Free Battle Mage: Dragon Mage (Tales of Alus) by Donald Wigboldy

extra weight slowing him down slightly, but the gargoyle had no fear. Propelling the two of them into the air with his legs, his two wings shot towards the ground creating the lift he needed to rise more than fifteen feet in one thrust. The second quick beat of his wings lifted them twice as high and shortly the two were winging south high above the valley floor. The rise ahead of them continued to force them higher and higher above the main valley, but the gargoyle maintained a healthy distance between them and the stones of the upper valley rising with them.
    “See? No problem,” the gargoyle stated loudly to be heard over the rushing wind.
    For Cheleya, she hardly agreed at all. The first several seconds thrusting quickly into the air had made her lose her stomach making the girl feel strange. Luckily, she didn’t get to find out how throwing up worked as a human, but the girl did feel dizzy and nauseous. Her hold was strong and had virtually become a death grip, but the gargoyle was too powerful to notice her feeble strength. For him, she was just holding on as she must. Her weight was negligible to the powerful mar’goyn’lya, though between her and the two packs, Kel’lor knew that his maximum flight range was most likely reduced.
    “Hold tight,” he informed her before banking to turn through the corridor of the upper neck of the valley. It was a good day for flying the gargoyle thought and oddly enough he enjoyed his passenger flying with him. Kel’lor had never tried carrying someone before and there was a sort of close bond that he felt with the girl as she clung to him. A mar’goyn’lya didn’t consider such emotions usually, but then again he knew of none that had tried such a thing either.
    Whatever else could be argued about the risk of flying with the wingless girl, Kel’lor knew that they were making much better time than they had walking in the night. Movement below them caught the gargoyle’s eye. One of the crag dogs ran beneath him chasing his shadow. It was as fast as he was in flight, an impressive sight.
    His attention returned to the shifting air currents and turns of the upper pass leading away from Mar’kal. He had never been more than a day’s flight beyond the city of his birth in all of his thirty five years of life. Like the young che’ther on his back, Kel’lor had lived near the academy learning all that he could. Dragon magic was his latest school of training, but he had tried several including alchemy which wasn’t considered true magic. Anyone with or without the power inside them could use alchemy with the right tools.
    The morning passed and occasionally he noted the strange crag dog chasing his shadow again. He wondered what drove the beast to chase what was clearly beyond his reach. Ignoring the animal most of the time, Kel’lor flew following the pass from one side of the mountain to another.
    Morning was lengthening towards noon when Cheleya finally cried out loud enough for him to hear, “Down, please, Kel’lor!”
    Unsure what had made the girl suddenly need to land; the gargoyle evaluated his strength and decided that he also could use a break. The two descended and Kel’lor did his best to land gently to avoid dislodging his passenger. Hopping off of the gargoyle, the dragoness ran over to the side of the ten foot wide path through the mountains lifting her dress frantically.
    At first, Kel’lor was confused by the strange action, until he realized that the human body needed to pee. Chuckling at the girl, he asked, “That is why you needed to land so badly? I just thought that you were getting tired.”
    Looking at him with a frown, but no embarrassment at revealing her naked body as she relieved herself, the dragoness complained, “This body is tired from holding on as well, but its bladder can’t hold in its contents for long either.” Finished with her act, the girl replaced her dress smoothing it out with her hands as if she could regain her