14. The Grotto
The Grotto
Pearl hadn’t decided if she was doing the right thing by meeting Driz again.
Her emotions and thoughts were all jumbled up in her head, and she was having a hard time sorting them out.
And right or not, Pearl walked into the ravine in the fading light of dusk with an old harmonica she’d wheedled out of Spencer.
Driz wasn’t there. Pearl walked up and down the ravine, even checking in the nooks.
Disappointment flashed through her. Which made no sense. She’d told Driz to leave. But she hadn’t expected Driz to actually do it.
Pearl lingered. Should she wait? Should she leave the harmonica?
When a shape swooped behind her, Pearl spun around. Driz landed on the lip of the ravine before jumping down, her wings flaring to help her glide. Her long limbs were graceful in the air, and Pearl appreciated the lines of her form, and the strength that wasn’t only for show.
“I thought maybe you’d left,” Pearl said, trying not to sound accusatory or hurt by that thought.
“I went farther away to sleep,” Driz stated simply, her voice extra gravelly tonight. “So it would be safer.”
She’d actually listened, damn her. And Pearl could have kissed her for it.
That thought startled her. She was just tired and overwrought by the recent events.
“Here.” She thrust out the harmonica.
Driz carefully took it, the light brush of her fingers sending shivers up Pearl’s arm and into her belly.
What was wrong with her?
“Do you like music too?” Driz asked.
“Listening to it, sure.”
“Do you play?”
“Nah, it’s never been a talent.”
Driz pressed the metal to her lips and blew, but the instrument just wheezed air without much sound.
“Blow into the other side,” Pearl said.
Driz flipped it and blew, catching two bright notes at once.
She startled, fumbling and almost dropping the harmonica. And Pearl chuckled, despite herself, marveling at how a goyle could be cute.
Driz tried again, eking out a choppy, unfinished scale. Then she grinned, her mouth pulling wide as she looked at Pearl. “I like this.”
Pearl watched her try again, studying how Driz cradled the instrument in her sharp hands, and how her brows drew together in concentration. It should’ve been a fierce, frightening expression. But Pearl wasn’t scared of her anymore.
Driz pulled the harmonica away from her mouth and shoved it in her pocket, as if embarrassed.
“You don’t have to stop,” Pearl said.
“I will practice later.”
“Where d’you go, when you aren’t here? Have you got a home?”
“Not a home. But I have a grotto where I keep my collection.”
“Collection?”
“Yes. My treasures.”
Pearl was intrigued. “What sort of treasures?”
“Things I find.”
Pearl wasn’t certain if Driz was being intentionally vague or not. “Can I see this place?”
“I would like to take you there, but you would not want to go.”
“Why not?”
“It would be very far on foot. And you said you do not want me to fly you.”
Pearl considered. Yes, flying had been terrifying. And doing it again was a terrible idea.
She snuffed her lantern, casting them into deeper darkness, and stepped closer. “Maybe I could give it another try.”
“You will fly? With me?” Driz asked, her wings twitching. Pearl liked that tell of hers. Driz was anxious or excited by the thought.
Pearl nodded, having to crane her head back to look up at Driz. “How should we do this?”
“Like before.”
Pearl’s lips curved. “But without the stabbing?”
“Yes, without that.”
Hesitantly, Pearl glided her hand over the open collar of Driz’s shirt to wrap around the back of her neck. Driz wore Pearl’s thin blue scarf, but not to hold the collar. Instead, it rested beneath, against her skin.
Her hair was surprisingly soft as Pearl’s fingers brushed it.
Their bodies pressed together, front to front. A faint tremor ran through Driz, and it matched the one that skittered through Pearl as her other arm mirrored the first and she hitched her leg up Driz’s hip.
Driz remained frozen. Even her breathing had stopped.
“Aren’t you gonna help me?” Pearl asked.
Driz finally moved, her arms closing around Pearl, hoisting her higher.
Pearl caught her breath at the ease and suddenness of it.
She wasn’t used to strong women picking her up like she weighed nothing.
But she couldn’t deny she enjoyed it, with her legs around Driz’s waist and the curves of breasts molding against her own.
She hooked her ankles at the small of Driz’s back, the toes of her boots brushing folded wings.
This was a wild thing to do.
She met Driz’s eyes, so close, shining in the night from the face that was becoming more familiar.
“Are you ready?” Driz asked.
Pearl took a deep breath and nodded.
Driz crouched, wings flaring, and launched them into the air.
