← Samuel the Rogue: Where the Feathers Fall

Chapter 13 - The Hunt Begins

Morning came too quickly after our late-night planning session. We’d spent hours discussing how to trap the griffons, with Aeolin sketching crude maps in the dirt of his nest and me nodding along and throwing in the couple of rabbit snares I knew from back in Willowbrook.

The drop off the edge of the nest went so far down into the rainforest that just looking made my stomach roll. I stood there, bare toes curling over the edge, the rough bark of the tree digging into them. My heart was doing that thing where it felt like it was going to punch its way out of my chest, and I wasn’t sure if it was because of the height or because I was standing there in my birthday suit. I’d gotten used to being naked around Aeolin in the nest, but out here on the edge, with all that jungle below me, I felt more exposed than I ever had.

“Taking your sweet time, huh?” Aeolin called, hovering in the air with his spear in one hand and that smug look on his face. “You’re not scared, are you, village boy?”

“Village boy? I’m not a village boy,” I shot back, grabbing a branch below the edge as I started climbing down. “And I’m not scared. I’ve climbed plenty of trees.”

“Then why are you shaking like a leaf?” he teased, zipping around to hover in front of me, his wings fanning air across my sweaty red face.

“It’s the height, not your dumb bird jokes,” I muttered, trying to speed up to prove him wrong. My foot slipped on a patch of moss, and for a second I was falling and pretty sure I was dead, until Aeolin swooped behind me and his free arm wrapped around my chest and caught me in mid-air.

“See?” he said, low against my ear, his chest pressed warm against my back. “I told you I’d help.”

I laughed, high and shaky, with my heart still banging away. “You’re an asshole, you know that?”

“Yeah,” Aeolin said as he lowered us toward the ground. “But I’m your asshole.”

The jungle floor was worse than the climb. The moment my feet hit the dirt, the trees closed in over my head. Every sound was louder down here. Bugs chirped everywhere, and somewhere off in the distance a bird called that sounded way too big to be anything good. The air was hot and sticky, and sweat was trickling down my back before I’d even taken two steps.

“You look like you’ve never been dirty before,” Aeolin said, letting go of me as he kicked at the mud with a taloned foot.

“Shut up,” I grumbled, shoving my sweaty hair out of my face. “I’ve been dirty plenty of times.”

“Yeah, sure,” Aeolin said, and pressed a quick, wet kiss to my mouth. “But never this dirty.”

He slapped my ass, hard enough to sting, and darted ahead as I yelped and jumped sideways. “Oh, come on!” I laughed, chasing after him through the underbrush. “What the hell?”

“Just keeping you on your toes,” he called over his shoulder, weaving between trees without ever brushing one, the show-off. “You’re too slow, Sam!”

“Says the guy with wings,” I panted, pushing through a tangle of vines as we made our way toward the ravine.

I had my dagger in my fist, since I had nothing left to hang it on, and my other hand kept running along the weighted edge of the net slung over my shoulder. It was the same net Aeolin had shown me in his nest last night. He’d insisted I carry it, since he needed his hands for his spear and his wings for drawing off the griffons. Bugs whined around my ears the whole way, and I barely heard them over my own thoughts, most of which were about Aeolin.

Aeolin walked ahead, completely at ease, his bare pink ass swinging with every step. This is insane, I thought, and made myself look at a tree, and two seconds later I was staring at his ass again. My cheeks burned, and my hand twitched like it wanted to grab a handful.

“Stop staring,” Aeolin teased, looking back over his shoulder with a sly grin. “Unless you’re planning to do something about it.”

I huffed, adjusting my grip on the net to hide my expression. “You ripped my pants off and threw them away, so forgive me for being a little distracted by all this... nakedness.”

When he slowed down to duck under a low-hanging branch, I reached out on impulse, my hand landing on the curve of his ass, giving it a quick, firm pinch. Aeolin yelped and spun around, clutching his butt with his free hand. “Oh, you’re bold now?”

“Just making sure you’re real,” I muttered, and I couldn’t stop smirking.

