*~*~*~*~*~*~* Princess of the Skies *~*~*~*~*~*~* Haruka awoke with a start, the last of her very erotic dreams fading to nothing, leaving not even a hint of her lover's identity. She groaned and hissed at the sunlight streaming into her window, the pupils of her emerald eyes narrowing to slits at the sudden and semi-unexpected brightness of the light coming from curtains she had forgotten to close when she entered her room from her balcony the night before. Her father always scoffed at her dusk excursions, but she needed the whispery darkness of the coming night to calm her before sleeping. She knew there was something missing and she searched desperately for it, but she wasn't sure she would ever find it. She rolled out of bed, shedding the golden blanket she used to ward off the faint nighttime chills and sauntered over to the balcony, swinging open the glass doors and breathing in the frigid springtime air of her mountaintop home. She stood on the balcony, knowing that no commoner would dare glance up the black and silver slopes to the princess's rooms, so she didn't bother to hide her nakedness. Sometimes she wished one of the nubile young women she saw in town would look up and perhaps approach her, but she knew that her father would chase those women away. As heir to the throne she had to marry a man, and she wasn't able to tell the old man that she didn't care for men at all. The icy cold of dawn that would cripple or freeze weaker races played across her tanned skin, not cold enough to raise a bump, giving way to the first of the sun's warmth, the heat on the dark slopes awakening the crystals imbedded in the stone, their song, the Morning Song that had sustained her people for centuries filling the air. She purred at the near-sexual stimulation, running her hands up and down her body, wishing that she had a mate to share the call with. She had heard that when two people mated while under the influence of the Song, the passion they experienced was incredible. She wanted to feel that, just once. A discreet knock on her door elicited a hiss of displeasure from the young princess, but she knew that it was only her faithful servant, right on time. While most of the unmated slept through the siren call of the warmed crystals, she was unable to ignore the song. He was always afraid that she would injure herself again in the utter depression that followed the sensual high, so he always came on time. Haruka admitted the stump-winged man with a sharp growl as the first chords of the mountain's tribute to the new-risen sun faded into whispers. "What if the sun suddenly decided not to rise?" The man was used to the fickle moods of his young charge, and he urged the woman to sit on the bench on her balcony, pulling the shallow basin of cold rainwater to him as he knelt in front of the woman and carefully cleaned the smudged dirt from the previous day's excursions from Haruka's tan skin, unaffected by her perfect body. She stared at the sun, her inner eyelid shielding her green eyes from the dangerous light, not paying a bit of attention to the servant. His cloth ran over the long scar on the outside of her right leg and she shivered, vivid memories of the attack filling her. He winced as he cleaned the inside of her arms, noting the long, jagged scars marring the soft skin where she had tried desperately to end her own life during the depression phase of the Morning Song. She never noticed the attention he paid to her scars, never noticed that he treated her more like a daughter than her own father did. Finished with the bath, the servant, Kiyoshi, dumped the water down the side of the cliff and reached for the special fine-toothed comb he used on the princess's wing feathers. The Morning Song, though it had its dark side-effects, was the only thing the Sky People knew to stimulate the production of the oils that coated the delicate wing feathers and allowed flight. He ran the comb through her golden feathers, coating each one in the oil, watching her expression as she relaxed, the caress of the comb easing her depression. When he was done, she flapped her wings and folded them along her spine as he pulled out another comb and ran it through her short golden hair. He was secretly glad that she kept her hair short, simply because it was easier to brush. As Kiyoshi stood and headed for her closet, pulling out something for her to wear, Haruka let her eyes follow the old man as she contemplated his life. The servant, once a fine soldier in the Queen's army, had injured his black-feathered wings in the final battle of the Wars of Unification as Queen Kazeko triumphed over the other kingdoms at last. His prize had been the prestigious position of servant to the then-baby Princess Haruka, his family provided for and given huge rooms in the palace with a great view, his son and three daughters students in the Military Academy free of charge. Old Kiyoshi was a kind man, unhampered by his injury and never deterred by his inability to fly, and he was the princess's only confidante. He was her only friend, and the only person who really cared about the future queen once her mother died. "What if we didn't have the Morning Song, Kiyoshi-kun? Without the stimulus to secrete the oil we need to keep our feathers healthy, we couldn't fly. So, what if there were no crystals in the mountains' sides to sing our oil glands into production every morning?" "Haru-chan, let me tell you something." In public he would never call her by the childish name, but in private she would not let him be formal. She liked the name, which was also the word for spring, and it gave her hope that one spring she would blossom into a woman and attract her soulmate. She brought her attention back to her mentor. "The Sky People have not always lived in these mountains. Once we lived by the sea, but an old war separated the people of the wind and sea, so we fled far away. By the sea there were no mountains, no gems, no Morning Song, but we still flew. I don't know exactly what stimulated our oil glands, but something did." Haruka took the clothes he offered, slipping into the loincloth-like skirt that hung to her knees, transparent silk flaring out behind her and just barely not touching the ground, fringe hanging to her feet to resemble the golden feathers of her wings. She took the shirt and hooked it over her neck, pulling it under her breasts and turning so Kiyoshi could tie it in the back. Sky Women rarely covered their belly buttons and the ring they wore there declaring family and position, using only the minimum of clothing for modesty's sake, while the men usually wore a loincloth and perhaps a sash to indicate position or power. Haruka grabbed her thick-soled sandals and pulled them on, lacing them up to her knees and tying them as Kiyoshi handed her the leather gauntlets all Warriors of the Sky wore. Hers were dyed gold, imbedded with tiny precious stones to match the gems decorating her top and skirt and the golden metal bands she wore on her arms, revealing her muscles. She looked out at the open sky again, and Kiyoshi sighed at the tremor that passed through her frame. "What are you waiting for? Go on." Haruka looked at Kiyoshi and flexed her retractable claws, wondering. "Are you sure, Kiyoshi-kun? Just like that? No word of farewell, no sword, no crown?" "Where you're going, no one will recognize the Crown Princess of the Sky People." Haruka nodded as she walked to the edge of her balcony. The two sides had ornate railings to keep Kiyoshi safe, but the front was bare, opening onto the freedom of the open skies and the world beyond her mountain home. Kiyoshi slipped a golden chain around Haruka's neck, the necklace her mother had worn as queen, a tiny golden charm embedded with gem chips on the end, having known since winter ended that she was old enough to go find herself, try to find what piece of her famous mother she carried. The princess never noticed the necklace. "One favor, Kiyoshi-kun. Don't tell my brothers or my father where I've gone, if they even bother to ask. Just say you were late for the Morning Song and I just wasn't here. Maybe I died out there; he won't care." "I think he might," Kiyoshi whispered, struggling to keep the tears out of his eyes. "I won't tell them. If you want to find the sea, head East, over the next range of mountains. Beyond that, I do not know, but you have your mother's strength. You will prevail. Is there anything else?" In his mind, he berated himself, wondering if he was doing the right thing. "Don't worry," his inner voice soothed. "You and I know what we're doing. Let her go. The chick must fledge the nest eventually. It's her turn now." "Yes." Haruka's mind focused on her only sister, little red-headed Kotori. "Tell Kotori that I love her and I'm sorry that I have to go away. If I can come back, I will." "Goodbye, Haruka, daughter of my heart. Remember that there are people here who love you, too." Haruka nodded and fell off the cliff, opening her great wings as she caught a gust of wind and soared east, arms held against her sides. She was ready for this journey. Transparent inner eyelids protecting her cat-like emerald eyes, the princess headed for her people's ancestral home.
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