Griffin's Daughter

them as Ashinji ushered Jelena in, carefully closing and securing the door behind them.

Jelena glanced around the large rectangular room and took note of its furnishings. Finely woven mats covered the wooden floors. A low table surrounded by cushions stood near the room’s single large window, which hung open to the cool night breeze. A writing desk, chest of drawers, clothes press, and a bed made up the rest of the room’s contents.

Ashinji came up behind her and slipped his arms around her waist, then began a series of slow kisses along the slope of her neck. Jelena sighed, feeling herself becoming soft and wobbly. She leaned back against him and allowed his hands to begin the task of undressing her.

She felt the ties of the borrowed gown give way. The silk slithered down her body to land in a liquid heap around her feet. She kicked it aside and turned to face him. Slowly, as if unwrapping the most precious of gifts, Ashinji undid the ties that secured her sheer white undergown and gently pulled it away from her body. With a shrug of her shoulders, Jelena sent it to the mats. Lastly, he removed the combs from her hair.

Jelena now stood clad only in the blue Kara necklace, bathed in the golden glow of the lamps. Ashinji sighed, as if in awe, his face enraptured. “You are…so extraordinarily beautiful,” he whispered. He took her hand and led her to the bed.

The bed rested on a low wooden platform. As Jelena sank down atop the silk and fur coverlets, she marveled at the softness of the mattress. She watched with growing excitement as Ashinji quickly shed his clothing until he stood totally revealed to her. As his final preparation before he lay down beside her, he freed his hair from the leather tie that had held it back and shook it out in a glorious fall of gold.

Softly, slowly, he began to caress her body, starting with her face. His hands were warm and gentle, and the natural anxiety Jelena felt began to ease. He reached her breasts and began tracing her nipples with his fingers. She gasped at the exquisite sensation. His hands wandered lower until they rested just above the tuft of wiry hair that guarded the entrance to her most sacred of places.

She turned her face against his neck. The smell of his body-always intoxicating-now drove her mad with desire. Unsure of what to do, she forced herself to relax and let her knees fall open.

“ I have never been…” she started to say, but Ashinji laid a finger on her lips.

“ Hush, my love. I know,” he replied.

His hand slid down and parted the delicate folds of her flesh, probing ever so gently until he touched a place that sent a bolt of pleasure shooting up through her entire body. She cried out and arched up against him, and he responded by pressing more firmly. Her breath came in short pants now, and she could feel Ashinji breathing harder as well.

He put his lips to one breast and began to suck, causing a whole new wave of marvelous sensations to flood her mind. She could feel his growing urgency, and Jelena knew that they had both reached the point of no return. Every hard curve of muscle spoke eloquently of Ashinji’s passion, awakening an answering fire within her.

His breath flowed hot and sweet upon her face as he crushed her body closer to his. She wanted only to melt into him, slip beneath his skin and meld her flesh to his to become one continuous being. As he moved to lie between her legs, she felt the last vestiges of her fear dissolve. She trusted Ashinji completely.

Though she knew it was coming, the pain of the first penetration still shocked her. Convulsively, she dug her fingers into the muscles of Ashinji’s back, as if by inflicting this small pain on him, she could lessen her own. She moaned and burst into tears.

Ashinji moved slowly in and out of her, as if he could sense that this part gave her more hurt than pleasure. He covered her wet, salty cheeks with kisses and whispered his love into her burning ears. She felt her mind break loose from its moorings and begin to drift out to where it could more easily process the waves of sensation that crashed over and through her.

Gradually, she became aware that something else lay underneath the pain, a sensation unlike all the others she had newly experienced this night. She felt it pushing her inexorably over a threshold into an unknown world, a world that she desperately wanted to understand. She reached for it-her entire body shuddering with the strain- and then detonated with a soft explosion. Her consciousness slammed back down into her skull, tearing a cry of amazement from her raw throat.

She felt Ashinji’s body beginning to shake and, instinctively, she wrapped her legs around him more tightly. He cried out and pushed deep into her, his muscles rigid, then with a final moan he subsided atop her.

Jelena lay very still beneath him, concentrating on the connection between their flesh. She decided that she could stay this way forever, joined with her lover in perfect union.

Ashinji finally stirred and carefully pulled himself free. He rolled over onto his side and gathered her up against him. He buried his face in her hair and murmured, “I love you.” After a heartbeat’s pause, he added, “And I promise this will only get better and better for you.”

Her eyes linked with his. In the lamplight, they gleamed darkly, and the devotion she saw within their depths released a new flood of tears. She caressed his cheek and marveled at its smoothness, so unlike that of a human male.

“ I love you, Ashi,” she whispered, and kissed him.

Later that night, as Ashinji lay sleeping, Jelena sat up beside him and watched his dreams chase themselves across his beautiful face. She shifted a little and winced at the sting between her legs. She did not mind; the pain served as proof of the reality of her experience.

Fatigue finally overcame her. She lay down beneath the coverlets and snuggled against Ashinji, who stirred but did not wake. She kissed the tip of his ear and laid her hand over his heart so she could feel its slow, steady beat. She closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep.

~~~

The hoarse croak of a raven startled Jelena into wakefulness. She opened bleary eyes to stare at the large, rough-feathered black bird perching boldly on the windowsill. It turned its head sideways to peer at her from an eye that glittered like a jet bead.

Jelena didn’t know whether to be afraid or fascinated. She looked over at Ashinji, who sprawled loosely on his back, one arm flung up over his head, sound asleep. The sight of his lean warrior’s body, naked in the rosy light of the new day, warmed her with a mix of embarrassment and lust. The memories of the previous night came flooding back, completely dissipating the lingering vestiges of sleep.

The raven croaked again, and Jelena began to feel a little uneasy.

It looks like it’s talking to someone, she thought. She decided to wake Ashinji.

She ran her fingers through his silky hair and, kissing him lightly on his forehead and lips, she whispered his name into his ear-softly, lest the raven hear. She felt a little silly, but she didn’t want to startle the creature and perhaps cause it to fly into the room. Ashinji muttered something incomprehensible and remained blissfully asleep. She thought briefly of tweaking him down there , but decided that she wasn’t yet comfortable enough with the idea that she could now touch him like that, and so she shook his shoulder instead.

His eyes fluttered open and focused on her face. Slowly, he grinned, then pulled her down on top of him. She felt his manhood stir against her leg. “This is the single most beautiful sight I could ever hope to see in the morning,” he murmured happily. “You…here in my bed…completely naked.” He nuzzled her neck.

“ We have…visitor,” Jelena said in a low voice, and leaned aside so that Ashinji could see the window. The raven had not moved.

“ What’s this, then! How dare you sit there and spy on us like that! Can’t you see we wish to be alone?” Ashinji pulled a pillow from underneath his head and hurled it at the window. The raven let out an indignant squawk. With a downward sweep of its wings, it launched itself off the sill and disappeared.

Jelena shivered and snuggled close against Ashinji. Something about the way the bird had looked at them- at her- frightened her.

“ What is it, love?” Ashinji asked in a low, concerned voice.

Jelena shook her head, uncertain about why the bird had spooked her so. “That bird…how do you say…Urrr!” In frustration, she lapsed back into Soldaran. “That raven. I don’t know how I know this, but there was something…not right, not natural about it. Ravens don’t just sit on people’s windowsills calmly staring at