Chapter 19

Miranda clung desperately to the flying pterodactyl's neck, her knees crooked up underneath the huge, flexing wings that kept them aloft. During a moment while they glided, she sat up and looked around. Her hair whipped around her, hopelessly tangled from the hours she'd spent sleeping on the giant predator's back as they flew. Her shoulders and hips screamed as she forced herself upright, sore and exhausted from having clung desperately to her sister's neck and heaving back as she slept away the greater part of the morning.

The hot sun beat down, doing its best to pierce the fierce, wild winds whipping around Miranda's breasts and arms, now that she was sitting up, and she almost lay back down, remembering the position she'd taken to protect herself from the raw, swirling elements when Murielle had flown through a cloud.

She turned her head sideways and down into her bare shoulder as her hair whipped around and stung her eyes and face. Her eyes, open now, let her see her precarious perch; hands pressing down into the constantly moving base of Murielle's huge neck, her arms freezing where sweat had collected from being wrapped around that same, gargantuan, feathery crest. Her legs were still frozen in position, feet pressed against the slightly rounded back, the insides of her legs sweaty and aching from the constant balancing against the pterodactyl's wings as it soared through the air, violently pressing upwards against her entire torso with each powerful down stroke only to leave Miranda's ass nearly hanging in the air with each up thrust of wings.

'I can't believe I fell asleep!' she thought to herself as she blinked awake. 'I could have fallen off and sis'd never notice!'

Beyond the view of her immediate torso and far, far below, the sun glistened off a wide, pristine mountain lake directly below them. Heavy blue mountains ringed it on both sides and surrounded the entire basin. Miranda felt a tingle go down her spine at the sheer beauty of their surroundings. "My God – that's so beautiful!" she yelled into where the pterodactyl's ears should be. "Is that where we're going?"

'If you want to land there, we can, ' came the answer. 'I've flown until the sun changed from over to up while you slept on my back, and I would like to rest. Maybe find some new food... '

"Have you ever eaten fish?" Miranda asked, thinking that she might catch something in the lake that was quickly growing larger as they descended.

'I don't know. What does it taste like?'

"Uh, you'd know if you ever had it – the taste is ... unforgettable. You have to cook it, though. It tastes awful, raw."

'You make it sound ... unwanted, ' Murielle thought into her little sister's head. 'If you find one, I might try it. Hang on, now. I'm going to land.'

Miranda leaned forward and grasped her sister's neck with both arms. As a child, she used to watch stories about a young girl who had a pet dragon, and she rode it everywhere. All her life, she'd wanted her own flying dragon, and now she had one. The only thing that could possibly be better than her life right now, was if she could share her thoughts and emotions with someone. Someone besides her pet dragon. Then she chastised herself for her selfishness. She desperately loved her sister and wanted nothing to ever separate them. But ... sometimes, she was lonely for another human to talk to.

'It's strange that I don't feel that way about being around other flyers like myself, ' Murielle echoed softly into her slug sister's mind.

"That's because there isn't anyone else like you," Miranda sadly informed her. "You are unique to all the world. As am I, at the moment..."

'There is no one like us, then?' the pterodactyl asked, a tinge of regret echoing through her thoughts.

"Each of us is special," Miranda solemnly told her flying sister. "And each is..."

'What is that phrase in the back of your head – 'Oh, barf!' – What exactly does that mean?'

Miranda laughed. "There's no keeping secrets from you, is there?" She almost fell off as Murielle touched down. Immediately the pterodactyl lowered her head so that the little slug rolled forward and caught one foot in her jaw, then fell to roll on the soft grass.

"Rough landing, you think?" Miranda griped as she brushed dirt and grass off her bare, wind-blown skin.

'I'm not the one who wasn't paying attention, ' Murielle informed the little slug. 'I told you to hang on. If I hadn't lowered my head, you would have fallen off and maybe broken one of those little stubby things sticking out of you.'

"Those are my arms and legs," Miranda shot back. "You have them, too. Only yours are bigger, and your arms have wings grown on."

'I was thinking of that round, stubby thing sticking out of your top half.'

"My head?" Miranda shouted. "I don't believe you don't know what that is!"

The pterodactyl ignored her pet slug and looked around. 'I think we're too far up the mountain to find good food. And the air is cool here. I think you will need fire, tonight.'

"Well," Miranda replied thoughtfully, "we have an abundance of that ... Besides, it might be too cold for reptiles, but there may be some mammals roaming around. Because it gets cold here, they most likely believe they're safe from predators like you."

'Mammals? How are they different from the animals you call reptiles?'

"Mammals have hair," Miranda explained. "Reptiles have ... uh, well, you have feathers, so you actually aren't a reptile. I don't remember what branch of the animal kingdom you belong in – I never really studied that. Anyway, reptiles use the sun for heat, 'cause they can't generate their own."

'That doesn't seem to be something that would help them live better.'

"It isn't," Miranda agreed. "In a few more million years, most of them will be extinct. Including you, I'm afraid. Only the smaller animals will survive."

'This is an uncomfortable thought. I feel ... weak. Upset. We are all going to die?'

"Everything dies, Murielle," Miranda sighed. "But the part of you that thinks – that will go on. We'll find other life forms that we can use, and live in them."

'But ... what if we get separated?'

"Well, all that's already happened to us," Miranda said. "You were my sister, then you died and became a pterodactyl. But we still found each other again."

'I feel better, I think – but I still don't really like the idea. From what you've told me since I found you, I had a life, before – and I do not have thoughts about it.'

