Brenna's Mate

“Whoa, what a costume!” I gape in awe at the cloaked skeletal bird walking towards me through the kitchen. The detail puts my simple black dress and pointed hat to shame.

He tilts his head, the movement shifting the cloak to reveal a series of vertebrae — too narrow to hide a human neck — disappearing into the uppermost bones of an empty ribcage.

I blink a few times, but the optical illusion doesn’t change.

“How much did the body paint cost?” I still don’t know which of my flatmates I’m talking to — they both go overboard for Halloween.

He tilts his head to one side, and I sense he doesn’t understand. He draws closer, and I can’t help but take a step back to press against the bench.

He takes my hand, pulls me towards the door.

“What are you doing?”

A bony hand emerges from the cloak and he lays the cold bone of a finger against my lips, bone that is too thin to contain a human finger, and for some reason I follow him. Somehow, I know it’s a him, even though I’m now certain it’s not one of my flatmates. We go out into the garden, where he takes a moment to gaze up at the full moon.

“Fantastic timing for Halloween, isn’t it?” Nerves are bubbling up in my stomach, and I deal with them the only way I know how. “A full moon, on the spookiest night of the year. It’s gonna be a fantastic Halloween this year, don’t you think?”

He sighs, and turns to face me, pressing his bony finger against my lips once more. “I’m reminding you who you are.”

His voice is deep, familiar somehow.

I frown. “I know who I am.”

He shakes his head. “You took human form. You’ve forgotten.”

I sit on the damp grass. I can’t stop myself from talking. “My flatmate has put hallucinogens in the cupcakes. Supposed to be for treats, he said, but it must be his tricks pile instead. It’s not the first time I’ve been caught in the crossfire of their pranks. They love Halloween. It gives them the excuse and inspiration to think up things well and truly outside the box.”

“If you were not who you are, you would not see me, even with hallucinogens.” He sighs. “I hoped this form would shock you into remembering.”

I close my eyes; willing him to fade away.

“I’ve missed you, Brenna. I need you to remember who you are.”

He sounds so sad I open my eyes again and look at him. I’ve never tried hallucinogens before; is the imagined world supposed to be so clear?

“There’s only one thing for it.” He pulls two white feathers from under his cloak. “Hold these, one in each hand.”

“Cockatoo feathers?” I guess.

“Raven feathers. Yours.”

“Ravens are black, not white! This is imagined!”

He shakes his head. “White ravens are rare, but they exist. You exist, Brenna.”

I sit up and take the feathers. May as well enjoy the trip while it lasts.

“Hold out your arms.”

Again, I do as I’m told. He walks behind me and then there’s a weight on my shoulders. I turn my head, but my vision is blocked by a great white cloak.

“What-?” Pain shoots up my legs, jolting along my spine and down each arm. My fingers feel like they’re being pulled from their sockets. I blink as my eyes physically move location on my head until I find myself looking at the world almost in 360-degree vision. I open my mouth, but instead of words I let out a long, loud cawww.

“At least your body remembers.”

I swivel my head, blink, and now I’m looking at him eye to eye, and he actually has eyes: black, beady eyes that peer at me from a face of shiny black feathers. He flaps his wings, and the draft ruffles my own feathers. A bubble of hysteria bursts from my throat like a hiccup.

Come on, he caws.

He spreads his wings and is gone, and in the panic my body responds on instinct and I’m behind him, flying, through the air! Exhilaration hits, then another sense — recognition.

I see my house, shrinking as we ascend. The roads I’ve walked and places I’ve visited spread out below me, landmarks my human mind recognises. But another part of me remembers the scene as I see it now, from above. Admiring the humans below. Wanting to be the humans below.

Another memory. I flap faster.

“Hugh?”

He stops flapping, his body soaring with the current.

“I knew you’d remember.” I can’t see a smile, beaks don’t move that way, but I know he is.

“I only meant to try it out for a day, but-“

“It was new and exciting. I understand. I didn’t leave you, you know.”

A sharp pang pierces my chest. “I forgot you.”

“No, you didn’t,” he says. “You still remember me. But humans cannot believe anything their science can’t explain, you know that. You knew it before you took their form. You could not have lived fully in their world whilst still acknowledging ours.” He lands on the branch of an old gum tree, and I with him.

“If you don’t want to stay, I’ll understand. There is much about their world that is tempting.”

“The forgetting?” I ask, as more of my memories return. He nods.

“Just spend this evening with me? There’s so much I want to show you, so much I never said.” He glances away.

“I’d be glad to spend another night with you, my love.”

He spirals into the air, caws of joy echoing across the growing dark. I follow, and we play; circling and swooping, soaring ever higher in the deepening dusk.

I had forgotten so much; the roar of the wind, the heat of the sun, the cool of the air. I had forgotten the complete stillness of hovering in the currents, watching the world go by.

Hugh signals for me to follow, wheeling through the sky to land on a rocky outcrop, a rare sheltered spot on the cliff face.

“I discovered this place, after you shifted,” he says. “I wished I could bring you. I missed you.”

“I missed you, too.” It’s true; even in my human form there was an emptiness I had no idea how to fill.

He shimmers, and in a moment jet black hair brushes the top of pale shoulders, his body long and lean. My breath catches. His human form is beautiful.

