles spasm.
I gave him an apologetic smile. "I would lend you my blouse, but all I have on underneath is a bra."
"Being nude is the only thing I've gotten used to in the past hour," he grinned. "It's everything else I'm struggling with. So if you insist that pressing the emerald on the totem caused it, how about you toss it here and let me try again?"
I felt along my pants pockets. "I... don't think I have it."
"You don't?"
"Yeah, I don't," I snapped. "And no, I don't know where it is, because I was brought here against my will and only just woke up!"
Ethan shook his head and looked away.
But that wasn't entirely true. I could almost feel it in the distance, somewhere to my left. The south. Like a lighthouse flashing in the distance, I thought I could almost pick it out if I just squinted hard enough.
I remembered the totem in my hands, smooth and heavy. I'd held it in Ethan's apartment when he changed. I carried it to the window...
I gave a start.
The window. I remembered fainting, and then falling. Falling to my death, and being saved at the last moment.
I remembered the overpowering feeling of safety, that someone was watching over me. Protecting me.
Someone was keeping me safe.
And as I considered Ethan, sitting nude on the ground in the middle of who-knows-where, I felt that same feeling return.
"You saved my life."
His head whipped back around. "Huh?"
"I was falling. You snatched me out of the air." I fingered the holes in my blouse, seeing them in new light. "You saved me."
Ethan looked embarrassed, which only made the lines of his face more gorgeous. A shy smile, his long eyelashes blinking above beautiful green eyes. "I mean, yeah. I couldn't just let you fall."
That sensation of protection was still there, a bubble of safety around us even now. I felt a tingle go up my spine as Ethan looked me up and down.
And then, before I could stop myself, I pounced on him.
The force knocked him back onto the soft grass. I pressed my body against his, feeling the warmth of his exposed skin. For a moment that lasted an eternity we stared at one another, our faces only inches apart.
He leaned up to kiss me with lips that were warm and soft. I felt strong arms wrap around me, holding me close, pulling me against his broad chest. I sighed against his body and kissed him harder, and the smell of his musk mixed wonderfully with the grass.
I felt him stiffen underneath me, and I sighed at the heat coming off his cock, my own sex pulsing with heat and desire.
His hands ran along my back, caressing me, learning what I felt like under his touch. Every curve of my spine, and lower back, and hip. And then his hands were sliding along my ass, squeezing the cheeks gently, and I sighed into his kiss.
"You taste so good," he said, and I shoved my tongue into his mouth to taste what he tasted, our tongues dancing together wonderfully.
It was different than any other time. It was as if we had some bond connecting us; I could almost feel what he felt, his cock rubbing against the inside of my thigh, the urge to thrust beginning to overwhelm him, his need for me.
And then he took over, rolling me sideways until I fell onto the ground, the soft grass pressing into my legs and back and neck. He covered me with his body, kissing the side of my neck and along my shoulder. I arched my back to press my body into his, my thighs against his hips, my wet sex so close to his belly, aching to feel his touch.
Suddenly my clothes were an unacceptable hindrance, and I heard buttons pop off in my desperation. I pulled back and unclasped my bra, giving my breasts to him.
He kissed me with deeper frenzy, hands pawing along my belly up to my nipples. He savored my feel with masculine lust, squeezing and testing, the first touch always the most precious. And then his lips left mine, and he pushed my head back to expose my neck, kissing underneath my jaw and then at my throat and then down to my breast bone.
I gyrated against him, tortured by his lips.
His mouth found my left nipple, brushing against it in passing which made me sigh, then returning with shocking fervency. His lips wrapped around it and his tongue flicked like a snake's, sudden and intense and wonderful all at the same time, and I squirmed beneath his muscular body on the grass and moaned a desperate moan.
"I love how your body feels," he breathed.
"Don't stop!"
He moved to the other nipple, sucking gently while nibbling with his lips, and his hand moved along my side to my thigh. I closed my eyes and reached between us, eager to find him, to touch him the way he was touching me. His cock was on fire, hotter than the rest of him like it was still feverish, and he moaned into my nipple as I wrapped my fingers around it.
"Ohh..." he said.
I wrapped my other hand around his neck and pulled him to me, demanding he continue his caressing kisses. I sighed and tilted my head back, gazing at the sun and the blue sky, the sky where Ethan had flown and swooped and saved me.
I stroked his cock harder, and in return he licked my nipple faster.
His touch was incredible, something I'd needed without knowing until then, my instincts surrendering to the feeling.
And then it wasn't enough.
I opened my mouth to tell him what I needed, but somehow he knew. His hands moved at my waist, unbuttoning my dress pants and pulling down the zipper. I raised my butt off the ground in surrender, allowing him to slide them all the way off, and then my panties, and then I was open to him, legs spread wide and wet and ready.