"Well, I might be able to remind you of something we used to like to do," Miranda cooed as she stood up and walked down toward the edge of the lake.

'What is it that I liked?'

"Swimming!" shouted the naked girl as she dove into the cool, clear water. Miranda almost sucked in a mouthful of icy mountain lake water as her body reacted to the sudden, invigorating chill. Almost instantly, she shoved toward the surface, eager to breathe something warm. As her head fountained up out of the water, she gasped and yelled. "Whoooo-ie! Damn! That's cold!"

Murielle sat, resting on her wing elbows, staring raptly at the little slug as it cavorted around in the water. 'Do you need help? Is that why you are making so much noise?'

"I'm having ... fun!" Miranda gasped as another icy shiver rolled down her back. "Come on in! The water's fine!"

'It looks painful.'

"It's not, I promise," Miranda swore as she stood up to let the sun warm her shoulders. "It's really cold, but swimming is a lot like flying. Only the water's thicker."

'And colder, ' Murielle observed. 'I think I'll just watch you.'

"There are probably fish in here," Miranda coaxed, "You might find one and eat it."

'Fish are in the water?'

"Yes, they live in the water," Miranda explained patiently. "They breathe water and they..."

'Eat other things that are in the water?'

"Uh, yeah," Miranda replied, wondering where that idea had come from.

'So those animals that are moving around you are 'fish'?'

"What? Where?" Miranda splashed around wildly, trying to see everywhere at once.

'Perhaps it might be a good idea if I joined you. As usual, you seem to have attracted something tasty to eat.'

"Where are they? Oh! Ow! Ow! Ow! Get it off me! Jeez! Help!" Miranda squawked as she found three hungry, very toothy barracudas attached, one to each arm and one to her lower leg. "Fuck! I forgot these things have TEETH!"

Scrambling out of the water as best she could with thirty pounds of wriggling fish attached took a lot of effort. The slippery beasts were as determined to drag her back in as she was to pull herself out.

"A little help here?" Miranda yelped at the giant, toothy beast towering over her as she splashed wildly in the shallow water.

Murielle actually understood the peril the little slug was experiencing, though she didn't think it was really in much danger. The animals attached to it were smaller and weaker, and they were losing the fight to keep it in the water, where the rest of them could devour it.

Nevertheless, she reached down with her toothy beak and delicately grabbed her slug sister around her middle. As she lifted the wriggling, wailing slug completely out of the water, one of the shiny animals dropped off and escaped back into the depths before Murielle could swing her little pet over dry land and drop it down safely.

The two remaining barracudas, out of their element, let go of Miranda and began to flop around as they suffocated. Miranda sat up, exhausted but safe for the moment, and rubbed blue fire into the deep gashes in her leg, ignoring the smaller punctures in her stomach from the pterodactyl's teeth.

"Those suckers came after me like I was a worm on a hook," she muttered as she clambered to her feet. "Table's turned, you big, mouthy sucker..."

Slicing down with a hand edged with Phoenix fire, she severed the head of the nearest barracuda, then enveloped the entire body with soft, blue flame as she cooked it. After a few minutes, she did the same to the other.

"Dinner's ready," Miranda chimed, looking over at the resting pterodactyl, who was still raptly observing the behavior of those odd creatures out in the water.

Suddenly, the giant neck and beak streaked forward, and Murielle came up with a barracuda flipping wildly in her beak as it tried desperately to escape. Murielle raised her head and opened her mouth wider to let her fishy prize slide into the back of her throat. A moment later, it had disappeared completely.

The giant, winged predator returned to watching the water.

"Shit," Miranda said, having just witnessed that little feeding event. "How many of those things have you eaten?"

'I don't understand. I had one, then I had one. I had one after that. And then this one.'

"You ate four already?" Miranda whined. "Jeez, you're greedy."

'I recall telling you I was tired and hungry. I have flown, carrying you, to the edge three times while the sun was bright. That is farther than I have flown before.'

"What do you mean, to the edge?" Miranda wanted to know.

'I fly as far as I can see. Then I see more on the other side and fly there. I did this again and found this pool of water with the tasty animals in it.'

"You crossed three mountain ranges while I was asleep on your back," Miranda said, awed at the power of a pterodactyl's wings. "Amazing."

'What is it you have in your hands? It smells good. Oh, it is one of those water animals.'

"Fish. It's a fish. And I cooked it just for you," Miranda muttered, annoyed that her sister couldn't even wait to eat while she prepared a nice fillet of smoked fish. Instead, her pterodactyl sister had eaten several of them completely raw.

'You are offering that to me?' Murielle immediately became more interested and shuffled toward her little slug sister. She stopped, however, when Miranda took a step backward as she stared up and the insatiable creature.

'Something is wrong? You do not want me to eat your ... fish?'

Miranda immediately felt embarrassed. "Of course I want you to eat it. I cooked it for you. Here..." She raised her arms, offering the shiny torso to the great beak above her head. "Take it. I hope you like it."

Murielle delicately opened her beak and bit down, careful not to include the little slug's ... arms ... in her bite. Pulling the offering up and away into the air, she tilted her head backward and let the morsel slide down her throat.

'Oh – that is good! Using fire on them helps a lot.'

"Glad you liked it," Miranda muttered, then turned and sat down to her own little feast. "Bait. That's all I am to you..." She managed to convince herself that it was the incredible taste of smoked barracuda that brought the tears to her eyes.