14. The Grotto #2
“This.” She walked over and placed it on a ledge above the broken eyeglasses.
“And this.” She picked up Pearl’s stained handkerchief that was folded on a shelf, but an object fell to the ground with a metal slither as she did.
Driz stooped and picked it up, recognizing the old necklace she had already forgotten she’d placed with it.
It was the first treasure, so old she didn’t remember finding it. She’d simply always had it. “And this.”
“What’s that?”
Driz held it out, and Pearl cupped the pendant in her hand, the tarnished silver chain dangling over her fingers. A clear jewel hung suspended in the center of the simple fractal shape made of silver and gold. It was one of the few items that might not have been trash to anyone else.
“Pretty,” Pearl said, handing it back and moving away. Driz considered and then folded the necklace back up in the soft fabric and slipped them into her pocket. She really liked having pockets.
Driz could tell Pearl still had a harder time seeing, so they left the shadowed grotto, Driz using her wing again to shield Pearl from the waterfall.
“Thanks,” Pearl murmured.
“Are you hungry?” Driz asked. “There are fish in the stream. I can catch you one.”
Pearl tilted her head. “Are you hungry?”
“Yes. I have not eaten tonight.”
Pearl sank down on a flat rock, kicking her feet out in front of her. “I’ve already eaten. But you go ahead.”
Driz approached the narrow bend of the stream, where the terrain pinched it and made it run deeper. She’d never hunted with an audience before, but she was indeed hungry, and a part of her she didn’t quite understand wanted Pearl to see her. To prove she was capable?
Driz focused on the darker shapes as she stepped into the soothing current.
Crouching, she let her hands sink into the water, all the way to the bottom.
She calmed her heart, steadied her breath, and ever so slowly, started to move.
She inched downstream, trailing and bumping her hands.
Just another pair of stones caught in the current.
The fish hovered, unsuspecting as she drew closer and her open palms settled beneath two of them.
They didn’t have time to move from her strike. She stood, shattering the calm surface of the water, a wriggling fish in each of her fists.
She turned proudly to Pearl, who was sprawled back on the rock, watching.
Driz held out one of the thrashing fish. “Are you sure you do not want one?”
“I’m sure.”
Driz brought it to her mouth and bit off the head and top of the spine. The body continued to twitch.
“Scales and all, huh?” Pearl asked, an odd expression on her face.
Driz paused. “Do you not eat the scales?”
“Or the bones when they’re that big. And I prefer things cooked, not wriggling.”
“Oh.” Driz looked around. “I would cook this one for you, but I do not know how to make fire. Or how to cook.”
“It’s fine. Really. I’m not a fan of mudscupper, at any temperature.”
Driz licked her lips, catching a few sharp scales clinging there, suddenly self-conscious. She should have waited to eat until later, but if she didn’t finish now, the fish might go to waste.
She faced the water so Pearl couldn’t see and shoved the rest of the first, followed by the second, into her mouth, devouring them as fast as she could.
The gritty, silty flesh and crunchy bones scraping against her teeth echoed around them.
Driz had always enjoyed the flavor, but Pearl clearly didn’t.
Driz would remember that for the future.
She turned back, wiping her hands on the front of her trouser legs, and then she brushed the fabric again, trying to dislodge the scales and bits of slime and blood now sticking to her thighs.
Pearl’s soft chuckle made her freeze.
“What?” Driz asked.
“Nothing, you’re just…Never mind.”
“I do mind.”
But Pearl didn’t answer, just shook her head as she stood. She patted her front, withdrawing a slender cigarette and box of matches. Driz watched in fascination as Pearl struck a match and light flared.
Pearl inhaled and released, smoke pouring from her nose and mouth. It wafted into Driz’s own nose and eyes.
Pearl must have noticed Driz staring. “Wanna try?” She extended the smoldering cigarette.
Driz accepted it, the tube of paper delicate between the pads of her fingers. She brought the end to her mouth as Pearl had, and tentatively breathed in. It tickled her throat and lungs and stung her eyes. She coughed, retreating a step, out from the cloud and back into fresh air.
She didn’t think she liked it, but she did enjoy watching Pearl do it.
The gold in Pearl’s mouth glinted as she took the cigarette back and wrapped her lips around where Driz’s had just been.
Driz liked that a lot.