We spent the trek through the jungle half working and half flirting, and mostly flirting. Aeolin would dart ahead to scout the path, then double back to tickle my ribs or drag a wing across my shoulders. Every touch went straight to my cock, but every so often we passed huge griffon feathers lying in the path, and thinking about what they’d come off of cooled me down fast.

By the time we reached the ravine, a sharp drop down into even deeper forest, I was so worked up I could barely think straight. What I saw over the edge snapped me out of it: two massive griffons circling over the trees down there, their big dark bodies throwing shadows across the treetops.

“Great,” I groaned, dropping onto a fallen log. “Now we actually have to bring those bastards down.”

Aeolin leaned his spear against the log and flopped down beside me, our bare arms brushing as he rested his head on my shoulder. “You’re lucky I’m here,” he said, puffing out his chest feathers. “Otherwise, you’d still be wandering around, staring at trees.”

I laughed, low, and I meant it. “Yeah, well, if you weren’t so damn distracting, I might have figured this out already.”

Aeolin’s hand crept toward my ribs, tickling me just enough to make me squirm. “Distracting? I’m helping,” he said with an exaggerated pout, his wing dragging across my back.

“Helping,” I repeated dryly, swatting his hand away, though I couldn’t stop grinning. He was a pain in my ass, and I wanted him to keep his head right where it was.

With his head still on my shoulder, I went back over the plan we’d scratched out in the dirt last night, or at least the half of it I’d understood. Aeolin would fly in and pull the griffons’ attention, and I’d be waiting with the net and my dagger.

“You’re the bait,” I finally said, nudging him with my shoulder.

He perked up, his grin sharp. “I like the sound of that. And you?”

I tried to twirl the dagger like the rogues in tavern stories and almost dropped it, feeling braver than I had any right to. “I’ll be the one making sure they don’t get the last laugh.”

He laughed, loud and happy, and with his arm around me, I was itching for those griffons to come down.

Aeolin pointed out a spot under a thick branch where the griffons kept swooping low, and I nodded, marking it in my mind. As I stood, Aeolin grabbed his spear and took off again, his wings beating fast. Before I could react, he landed on my shoulders and sat there, one leg hanging down each side of my chest, his light weight a surprise. I stumbled slightly, catching myself with a laugh.

“Hey! Watch it, birdbrain,” I griped, though I was blushing.

Aeolin chirped a laugh. “You’re sturdy enough,” he said. His hard cock pressed against the back of my head, and I smiled like an idiot. For a second I forgot those griffons wanted to rip us apart.

We walked over to that spot with him still riding my shoulders, the net heavy but manageable. He kept his chin on top of my head while I looked around, and I didn’t mind.

By the time we’d settled on the branch for the ambush, I’d stopped worrying about being naked. I’d stopped jumping every time a bird screamed, and I moved easier and scanned the trees around us, pretending I knew what I was looking for.

Aeolin hopped down, his feathers grazing my arm. “You’re a natural at this,” he said, and for once he sounded like he meant it.

I grinned so hard my face hurt. “Told you I’d catch on.”

We spent the rest of the day going over that spot until I could have found it in my sleep. The sun sank low, and the jungle floor went dim except for a few bright patches where light still got through. We had a plan. Now we just had to grow the balls to pull it off.

I dumped the net and my dagger on the ground, Aeolin stood his spear up by a tree, and we dropped onto another log, this one so rotten it caved in and dumped us both on our asses in the muck. The air stank of wet dirt and rotting leaves, and it was so muggy my skin never dried.

Aeolin leaned into me, his feathers rustling. “You think we’ve got a shot at this?” he asked, his voice low and serious for once.

I shrugged, digging my heel into the dirt. “If you keep them busy long enough for me to throw the net, sure.” The biggest thing I’d ever trapped was a rabbit, and each of those griffons looked bigger than Bertha, my mule.

Aeolin hummed, and I glanced at him. His emerald feathers caught the fading light, and I had a hard time looking anywhere else. “You know, for a naked human, you’re not terrible at this whole ‘jungle survival’ thing.”

I rolled my eyes, but I was smiling anyway. “Yeah, yeah. Naked and useless, right? But hey, at least I’m good for something.”