What if Driz never let go? Pearl fit so well in her arms. The warmth and shape of her sent a new kind of heat flushing to the tips of Driz’s horns.
She held Pearl close, one arm braced up her back and supporting her shoulder, the other wrapped down and clutching her hip.
As they climbed above the walls of the ravine, Pearl’s already tight grip constricted around Driz’s neck and waist.
“Are you alright?” Driz asked.
“Yeah,” Pearl whispered, barely loud enough for Driz to hear.
Driz flew west. Her wings strained slightly, the muscles of her back and shoulders working more with the unfamiliar weight and position of Pearl. But Driz had carried much heavier burdens. And even if she had not, Driz would have carried Pearl if it had taken every ounce of strength in her.
The recent storm had left the air clear, the moon shining bright and the stars blanketing the sky. Pearl clung to Driz and stared only upward at first, before she carefully glanced around. Driz smiled, thrilled that she could show Pearl this lonely joy of her world. Did she like it?
The rushing wind caught some of Pearl’s fair hair and tickled it over Driz’s face. The scent of her shivered through Driz.
Too soon, they neared her grotto and she dropped lower. Pearl sucked in a breath at the change and Driz tightened her hold.
“We are landing,” she said into Pearl’s ear.
Driz angled them into the canyon, thudding on the soft shore downstream of the waterfall. She leaned forward, depositing Pearl on her back on the sand, sliding her arms from beneath her. Pearl unwound her limbs but didn’t fully remove them, her hands resting on Driz’s shoulders.
Pearl stared up at Driz with an odd expression on her face, her breathing faster than usual.
Her hair had come loose and spilled around her.
Driz wanted to lean down and cover Pearl’s body with her own, to press into her again.
To touch. To have Pearl’s hands move and explore everywhere else.
She longed to stare at the smattering of dots on Pearls’ skin until her eyes burned.
They were reflections of the stars above them, running across her dainty nose, down her chin and her throat.
How far down did they go? What did the rest of Pearl’s skin look like?
Pearl parted her lips, and the glint of gold drew Driz’s gaze back up to her mouth, entranced by the shine.
Pearl touched Driz’s face. Driz shuddered and closed her eyes, but quickly opened them again, unwilling to miss a moment of Pearl.
“You are beautiful,” Driz whispered, her chest aching with it.
The corner of Pearl’s mouth lifted, and she let out a huff. “I’ve got many qualities. Beautiful’s not one.”
“But you are.”
Pearl rolled her eyes. “I imagine most humans would be, if I’d been staring at goyles my whole life.”
The ache turned into a clench, uncomfortable and jarring. Driz pulled back, and Pearl’s hands fell.
The way Pearl had cupped Driz’s face hadn’t felt like disgust, but Driz must have been wrong again. She wouldn’t leer over Pearl like the monster she was.
“I didn’t mean that,” Pearl said, sitting up as Driz scooted away.
“But you said it.” Pearl must have meant it, because it was true to her. Driz was ugly. She had never minded so much before.
She stood. Her insides churned, and the rest of her still craved to be close to Pearl, while also needing to retreat. She tentatively held out her hand, and Pearl accepted, slipping her own into Driz’s palm and letting her help her to her feet.
“My collection is over here.”
The waterfall fell larger after the rain of the previous days, though it had slowed some.
Driz stepped through, pausing on the other side and raising her wing to divert the water, creating a tunnel.
The sensation rushed pleasurably over the webbing.
After a moment, Pearl ducked beneath her wing and joined her on the other side.
The narrow top of the grotto didn’t let in much light, and Pearl’s eyes scanned and strained in the darkness. Driz boldly took her hand again, enjoying the excuse to touch, and led her to the brighter side so Pearl could see all the treasures better.
Driz had always been proud of her trove, but to a human, it probably seemed like a collection of junk. And it was. But Driz liked it anyway.
“Where’d you get all this?” Pearl asked.
“From all over. I have been collecting it for as long as I can remember. I used to have several stashes around, until I found this place, and put everything together.”
Nearly two hundred items lined the ground and lay tucked on natural shelves and in pockets of the irregular stone walls.
“Some things do not last more than a few seasons,” Driz explained, picking up the remains of a soggy book that fell to wet chunks in her fingers. “I used to be sad about that. But I have come to realize that it simply leaves room for new treasures.”
Pearl revolved slowly in the space, taking it all in. “What’s your favorite?”
Driz would have had a hard time answering that before she met Pearl. But it was easy now. She withdrew the harmonica from her pocket.