“So this is what you do in your spare time?” Pearl asked, waving her hand and disturbing the ring of smoke that hung around her. “Add to your collection?”
“When I can.”
“Do all gargoyles have collections?”
Driz shook her head. “I do not think so. My mother did not, and said I was strange for it.”
“Is your mother still around?”
“I do not know where she is, or any of the others. I see her only each year at the Meeting.”
“Meeting?”
“Yes. When we meet.”
Pearl chuckled again, taking another puff off the glowing cigarette, and Driz’s insides fluttered and shifted. “What happens at these Meetings?”
“It is a way for our kind to come together. Because otherwise we would not. Young are introduced. Anything that needs saying is said. And it is a chance for some to mate.”
Pearl’s hand paused halfway to her mouth before she took her next inhale. “And you? Do you take that chance?”
Driz shook her head. “I have never found a request appealing. Partly because it happens in flight, and I do not want to rely on anyone else’s wings. I would not mind so much if I could be the…What I mean is, I did try—”
Driz cut herself off. The hot sting of Mist’s rejection filled her again. She did not want Pearl to know about that. About how she was wrong in that way too.
“What did you try?” Pearl asked, her voice soft and coaxing.
“I made a request once. But she did not accept.”
“She?”
Driz nodded, shifting uncomfortably and unable to look at Pearl. “Her name is Mist. I know we could not truly, practically mate.”
“But you wanted to,” Pearl said, something akin to longing in her voice, and Driz nodded again. “I’m sorry she said no. She missed out.”
Driz tilted her head, unsure she understood. “Have you ever…?”
“Mated, as you call it? Sure.”
Driz’s whole body flushed. “With women?”
“Only with women.”
Pearl dropped the end of the cigarette, crushing it into the sand with her boot before picking it up and tucking it in her pocket.
Driz’s body and mind stopped working. All she could do was stare at Pearl. She imagined her on her back, above her, pressed into her arms, tumbling through the sky beneath the stars.
“Well, I should get home and sleep a little before dawn,” Pearl said. So casually. Like she hadn’t just shaken the ground beneath Driz’s feet.
Driz managed to nod. Pearl stepped into her, climbing Driz’s front once more, and it was the best thing Driz had ever experienced. She pulled Pearl closer.
Pearl was more relaxed on the flight back, turning her head to take in the landscape as Driz flew her toward home. Pearl shifted and pleasure rushed to the tips of Driz’s wings.
The world was quiet as they landed in the ravine. When Pearl looked up, Driz could have drowned in the soft smile Pearl gave her.
“Thanks for showing me your collection,” Pearl said.
“Thank you for coming with me. For flying with me.”
“It was better than last time.”
Yes, it had been. “I have something for you,” Driz said, her wings twitching nervously as she reached into her pocket. She pulled out the necklace.
“But that’s one of your favorites.”
“Yes. I want you to have it.”
The chain had tangled up on itself. Driz frowned and fumbled with the snarled links, until Pearl took the necklace, easily undoing the knot.
When she tried to give it back, Driz hid her hands. “No, it is for you.”
Pearl stared at her. “Don’t give this to me. I don’t deserve it.” She seemed almost angry.
“It is not about deserving. It is a gift.”
Pearl looked down at the pendant again, rubbing her thumb over one of the dented points.
“Unless you do not want it,” Driz said when Pearl didn’t say anything.
“No.” Pearl swallowed. “I do, actually.”
Warmth filled Driz’s chest. “Will you wear it?”
Pearl gave her an unreadable look, but she wrapped the ends around her neck, fiddling with the clasp for a moment, before she tucked the pendant beneath the bunch of her scarf.
Driz touched the scarf at her own neck. A gift from Pearl. And now Pearl wore a gift from Driz.
She felt ten feet tall.
She wasn’t ready for Pearl to leave. Driz was about to ask when she would see her again when Pearl stepped forward.
Placing a hand on Driz’s collar, Pearl leaned up on her toes. And she pressed their lips together.
Time stilled, the world shrinking to only Driz’s chest and mouth—the two points where Pearl touched her. Where they were connected.
It only lasted a moment, and before Driz could figure out what was happening and how to respond, Pearl and her lips were gone.
Pearl snagged her abandoned lantern from where she’d left it earlier. “If you’re here in two days, I’ll meet you again.”