Part 9 (1/2)

Pondering the ion, and anato a mouse It stared at him with immense eyes, then disappeared with a terrified squeak

Mika stifled an i for uard had said Good He patted Ta and then, concentrating hard, began to flap his wings

It was easier than he thought it would be The powerful wings forced the air beneath the a resistance, and at the same time, his body just see beneath hiic Mika flapped harder and harder, his large white body rising higher and higher in the dark night sky

Mika could see the forest below hiht eye that was the ca in his feathers and rushed past his body, softly stroking it like a lover's caress

He opened his great curved beak to taste the air He reveled in the passage of air as it slipped through the tips of his wings, felt the sliding pressure against his body as he found a low riding ther wave And his feethis feet were cold Definitely cold Like little nubs of ice

Time to descend It wouldn't do to be up here if the spell ended suddenly shi+vering at the thought, Mika turned his body into a soft curve and floated silently down, back toward the forest

He judged his distance correctly but not his speed Opening his wings to brake, he alon and only stopped hi the top of the cowhide roof and stabilizing hi human feet See, they weren't such a mistake after all!

Mika looked around hi his head in all directions He saw no one awake except Tae of the forest

Mika lowered his great feathered head and studied the cowhide surface Just plain cowhide, laced together here and there with thin leather strips; no proble confident, Mika clacked his beak experimentally and then rapidly snipped a half a dozen turns of the leather, opening a hole the size of his handwhen he used to have one

Excitement beat in his breast as he placed his eye to the hole and looked down into the dark interior of the wagon and sawnothing It was too dark

Muttering owlish imprecations, he quickly snipped several dozen of the leather strips No turning back now, it would be obvious that soht as well do it right

The hole gaped darkly, inviting Mika to solve the old and jewels and pearls filled his head as he leaned forward and looked inside But still he saw nothing; it was as dark as a robber's heart, or, u to grip the edge of the cowhide with his toes, but there was really nothing to grip Now, here was a case where talons would have served hih the opening and hung upside down, determined to see, once and for all

Suddenly, he felt hi balance His human feet scrabbled helplessly on the s through the hole, falling straight doith no chance or roos, and no hands to break his fall

Akk! He landed with a thu soft Very soft

He righted hi the curious softness The softness which was also warm And curved Nicely curved Hmm, it all seemed very fae of a bed and, flapping hi desperately to see what it was he had found

But it was dark, too dark to see anything at all There were sounds The sound of soft breathing, littleAnd scents A wonderful scent like cinnamon and cloves, maybe just a hint of celandon Oh, if he could only see so noise Then, as though in answer to his wish, a dion

In the few seconds that it took his dazzled eyes to adjust to the light, Mika was stunned, unsure of what he was seeing, doubting his eyes, thinking it an illusion

But as his vision cleared, he saw that he had not been e of a bed, just as he had suspected A bed of silk and the softest down

Mika shi+vered Sprawled delicately on the pink silk co woman in the entire world

The Princess!

Her hair was a lets that covered the pillow cradling her head and shone with shts

Her skin was alabaster white, lustrous as pearls, and faintly tinged with the htly parted, were tiny soft petals

She was clad in the softest,to her voluptuous body like down on a ripe peach

Her tiny hands were open, slightly curled, and Mika could all but iine how they would feel on his

At which point, out of nowhere, a sword appeared in front of his face, or more specifically, in front of his beak

Belatedly, his brain began to function, assiht! Sword! DANGER! even as he flung hi beauty, reasoning, he hoped correctly, that whoering the girl

Begging the indulgence of the strangely silent beauty, Mika pressed his fluffy forainst the softness of her body, his head cradled between the twin mounds of her a hiy would work until he could think of soaure appeared in the center of the now alht, and slowly took shape

Mika saith a sinking heart the largest huiant A veritable giant The son bent hi erect, Mika had no doubt that the hed ether, perhaps four hundred stones!

Mika was able to iant wore only a square loincloth which was large enough to shs, devoid of clothing and hair, were iiant could lower his arreatly distorted were the muscles that warped those extremities

Mika formed all of his ihtened to blink his eyes and stared in fixed terror at the angry face so close before hi, his ears bracketing the white boulder of a head like two distended fungi

His eyes gleahy face like shi+ny chunks of anthracite and were made more harsh by the total absence of eyebrows

His nose was a blobby affair, its various bends and planes giving evidence of having been broken numerous times and set without the benefit of a healer

His h which his foul breath rasped loudly

Clutched in one ie of which gleaiant snarled silently, and his face twitched into an awful grimace while his sword tre body It was obvious that the giant was uncertain what he should do

Desperately Mika looked at the giant, trying to foriant's hand shot out, grasped the back of Mika's neck and began to pull But owls have no necks, and the rab but feathers, which he pulled and tugged, causing Mika great pain

Mika was deterirl, so he opened his beak and gripped the scarlet ribbon that criss-crossed her dress, gently separating the girl's breasts, and hung on tight, clasping her generous figure with outspread wings The sword hovered nearby, waiting for even the tiniest sliver of space so that it could slip between the girl and his body He clutched harder What a waste, he thought Here I aainst the most beautiful woht spun out of his an beating on Mika's head with the hilt of the sword

daet out of the wagon and soon, or he would be one dead owl Letting go of the ribbon, he swiveled his head and sank his beak into the giant's ar Blood spurted in every direction and flowed down Mika's throat Strange that he had never noticed how good blood tasted before