50. Gentle and Loving
Agadart starts to come back to her senses...
The Queen’s Aerie is a MMF fantasy romance (romantic fantasy?) in 57 parts that I serialized throughout 2023/2024! If you are just now joining the story, you can catch up by starting here. Full story ToC here.
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Previously: An unexpected ally showed herself...
She gently wrapped her claws around the human – Mani, her brain told her. Mani was his name insomuch that she remembered that people had names. Her mind was filled with a heavy fog edged with a bright light. It suffused her mind, as if somewhere the sun was starting to burn it off but it was too far away to give her clarity. In the meantime she was caught up in the roiling mists of confusion and anger and fear…
But this person in her clutches was safe. He was known. He broke through the fog with his soothing words and his familiar gestures as he hung on, his hands clutching her claws for stability. Their minds touched gently, the wordless landscapes of her emotions tamed and sorted by his clever, butterfly-like thoughts. She closed her eyes and sank into the soothing waters of his mind, letting him soothe her heart.
She felt him adjusting his hold, the nerve endings in her claws blunted by layers of the horn-like material between them, but still sensitive enough to pick up on even the slightest motion he made.
She picked him up gently and brought him to her face so that she could sniff him carefully, wary about damaging such a fragile thing. His skin was like fine, delicate tissue paper that his blood thrummed directly under, so delicate and yet so strong. She knew he was beautiful and inspected his face before licking up the side of his neck to his ear. He laughed and pushed her nose away with one hand, which unbalanced him in her hold just enough to make them both scrabble a little bit to settle him again.
She tenderly put him back down, slowly releasing him from her claws so that he could find his feet and stand up once more without her help. He was in fine health and that settled her mind. Among the storm that was everything she was feeling at the moment, his mind was a lighthouse of sanity and love. He sat down tailor-style on the deck and patted his lap, saying something with words that she could not remember how to understand. But the gesture was a clue, because she had seen similar types of behavior before, even if it wasn’t directed at her. She lay down, her belly flat on the platform, and put the tip of her snout in his lap.
Her whole head was as big as his torso, but he took the weight of her jaw and simply adjusted his legs a little bit before starting to gently pet and stroke her face. It was the calmest she could remember feeling in a long time, and it parted the mists of her exhaustion completely. She had been utterly overwhelmed by everything that was happening to her, but those feelings dissipated with the red mists of her anger, leaving a clear and serene landscape of emotions in its wake. She let her eyes drift closed and allowed the sweet, safe darkness of slumber to embrace her as her mate soothed her worries with his gentle and loving hands.
