Back To Krypton

Chapter 26

Lena's falling.

And then she isn't.

And there's a familiar-sounding grunt coming from below her. "Ow. I'm so glad you decided to drop in."

Lena looks down at Kara, seeing the woman now sprawled on her back holding her tightly so she doesn't fall off the back of the H'Raka she's still riding, the one Lena is now riding, but they're not in control and it's doing whatever it wants, and they're tilting.

"Hold on!" Lena grips onto the sides of the H'Raka, holding on with all of her might, still having the packs looped over her arms and the sword gripped tightly in her hand and hoping that her weight will pin Kara down, the position she's trapped in giving her little to no leverage to help herself in this situation.

They level out soon enough and it's all the motivation Kara and Lena need to hurry up and get themselves moving, scrambling up to grab onto the ropes around their flying friend's head.

"Kara, please tell me you know how to fly this thing?"

"It's not like driving a car, there's no button to activate flight mode and land mode, there's no blinker on it!" Kara yells, trying to be heard over the roaring winds and fighting with her hair as it whips into her face.

Lena ignores her, her fingers tightening around the ropes and her old horse-riding lessons kicking in, her thighs pressing against the H'Raka's broad sides above its wings and her old instincts coming right back.

Within moments Lena has slowed the H'Raka and its flying level, swooping high above the trees below and letting them see the incredible landscape of the forest that they've trekked across, a visual representation of all the hard work they've put in up until now that they haven't had.

"Just like riding a horse. I guess Krypton and Earth have more in common than anyone will ever admit." Lena breathes a sigh of relief. Hands still clawing at the rope out of fear of being so high up. Heights are not her strong suit.

"How was I to know it's like riding a horse? Why would I ride a horse? I can usually fly." Kara defends her terrible H'Raka riding skills even though Lena has yet to say anything, pre-empting the teasing she knows is going to come.

Lena chuckles, a fond rumble in her chest she doesn't try to conceal.

She manages to direct the H'Raka into a swooping left turn that takes them back in the direction they came from and both Kara and Lena start searching for the area where Lena fell from, the area where the animal might still be.

"Are you ok, Lena? Did you get hurt during your fall?" Kara asks, relaxing her eyes in the hope that it will help her figure out where she was when she had her girlfriend come soaring from the sky and land right atop of her.

It's a really good job that the H'Rakas are taught to instinctively protect from a young age so when it saw Lena start to fall, it flew beneath her to catch her, letting her land on its other passenger with no qualms.

"No, I'm alright. I did see the animal though, it was like a deformed kangaroo." Lena turns her head a fraction so she can see Kara out of the corner of her eye, the woman sat closely behind her with her arms around Lena's waist, mirroring the way she was holding onto Kara before she fell.

"You saw a Ghanme?"

"If that's what your version of a snappy, giant kangaroo is then yes," Lena says, making a mental note of the word Kara used. Ghanme.

"Those are super dangerous and they are known for hunting in the areas surrounding The Fire Falls, I thought we might have had another couple of days' walk before we got into their hunting ground, we have to get back to the others quickly, they could be in a hell of a lot of danger."