“You learned how to shift?”

He nods. “If I couldn’t bring you back, I wanted to have a form to change into, to join you. If you want. Only if you want.”

My eyes burn. He’d ridiculed my fascination with humans, called me a fool for wanting to know first-hand what it was to live in their realm. We fought, and I did the one thing I swore I’d never do; I left without saying goodbye. And now he has transformed into the thing he hates the most, to be with me.

I close my eyes, concentrating on my own form. The air is cool on my skin and I shiver, even though we’re sheltered from the worst of it. In a moment his body presses against mine, warming me.

“The human form is better for some things.” My hand travels the length of his body, and he shudders as my hand wraps around his growing erection.

His pupils dilate. “Show me.”

I pull him by the hand, away from the edge, and lean in for a kiss. There’s an electricity between us, far more potent in this shape than I’ve ever noticed in our true form. His lips are soft against mine and his cock presses against my side as I push my tongue between his lips to explore his mouth. I break away, kissing the strong line of his jaw to nibble his ear, heat spreading between my legs as he moans his pleasure.

He leans back against the smooth rock, and I feel his eyes on me as I trail kisses down his chest, all the way down his body. I kiss his upper legs, his erection brushing my cheeks, and I hold his gaze as I blow gently on the pubic hair covering his balls. I lean in to suck on one teste, then the other, careful to not graze him with my teeth. When I glance up again his eyes are closed, his head thrown back, his lips parted. I trace the underside of his cock with my nose, marvelling as always at how the softest of skin encompassing the hardest of centres.

“Please.” It’s barely more than a gasp, and I grin.

“You like this?” My voice is breathy in return.

He nods, and when I lick the tip of his cock his entire body trembles. I wrap my hand around his shaft as my mouth covers his head, and he groans, and when I open my throat to take the whole of him his knees almost give way underneath.

I suck gently as I release him, then I repeat, speeding up my licking and sucking as I bob up and down, spurred on by his panting.

These are pleasures our bird form can never experience.

It doesn’t take long for him to come, a groan and a shudder and my mouth is filled with his salty-sweet seed. I swallow, cleaning up the last of it with my tongue before releasing him and he sinks to the ground on knees that can no longer hold his weight. He pulls me close, holding me so tight I’m not sure he’ll ever let go.

“That was… astonishing,” he says, when he finally gets his breath back. He kisses me, his eyes search out mine.

“And you?” he asks. “What can I do for you?”

I put one hand over a breast, and the other on my vulva.

I raise a brow. “What do you want to do?”

He kisses me again; my lips, my jaw, my earlobe. He pauses to bury his nose in my hair and inhale my scent before kissing his way down my throat, both hands now exploring my breasts.

He squeezes my nipples between his thumb and forefinger, and then brings his mouth down to suck one aroused bud. Soon he is teasing me; his tongue alternately flicking and sucking, and I bite my lip, closing my eyes to better focus on the pleasure tingling its way down my spine.

A hand caresses my stomach and he runs his fingers through my pubic hair, before running a finger along my wet slit.

He brushes my clit and I jolt as pleasure shoots through me. He grins, his eyes bright as he lays me down, the rocky surface beneath me forgotten as his tongue finds my clit and he sucks and licks and teases, flicking and circling with his tongue. His finger finds my cunt and I arch my back as he pushes first one finger, then two, then three, deep inside me, somehow finding the spot that sends me weak and I’m glad I’m lying down because I’m not sure I could stand up right now. I spread my legs wide and lift my hips to give him better access, and he takes it, his tongue sliding across my opening, licking me from perineum to clit and back again.

“Put your tongue inside me,” I moan, and he does, stroking my clit with his fingers as his tongue delves deep.

“Don’t stop.” I can’t help myself. “Please don’t stop.” He delves deeper, eating me out in a way I’ve never experienced before, and I can no longer control my body as wave after wave of pleasure takes over, as his soft tongue delves and licks and circles and teases.

I call out as I come, my fingers winding through his hair as my body arches of its own accord.

But he isn’t finished. He moves up my body, kissing my stomach, my breasts, my neck, and when he reaches my lips his hard-again-already cock slides deep inside me as his tongue enters my mouth. I moan again as his fingers find my sensitive clit, soothing it and sending it wild all at the same time. Once again my body arches against his, and I spread my legs wider, wrapping them around his thighs to pull him deeper inside me. My fingers grip his shoulders as we move together, and as I gaze into his eyes his every emotion tumbles out to wash over me, the remorse and sorrow our time apart caused, and the love welling from deep within his soul to match that welling up from mine.

I stretch my neck up to kiss him, and he sinks against me, spent.

“There is much to being human, then,” he says when we catch our breath.

“The human form does have some perks.” I gaze into his dark eyes. “But you know how to shift now.”

He understands what I’m thinking and raises an eyebrow. “You know tonight is the only night of the year you can cross the realms. If you don’t go back — ”

I smile. “I’ve experienced enough of being human. Besides, as human I can’t do this.” In a millisecond I’m a raven again, exhilaration bubbling through every cell of my body as I soar upwards into the ever-expanding sky.

---

If you enjoyed this you might like to read my other Halloween tales:

You can check out my books here! Or why not shout me a pumpkin spice latte (Are they any good? I've honestly never tried one...)