Page 151 of Ash

Long moments later, she panted as the black fur raced over her body. When she wobbled to her feet, Tyrez leaned back on his hands and offered a lopsided smile. Just a flash, then it vanished, but it had warmed her right through.

But was there a hint of disappointment? Within her, as well?

What would it be like to fly? She remembered the Dragon ride, and the rush of air as she’d flung her arms out to embrace it, as though wishing for her own wings. And she’d had them in her dreams.

“You make a damned good looking Dire,” the Dragon said. His eyes glowed.

Off balance from the smile, her heart flipped right over.Dammit.She was better off when he was his usual gruff self. To cover her discomfort, she panted a laugh at him before turning and bounding into the grass. As a Dire, she was almost as tall on four limbs as she’d been on two. She could see past the highest stems, but only just. Her first bounding leaps carried her above them.

Then she flattened out and did what her body had been designed to do—she ran.

A shadow blasted by overhead—Tyrez had shifted to his smaller Dragon form, daring her to a race. She poured herself into her run as he banked back. No hope of winning this one, but the joy of running with him soaring just feet above her was exhilarating.

Finally, she leaped to the top of a rocky outcropping and howled at him as he swept by. His jaws opened, and he roared.

She was admiring his powerful form soaring in a graceful curve back to her when something smacked into her, knocking her off the boulder.

Dani only just stopped herself from slicing into her assailant with razor-sharp teeth and claws. Struggling to regain her breath, she squinted up at bright-green crest feathers standing in tufts from the top of a raptor-like head. Long lashed and beautiful, the huge topaz eyes blinked down at her.

Adorable sliding to cute, the impression was shattered when the beak opened to emit a shrill, whistling laugh.

“Please bite his head off! He has pounced me all black and blue.” The piping voice came from the tall grasses to Dani’s right, and a second feathered and beaked head emerged. This one was more lilac than green.

Baby Gryphons. Or, more to be exact, Gryphlets. Aphostra’s offspring.

They were miniature versions of the adults, standing only five feet at the shoulder. While the adults sported an assortment of pure colors, the babies were covered in spots and stripes that helped them blend with the grasses. The camouflage went beyond the visual—their scent was muted as well, which was the reason Dani hadn’t detected them.

The Gryphlets were heavier than Dani—but not by much at this age. And not yet able to do more than glide with their undersized wings.

“Yoou shoould never, never surprise a Dire like that,” Dani scolded. “Icoouldhave bitten off your heads.”

“Coulda tried,” stated one. He slashed the air with his baby claws. “I’m fierce too.”

His sister clacked her beak at him. “You are such an idiot.”

With a thump, Tyrez landed, and both Gryphlets fell silent as he loomed over them.

The Dragon fixed them with a stern stare. “Yous mays be fierce, buts a warrior alwayss considerss his actionss with care. Did yous engage your brain, or only yours impulsess, whens yous pounced?”

The male Gryphlet defiantly met the Dragon’s gaze. For a few seconds, anyway, before he melted and slumped. “I just saw her and pounced,” he admitted.

Tyrez nodded. “Very well. Let uss consider thiss a lesson for yous, then.” His large turquoise eye rolled to Dani. “I do admits shes iss a tempting target. Why don’t we ssee how many timess yous can pounce on hers between here and the cave?”

Dani’s jaws dropped open in dismay while the Gryphlets’ eyes lit up. “Yes!” They shouted as one.

Tyrez snorted and gestured toward the now distant cave with one long forearm. “I ssuggest yous get a head sstart,” he said to Dani.

Damned Dragon.She closed her mouth and launched herself into the grass.

The Gryphlets couldn’t run like she could, but they used their wings to glide thirty feet at a stretch. Only by ducking and diving did she manage to avoid them, at least most of the time.

The grassland echoed with the Gryphlet’s whistling laughter. Dani found herself panting in the Dire equivalent as she grew more adept at avoiding them, and they developed new strategies to ambush her.

By the time they approached the cave entrance, Dani was somewhat bruised but also elated. The game had fired her adrenaline and washed away the worries of the last few weeks.

A graceful figure awaited them on the sunning stone. They all pulled up at Aphostra’s feet, the Gryphlets having abandoned pouncing on Dani to wrestle with each other instead.

They broke apart beneath their mother’s tolerant but questioning gaze. Tyrez landed a short distance away and shifted back to human.

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