"Scott G. Gier - Genellan 02 - In the Shadow of the Moon" - читать интересную книгу автора (Gier Scott G)

robust and healthy son was replaced by girlish anxiety at meeting again
Short-one-who-leads, the consort of her husband's death mate.
 Brappa embraced the steamy updraft and wheeled with the winds, racing
across the vent-pocked cliff face, wingtip vortices swirling the roiling vapors
into spiraling eddies. He screeched his clan call, projecting ultrasonically.
Replies of welcome and long life effervesced from above and below, for
Brappa was much respected. But it was one cry above all that resonated in
his sonic detectors, one beautiful screech of respectful affection that warmed
his heart. Ah, the sweet trilling of Gliss, his life mate.

Thrusting against the air with lusty impatience, Brappa saw her. She
stood alone on a lofty prominence jutting into the river valley. The hunter
pulled in his wings and dove, gaining breakneck speed. Gliss screeched with
harsh emotion, her frantic tones breaking with frightened joy.

Brappa responded with a thundering shriek. Knifing through the wind,
the warrior swooped beneath the monolithic outcropping and beyond,
pulling up in an air-thrumming arc. Laughing with delight, Gliss pivoted to
follow his flight, prancing on delicate talons to the very brink. Brappa shot
up, high above the outcropping, eyes and sonic probes focused on his life
mate, his love. He reached the apex of his ballistic flight and lifted his
encompassing span, holding the air like a parachute. Floating down, his
membranes cupped with uprising winds, Brappa arrived at his beloved's
level. Gliss, purring with rapture, hiked her robes and stepped into the void,
into his waiting embrace.

They touched. Brappa shivered with pleasure, reflexively pounding the
air with his great wings, braking their descent. Gliss pushed away and
billowed out her own membranes, catching the warm, moist wind. Together
they grounded softly on the wall of their own cliff aerie. Brappa pulled
Gliss's small form to his, wrapping her in his membranes and crushing her
with his fervor. Gliss breathed rapidly, heart fluttering against Brappa's
hand. She was a beautiful huntress, and her double-lidded black eyes
sparkled with excitement. Her razor teeth shone white against a crimson
maw. Brappa was overcome with joy.



It was time. Ki heard Brappa singing. She waddled with great dignity
across the terrace, hiking thin robes about her waist. Notta followed
proudly. Hesitating only to shake out their membranes, the huntresses
hopped on the wall and dove into the mists. Escorts materializing from the
fog wheeled to follow.

Echo-ranging, Ki dove into steamy thermals, holding her membranes
close and plummeting in a tight spiral. She broke from the veil of vapors
and marked herself by landmarks on the sheer-sided cliffs of the opposite
bank. Below, the foam-specked watercourse crashed and surged in green
and gray shadows. Ki screeched for the pure joy of flight. She checked to see
Notta cutting and shearing the air like a river swift in her wake. Notta