Tikk looked down on the dark quiet street below then up at the moon, again at Full Sail, high overhead. A breeze chilled his naked skin. He touched the cats-eye at his throat wondering if it were really an eye of a god and thinking of Kaaleel's words. "Great power brings great riches."
Tikk moved away from the edge of the flat rooftop.
"Why are we up here, like this? It's cold. It's a long journey to the end of Mûta and won't be easy climbing over Hag's Back. We need to gather supplies, pack animals."
Kaaleel finished tying the two bundles and stood to face Tikk. She held her arms out to him. She too was naked. The moon lit the stone at her throat, her milk-white breasts and rose petal nipples. Despite the chill, Tikk felt arousal. She embraced him, her emerald eyes staring deeply into his dark ones.
"Our journey will be easier than you imagine. We are here because we need the space."
Kaaleel knelt and tied one bundle by a tether to her ankle. She tied the other to Tikk. Her hands caressed his calves, his thighs, gripped his buttocks; pulled him down to her. Her kiss was lush; her body heated, inviting.
"Arousal hastens the change," she whispered. "Feeds the power of the eyes."
As they joined, Kaaleel whispered other words in a tongue Tikk didn't know but thought he recalled from the night before. The heat of their desire made Tikk forget the cold. The height of lust wracked his body, brought the change. The first sensation was a downy softness along Kaaleel's back, then a hardening, stretching of lips and nose. A pecking of beak. Arms, fingers stretched. Webbed toes slapped the rooftop.
Tikk struggled to stand. Before him, spreading its long, black-tipped wings that nearly spanned the rooftop, a giant Dros teetered and swayed. The great seabird, larger than any Tikk had ever seen, skreeked and squawked. Its bill was long and strong, plated with horny segments, and tipped with a powerful hook. It plucked at its white-feathered breast that was tinged with two spots of rose, then looked at Tikk. Only the bird's emerald eyes convinced Tikk that this was Kaaleel.
Sensing his own change, Tikk spread his arms, wings, and felt the night breeze lift him easily. The two giant birds, giddy with their success, clumsily preened one another and circled and bowed and lifted their bills to the sky grunting and skreeking, and then soared into the night sky.
The winds swept the two Dros far out to sea. They turned and, like the ships the Dros are known to follow, tacked across the breezes on long reaches back and forth. Tikk found that he rarely needed to beat the air, that a slight twist or finding a different current was all that was needed to follow Kaaleel. In this way, Tikk and Kaaleel sailed the wind across the Isle of Mûta, over the Hag'sBack, above the wasted land, along the sheer cliffs that fell into the sea, until, at the farthest edge of the island, they reached the ruined temple of Gaal.