He smirked, his sharp teeth glinting. “Oh, you’re good for a lot of things.” And with that, he leaned in, his lips brushing mine. It only lasted a second, and it got me hard anyway. I grabbed him by the waist, pulling him closer, and he let out a startled chirp before laughing.

We tumbled to the muddy floor, rolling around like idiots. Aeolin was strong, but he was lighter, and I managed to pin him down, my knees on either side of his hips. He struggled for a second, but then relaxed, looking up at me with a grin. “You win,” he said.

I leaned down, kissing him again, harder this time. His hands tangled in my hair, pulling me closer, and for a moment I stopped caring that we were lying in mud. I let him go, sitting back on my heels, both of us breathing a little harder.

“So,” I said, trying to sound casual, “ready to bag us a giant flying lion tomorrow?”

Aeolin sat up, shaking the dirt out of his feathers. “As ready as we’ll ever be.”

We stood, both of us filthy. I picked up the net and my dagger, Aeolin grabbed his spear, and we started the trek back to Aeolin’s tree. It was getting dark, and the griffons were gone from the sky. It was cooler now, and new things started chirping and hooting out there where I couldn’t see them. The net was heavy on my back, but I was buzzing, half excited and half scared.

Finally Aeolin’s tree came up ahead, its roots twisting like giant serpents across the forest floor. The sun had long since vanished, and a few stars showed through gaps in the canopy. Everything on me ached, even spots I didn’t know could ache, but the exhaustion felt good, like I’d earned it.

“Home sweet home,” Aeolin chirped, leaning his spear against the trunk and hopping up onto a root, his feathers rustling. He stretched, arching his back, and hummed, low and happy. “Or at least, home sweet hideout for now.”

I laughed, dropped the net and my dagger between the roots, and leaned against the trunk of the tree. The bark was cool against my back, and after a whole day in that swampy heat it felt amazing. “You make it sound like we’re some kind of adventurers or something.”

“Fuck off, we are adventurers.” Aeolin jumped off the root, his talons clicking on the ground as he walked over to me. He reached out and pushed my sweaty hair off my face, barely touching me. “And pretty damn good ones, if I do say so myself.”

My face went hot, and I looked away.

Aeolin laughed low in his throat and pressed in closer, his hands resting on my hips.

“Please,” I said, “I’m the one who’s actually good at the whole ‘not dying’ thing.”

“True,” Aeolin said, his voice dropping, his breath warm on my ear. “But I’m the one who’s good at making you not care about dying.”

My face burned hotter at that, but before I could come up with some smartass comeback, Aeolin’s lips were on mine. This kiss was slower and sweeter than the one in the mud, and he took his time with it. His hands drifted downward, sliding over my hips and thighs, and my hips jumped when his fingers brushed my cock.

“Aeolin,” I murmured, breaking away just enough to gasp for air. “You’re... really not helping me focus on the whole ‘not dying’ part.”

He trilled, pleased with himself, and kissed my jaw. “Don’t worry, Sam,” he whispered, his fingers wrapping around me, and I shivered. “You’ve got me. I’ll make sure you live long enough to see the sunrise.”

I groaned at how cheesy that was, but it was hard to stay annoyed when his hand felt so damn good. “You’re such a shit,” I said, my voice shaking as he started to stroke me, his grip loose and teasing.

“Guilty as charged,” he said against my mouth.

We stayed like that for what felt like hours, and I stopped hearing the bugs and birds at all. Aeolin’s feathers tickled my skin, and he clearly knew what he was doing with his hands. Gods, every time he kissed me, my knees nearly gave out.

Eventually, we broke apart, both of us breathing hard. Aeolin’s green eyes caught what little light there was, and he grinned at me, lazy and smug. I sagged back on the tree, my head spinning just a little, and let out a shaky laugh.

“You’re gonna be the death of me,” I said.

Aeolin stepped in close again to press his forehead against mine. “If I am, at least we’ll die together.”

It was a grim thing to say, and it made me feel better anyway, which probably says something bad about me.

I wrapped my arms around him and pulled him close. “Promise me you won’t die,” I whispered.

Somewhere up in the dark, one of those night birds screamed, and something big crashed off through the brush past the roots. Aeolin’s wings closed around us. “I promise.”