Beginnngs Ch1, Pt3

For her part, Aalila enjoyed the sourness of a teni fruit. Especially after she had used her weaving ability as she had with the fog. It would leave her mouth dry and the bitter helped to counter it. Though she enjoyed the taste far more judiciously by taking smaller bites and chewing them slowly.

After she had finished her own fruit, she asked him, “Are you going to be cooperative and come down with me, or do I need to persuade you with another teni?”

“One is enough,” He admitted, mumbling, as he worked his mouth to get the muscles in his lips to relax once again. “More than enough, I need water.”

Aalila stood, ”Then I'll meet you at the stream below.” She stretched out her arms but, instead of shifting into a skriil or other bird, skin grew from her arms and body and legs to form thin, resilient membranes that allowed her to glide on the wind as she lept from the stone. Laughing, Kaelish Nelmos followed her.

The Fingers were close enough together, Aalila did not glide directly from the top of the one she and her lover had been on. Instead, she would glide and find purchase on the side of another of the stone formations then push off and glide to another; each landing being a bit lower down than the previous. In that manner, flitting between four different ones, she reached the ground, landing beside the stream, a few minutes later.

Kaelish Nelmos landed just a few seconds later, very close beside her, having copied her descent to the point of using the very same hand and footholds she had used. Even as he willed his body back to its normal form, he grab a hold of her and, laughing, pulled them both into the stream. There followed quite some time of splashing and kissing and touching one another before they climbed up onto the grassy bank to lay in the dappled sunlight. Looking up, he noted that they were lying nearly under a nune tree heavy with its nuts. While he was better skilled at shifting and she at weaving, he was more than good enough to use his weave sense to sever the stems to make a small shower of the nuts rain down about them. Taking two in a hand, he cracked the hard shells against one another by squeezing them then fed the mellow, slightly oily meats to her before taking two more for himself. Repeating this several times, they both were both sated and had largely restored the energy their exertions had spent.

“These are just ready for picking,” Aalila said, “We should harvest and take them back home with us.”

“I'm sure they'll be more welcome than sacks of teni,” He replied, then hastily added, “but we can take some of those home, too,” in response to the glare she gave him.

They spent the rest of the day gathering up tall blades of grass and weaving them, both with nimble fingers and their weave sense, into sacks, harvesting nune and teni until those sacks were full to overflowing. They cut several stalks of the thicker kaabu grass, slung the sacks between them and settled them onto their shoulders, Kaelish Nelmos in front and Aalila behind, to make the load easier for them both to carry. Zaal's Eye was nearly setting as they set out for home and they walked through the night; arriving just as the sun rose the next morning.