"I need you," Ethan whispered, the same thought I'd been about to say.
I kissed him in response, and felt him guide the tip of his cock into my dripping slit. I moaned into his kiss while I felt the head push me open, taking me, forcing the walls of my sex open with his strength. That's what I felt then: strength of this man, this beast, a wall of muscle covering me like a blanket and keeping me safe.
He moved gently, a slow inch at a time. And it wasn't enough, it wasn't what I needed, so I gyrated my hips against him, taking his cock faster, demanding every inch of it while he groaned. He obliged my demand, and thrust forward roughly, and I felt that familiar ache laced with a flicker of pain, but only for an instant, and then he was filling me to the brim with every inch of him.
"Oh my God," he moaned, breaking the kiss to look into my eyes.
I could feel his heartbeat like it were a drum, pulsing through our joined parts. It dimmed as he pulled back slowly, every grain of his cock rubbing against every nerve of my pussy. And the pulsing returned with his thrust, filling me.
I sighed and rocked my hips against him, urging him faster.
Ethan reached a strong arm underneath my head and grabbed a fistful of my hair. He squeezed it tight and pulled back on my head so he could nuzzle my neck again, and I let him, because I was his, my body was his to do whatever he pleased.
"Give it to me," I moaned into the air.
His legs pumped harder with exactly the right amount of force I needed, sending jolts of pleasure through my body while he kissed my neck. Oh my God it felt so good, and I raked my fingernails across his muscled chest, down his navel and into my pubic hair, rubbing at my sensitive place like I did when I was alone, rough circles that moved my clit back and forth.
"You're so beautiful," he whispered into the skin of my neck.
"So are you," I said, and whether I meant his human form or the beast I'd seen I wasn't sure. But it didn't matter, because as Ethan made loved to me on the soft grassy hill I felt both of them at the same time. "So are you, ohh..."
Faster and faster we went, my body and mind surrendering to the climactic cliff I was hurtling towards, being pulled over, thrown into the open air of ecstasy, and I welcomed it because I knew Ethan would be there to catch me.
I wrapped my legs around his back and pulled him close, because it ached where we didn't touch. "Come with me," I begged, not wanting to reach my climax without him. "Hurry. Please."
His hips moved chaotically then, wild thrusts that were more animal than man, ruled by his desire. He kissed me once more but then the kiss turned into a moan, and his eyes widened, and mine opened wide with him to drink his pleasure as I felt my own overwhelming.
"Oh God, Jessica," he said, surprise and shock on his face.
I screamed my wordless scream then, and clenched my eyes shut at the feeling in my sex. It gushed out of me, and inside me, and all around me like a tide, wave after wave rocking my body against the grass. Ethan roared too, and I felt his throbbing cock spasm inside of me, and I clenched the lips of my sex around him as tightly as I could.
His fingers squeezed inside my hair and along my thigh, and my own fingers clawed at his back as if I had talons of my own, and we came together for what felt like an eternity.
*
"Are you going to lay me a golden egg?" I asked.
Ethan was reclined on his back in the smooth grass, while I rested across his chest and legs. The warm Texas wind felt good along my nude body, cooling my behind and the wetness between my legs. Ethan leaned up to look at me.
"Am I going to do what now?"
I ran a fingernail along his chest, tracing the lines of muscle. "The ancient Greeks believed gryphons protected vast stores of gold, or even laid golden eggs themselves."
Ethan snorted, and leaned back on the grass. "I'll let you know if I do."
I wasn't an impulsive person. That's why I liked computers: they allowed me to take my time, carefully make a decision and then put it into place. They were simple, and predictable, so long as you knew how to use them.
Yet doing this with Ethan was certainly impulsive.
I even hated Tinder, the immediacy of it. Find a person, swipe the appropriate way, and then get down to business. What happened to getting to know someone naturally, going on dates, meeting their friends? The excitement of a first kiss on your doorstep at the end of a date, then making out, and eventually rounding the bases at a steady but predictable pace?
But with Ethan...
I couldn't explain my feelings for him. Yesterday he'd pissed me off with his lack of IT documentation, and today I felt inexorably drawn to him. We shared a connection, sexual and emotional and intellectual, even though the latter made no sense for someone I'd known a scarce 24 hours.
Yet the connection was there all the same.
There was something animal to it. Primal, that was the word. My brain still bucked against the idea, but seeing Ethan transform into a gryphon and soar through the air, graceful and beautiful, excited me in a way that was new and intriguing. I wished I could watch him transform again right then. I couldn't wait until I got to.
"Is this real?" I mumbled.
"I'm still not sure myself."
"Then let's enjoy it while we can," I said with finality, snuggling closer to his warm body.